The Pythian Revels: A Dry Town's Mock Rebellion
While Washington navigates its new prohibition laws, a local fraternal order plans a satirical 'Red Letter' parade to mock the state's dry mandate.
The Pythian order has announced a day of defiance against the state's dry laws. All courts are hereby suspended, abrogated, and flabbergasted, excepting those ending with 'i-n-g.' The dry law is suspended, expurgated, and defied; our caravan will drink the Columbia River dry. The Pacific Power & Light company is hereby commanded to turn on its juiciest juice. Church's grape mashing institute will proceed to get busy turning innocuous tutti-frutti into that which hath a kick like a camel. Let fruiters bring in their choicest products and lay them at the feet of our royal person. Everybody is invited to see so much of the fun as is staged out of doors. The parade starts at six-thirty.
“The dry law is suspended, expurgated, and defied—my caravan will drink the Columbia river dry.”
This tongue-in-cheek rebellion highlights the immense local tension surrounding Washington's move toward Prohibition in 1917, three years before the national amendment took effect. The use of 'grape mashing' as a satirical stand-in for illegal brewing reflects a common social workaround that defined the era's resistance to temperance.
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