The Prohibitionists' Cold Water Jubilee
Temperance advocates marked Washington's birthday with a sober banquet in Seattle, raising hundreds for their cause.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Prohibitionists celebrated Washington's birthday by having a banquet and jubilee in the afternoon in the parlors of the Methodist Protestant church, corner of Third and Pine streets. An inviting repast of cold meats and light refreshments was served, and plates were laid for 125 guests, although a number more were present. The King County W. C. T. U. provided and served the refreshments. The gavel used by the toastmaster, Clark Davis, was one presented at the last state convention by the late Rev. Cushing Eells. It was made from the wood of an apple tree planted by him over thirty years ago. This banquet and jubilee is but the beginning of a series of similar meetings that will be held in the near future at Tacoma, Spokane and Walla Walla. At the conclusion of the meeting yesterday $350 was raised for state prohibition work.
“The gavel used by the toastmaster... was made from the wood of an apple tree planted by him over thirty years ago.”
Long before Washington went dry in 1916, temperance activists were organizing social counter-cultures to the tavern scene. These 'cold water' events were essentially the 1890s equivalent of today’s sober-curious social movements, aimed at building political power through community networking rather than saloon-based politics.
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