I'll Shun the Bar-Room, Sister: Temperance in Poems and Songs

 This starts a series of topical poems from the time period I cover the most in my family history (1840s to 1910). These are the issues all my ancestors would have heard about, read about, and no doubt discussed themselves. This one is about a huge issue for decades: Temperance. 

      It was described as a beautiful and splendid sight, the little soldiers of the Cold Water Army in procession. Children marched down the streets to the beat of a band, wearing blue sashes and silver badges, carrying banners with slogans like, “The cider sot is the worst we’ve got,” and “Great sots from moderate drinkers grow.” Young women carried one that read, “Teetotal or no husband.”

     It was July Fourth in Granby, Connecticut, but it could have been many other places in the U.S., particularly the Northeast. The Cold Water Army was a children’s temperance group started by a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania in 1835. In its heyday, hundreds of thousands of children belonged, and the organization produced a magazine that lasted twenty years. In Granby, the procession ended at a church, where a little six-year old boy charmingly addressed the crowd. At nearly any gathering in the nineteenth century, there were orations, songs, prayers and poems, and this gathering was no exception. The Cold Water Army had a songbook of its own selections, starting with a version of its pledge set to music:

This youthful band

Do with our hand

The pledge now sign-

To drink no Wine,

Nor Brandy red

To turn the head,

Nor Whiskey hot

That makes the sot,

Nor fiery Rum

To turn our home

Into a hell,

Where none can dwell,

Whence peace would fly,

Where hope would die,

And love expire

'Mid such a fire --

So here we pledge perpetual bate

To all that can intoxicate.”

     The Cold Water Army could be called the D.A.R.E. program of its time. Why was it regarded as so important, so necessary that even a six-year old should belong? Why were temperance songs taught in public schools? Why was the temperance movement such a big deal?

      It is impossible to have an understanding of life in nineteenth-century America without an awareness of the temperance movement. Here’s a quick history: 

     Americans in the nineteenth century drank, and drank a lot. Earlier Americans, including clergymen, didn’t tend to think of drinking as sinful or a moral issue, though drunkenness was a different matter. Before the Revolution, Americans drank about double what they do today. (1) After the British cut off rum imports, the country turned to a substitute supplied by new settlers in a “corn belt” on the fringes of the new “west” beyond the Appalachian Mountains. These settlers were able to turn their corn into a liquid asset – whiskey. By the 1820s, whiskey sold for less than any other drink. It was cheaper than beer, wine, coffee and tea, and less dangerous than drinking water, which was often contaminated. (2)

     By 1830, Americans drank three times as much as today, seven gallons of ethanol per year, per capita. This is a truly staggering amount. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in 2021 Americans consumed 2.5 gallons of ethanol per year, per capita. To get a better understanding of what that means, a standard drink in the U.S. contains 0.6 ounces of ethanol. This equates to an average of 535 standard drinks per year. But remember, those 535 drinks add up to 2.5 gallons of ethanol, when our ancestors were consuming seven gallons. Picture a gallon and a half of 80-proof liquor per month per person in your household to get a more concrete idea.(3)      

     Drinking as an economic issue became a great concern. Theodore Dwight Weld, a leading speaker, said that three-fourths of the pauper population was a result of drink. He also claimed that half the inmates in insane asylums and four-fifths of criminals were victims of drink. Wherever Weld got his statistics, they were widely believed. Women had few options to support themselves and children. Divorce was difficult to obtain and loaded with social stigma. It followed, then, that poverty and unemployment were widely believed to be a result of drinking, with women and children at the mercy of men who drank too much. Stop the drinking and stop most of society’s problems. Alcohol was the enemy of Home and Family.

     Anything worth talking about, preaching about, teaching about was worth singing. In the days when all music was live music, Americans sang a lot. Poetry was also much more commonly consumed in the nineteenth century than today. So this month’s selection of poems and song lyrics are from the temperance movement. They were chosen from newspaper and from school songbooks. There were so many to choose from that it was hard to decide! The first one is from The Public School Singing Book, published in Philadelphia in 1848. The expressions "to sign the pledge" and to "wear the blue ribbon" were commonly understood in the nineteenth century, both being signs of teetotaling.     

Dear Father

Dear father! Think of mother’s tears,

How oft and sad they flow,

Oh! drink no more, then will her grief

No longer rack her so. 

Dear father! Think what would become

Of me were you to die! without a father, friend or home;

Beneath the chilly sky!

Dear father! drink no more, I pray,

It makes you look so sad,

Come home, and drink no more, I say.

T’will make that home so glad. 

Thus spake in tenderness the child;

The drunkard’s heart was moved,

He signed the pledge; he wept, he smiled

And kissed the boy he loved. 

Drinks were often passed around and drunk from a bowl. This is from Songbook of the School Room, an 1847 Boston book.

Away the Bowl

Our youthful hearts with Temp’rance burn,

Away the bowl, Away the bowl,

Farewell to rum and all its harms; farewell the wine cup’s boasted charms

From dramshops all our steps we turn,

Away the bowl

Away the bowl

His children grieve, his wife in tears! How sad this once bright home appears!

(Boys): We drink no more; nor buy or sell,

Away, away the bowl.

(Girls): The drunkard’s offers we repel;

Away, away the bowl.

(All): United in a Temp’rance band,

We’re joined in heart; we’re joined in hand,

Away the bowl, Away the bowl

Away, away, away the bowl. 

      The Palmyra, Missouri newspaper in 1851 printed the lyrics to the songs that would be sung at the Fourth of July celebration by “Citizens and Sons of Temperance.” They included patriotic and temperance songs. I left off the last two stanzas from the song below.

Who Will Go With Us?

We have enter’d the field and are ready

To fight,

With Alcohol's army from morning 

till night,

He traffics in drinks we’re determined

To crush,

An we’ll drink good cold water to nerve

For the rush.

Chorus:

Who will go with us, will you?

Who will go with us, will you?

We’re determined to conquer (or die

In the fight),

We can’t bear a rum-hole at all

In our sight,

They look bad, they smell bad, they are

Bad we know,

So come along with us, for on we will go.

Chorus.

Now, you rum-selling gentry, our advice 

Is to you,

Just drop your foul traffic; it never

Will do.

It’s injuring us and it’s ruining you,

So now come take the pledge and be 

teetotal too.

Chorus

     Lyricists often used familiar tunes so their songs could be quickly learned. “Auld Lang Syne” was frequently used, as were Stephen Foster’s most popular songs, including “Oh! Susanna" and “Old Folks At Home.” T. Edgerly wrote the lyrics to “There’s a Good Time Coming” in 1857, set to “Oh! Susanna.” Here are the first two verses. 

There’s a Good Time Coming

There’s a good time coming,

Though we cannot fix the date,

Yet ‘tis surely on the way,

at a telegraphic rate.

What though the dram shops do increase

And pauper taxes too,

We should not let our efforts cease,

While there’s so much to do.

Chorus: 

Oh my country, sweet land of liberty

We’ll boldly vanquish every foe

That seeks to injure thee!

There is a good time coming and

We wish it now were here,

When men all strong drink shunning,

Will sip the water clear.

When half-starved wives with pallid cheeks,

And children filled with fear,

And drunken idiotic freaks

Shall never more appear.

Chorus. 

    W. Dexter Smith Jr. (1839-1909) was a popular composer of ballads. “Pat Mallory” must have been a well-known song in 1866 when the Corvallis, Oregon newspaper ran this song:. 

I’ll Shun the Bar-room, Sister

By W. Dexter Smith, Jr.

Air: “Pat Mallory”

I’ll shun the bar-room, sister, dear,

And take the wine no more,

I’ll be a happy man again, 

As in the days of yore;

Intemperance no more shall lead

Me from the path of right,

But with your help, I’ll be a man,

And sign the pledge tonight.

I’ve wasted many precious days

In years that now are past,

And after groping in the dark,

I’ve found the light at last.

I’ll shun the bar-room, sister, dear,

And taste the wine no more,

I’ll be a happy man again, 

As in the days of yore!

The wine-cup cannot tempt me now,

I’ve seen beneath its mask,

I cannot feel its power again,

Nor in its sunshine bask;

For well I know the deadly thorn

That grows beneath the rose,

And oft have felt the dreadful pang

The wine-cup’s victim knows;

But seeking strength and faith anew,

I’ll banish every pain,

And hope and love —those welcome stars

Shall shine on me again,

I’ll shun the bar-room, sister, dear,

And take the wine no more,

I’ll be a happy man again, 

As in the days of yore!

     

     According to a note, the following poem, printed in the Irasburgh, Vermont newspaper in 1869, was suggested by seeing an advertisement of a Wholesale Liquor Dealer. 

Who’ll Buy

Forty casks of liquid woe –

     Who’ll buy?

Murder by the gallon - oh,

     Who’ll buy?

Larceny and theft made thin,

Beggary and death thrown in,

Packages of liquid sin —

     Who’ll buy?

Foreign death imported, pure —

     Who’ll buy?

Warranted, not slow, but sure,

     Who’ll buy?

Empty pockets by the cask,

Tangled brains by pint or flask,

Vice of any kind, you ask, —

     Who’ll buy?

     The first and third stanzas of this five-stanza poem from 1874 are included below. This ran in the Wellington, Kansas newspaper.

Don’t Drink To-day, My Boy

Don’t drink to-day my boy!

Let not the sparkling glass,

That woos but to destroy,

Touch lips just fondly sealed,

With mother’s kiss, my boy;

Her hope of earthly bliss

Is told in asking this —

Don’t drink to-day, my boy. 

A serpent’s deadly fangs

Would not such anguish bring

As the torturing pangs

Which the mother’s heart cling,

While the long watch she keeps,

Till the taper burns low,

And she silently weeps

Lest you yield to the foe. 

     The next poem was not a newspaper poem. It came from Mrs. Julia A. Moore, who became known as the “Sweet Singer of Michigan.” Mrs. Moore’s book, The Sweet Singer of Michigan Salutes the Public, became a best-seller when published in 1877, but not for reasons she wanted. It was ridiculed by newspaper editors across the country. Although she was sincere, her poems were often unintentionally hilarious to readers. Mark Twain himself said it had given him twenty years of enjoyment. She specialized in obituary poems, but included many other topics. 

Temperance Reform Clubs

Some enterprising people

In our cities and our towns,

Have gone to organizing clubs

Of men that’s fallen down;

In estimation fallen low —

Now they may rise again

And be respected citizens

Throughout our native land. 

Chorus:

The temperance reform club,

Forever may it stand,

And everyone that loves strong drink,

Pray, join it heart and hand.

The many a home will be bright

And many a heart made glad,

It will be the greatest blessing that this nation ever had. 

The following poem is called "Saturday Night." It was published in 1877 when most people worked six days a week.

"The Sober Man's Saturday Night"

Saturday night! How much is fraught

With bright recollections of what it has brought;

How the children go skipping,

With smiles on each face,

To welcome their father, who cometh apace;

Trippingly,

Laughingly,

Joyously roam

The dear little children, for, "Papa's come home!"

Home from the labors of office or store,

Happy is he when he reaches his door;

Home from the workshop or other employ,

Filled with purest and manliest joy!

"The Drunkard's Saturday Night"

Saturday night! How the winds whistle shrill,

While a poor, wretched mother, with two children ill,

Sits in her hovel, half dreading to think,

Of the days e'er her husband had taken to drink.

Glaringly,

Mockingly,

Troop into view,

The old recollections, when he was so true!

But now, ah! how changed! Not a morsel to eat,

Scarce a garment to warm her, no shoes on her feet;

And the children, oh God! must these little ones lie

In sickness, unclothed and unfed, must they die?

     The next poem is by Laura Brigham Boyce, a Vermont dairy farmer’s wife who was locally known for her writing. She was often called upon to give an address at occasions like the dedication of a new building or the Fourth of July. In old age she self-published a book of poetry. A few of her poems were published in newspapers near her home. This is just a sample of “Sowing and Reaping,” published in 1880.

Sowing and Reaping

Rum is the fiend that’s sowing,

Broadcast in every clime,

The fearful seeds of discord,

Disease and vice and crime.

Rum sows; death reaps the harvest,

And none shall say him, nay;

His spoils of the rumfiends sowing,

Hundreds of souls each day. 

Think of it, Oh, my brothers,

Whose hearts are warm and light,

Your loved ones safe about you,

Still pure and fresh and bright.

So many men die daily,

Each one among them all,

Is somebody’s son, or brother,

Whose heart bleeds at his fall. 

Ay, hearts are sore and breaking,

In a thousand homes today,

In bitter anguish pledging 

With God this cause to stay.

     Two temperance poems ran together in the Wichita newspaper in 1880 under the headline “Too Strong For the Rummies. A Temperance Poem Which Roused Brooklyn Saloon Keepers.” The first one (not copied here) Was “Licensed to Sell.” Supposedly, a child recited the poem at a Brooklyn school assembly, leading to the “whole saloon-keeping fraternity of that city” and four liquor dealer’s associations to complain to the school board. In the poem, a woman walks into a rum seller’s shop to blame him for her husband’s ruination. The rum seller angrily orders her out, but she forces him to listen to her first. 

     The second poem touches on a key reason women fought for suffrage. Frances Willard made it an official plank of the Women’s Christian Temperance Association.

Samantha Allen’s Advice

By A.M. Brunner

Josiah, put your slippers on,

And cease your needless clatter;

I want to have a word with you

About a little matter.

Chorus:

Josiah, look me in the face,

You know this world’s condition,

Yet you have never cast a vote

Right out for Prohibition.

I heard you on your knees last night

Ask help to keep from strayin’,

And now I want to know if you

Will vote as you’ve been prayin’?

(Chorus)

We women work for better times,

And work right hard to make ‘em;

You men vote whiskey with its crimes

And we just have to take ‘em.

(Chorus)

How long, Josiah, must this be?

We hope and pray ‘gainst evil;

You pray all right, from what I see,

And vote plumb for the devil. 

There now; I’ve had my say, and you

Just save your ammunition,

And vote the way you’ve always prayed,

For total prohibition. 

     

       Many a temperance song and poem pulled on the heartstrings, or attempted to, such as the following, printed in the Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania newspaper in 1890.

“Papa, Be True To Me”

     “A New York State Senator, when asked at a social gathering why he would not take anything stronger than water, is said to have responded with the following verses:”

What makes me refuse a social glass? Well,

     I’ll tell you the reason why —

Because a bonny, blue-eyed girl is ever

     Standing by.

And I hear her voice above the noise

     Of the jest and the merry glee,

As with baby grace she kisses my face and

     Says, “Papa, be true to me.”

What then can I do, to my lass be true

     Better than let it pass by?

I know you’ll not think my refusal to drink

     A breach of your courtesy;

For I hear her repeat, in accents sweet, and

     Her dear little form I see,

  As with loving embrace she kisses my face and

     Says, “Papa, be true to me.”

Let me offer a toast to the one I love most,

     Whose dear little will I obey,

Whose influence sweet is guiding my feet

     Over life’s toilsome way;

May the sun ever shine on this lassie of mine,

     From sorrow may she be free,

As with baby grace she hath kissed  my face and

     Says, “Papa, be true to me.”

     The earnestness of the songs and poems is both quaint, a little bit amusing, and touching today. This special genre remained popular from the 1830s until the 1920s. One thing is for sure: if your ancestors weren’t singing these songs, they surely heard them on occasion. 

Notes:

1. Rorabaugh.

2. Rorabaugh.

3. Paul Sanders says total consumption was four times what it is today; 9.5 gallons.

Family Note: Like so many, I had family members and ancestors who struggled with alcoholism, and those who were temperance advocates. My great-great-great grandfather, Myron Fitch Barbour, was a very active member of the fraternal organization Good Templars. On my mother’s side of the family, I know my great-grandparents, John Krause and Mary Smathers “signed the pledge” at their church, as did their nine children. Everyone knew what “sign the pledge” meant. It was promise to not drink anything alcoholic. It’s certainly possible that other members of the family signed the pledge or joined a temperance society, but these are the only ones I have proof of. 

Sources:

     Bradbury, William, editor. The Singing Book For Boys’ and Girls' Meetings: A collection of easy songs and tunes, New York: Iveson & Phinney, 1854. 

      Lowell, Mason and George James. Song-book of the School Room, Boston: Wilkins, Carter & Co., 1847.

     The Public School Singing Book, Philadelphia: Leary & Gertz, 1848. 

     McArthur, Judith N. “Demon Rum on the Boards: Temperance Melodrama and the Tradition of Antebellum Reform,” Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 517-540. 

     Sanders, Paul D. “Comrades, Fill No Glass For Me: Stephen Foster’s Melodies As Borrowed By the American Temperance Movement,” Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Fall 2008), pp. 24-42. 

     Sanders, Paul. “Temperance Songs In American School Songbooks, 1840-1860,” Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Vol. 31, No. 1 (October 2015), pp. 5-23. 

     Slater, Megan and Alpert, Hillel. “Surveillance Report #120, Apparent Per Capita Alcohol Consumption: National, State and Regional Trends, 1977-2021,”National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

     Tarbutton, William A. Music For the Schools, Baltimore: J.E. Bond & Co, 1856. 

     Rorabaugh, W.J. “Alcohol in America,” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 6, No. 2, Drug Use in History (Fall 1991), pp. 17-19.          

Newspapers:

     “Temperance Celebration,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), 18 July 1842, p. 2. 

     The Missouri Whig (Palmyra, Missouri), 3 July 1851, p. 1.

     I’ll Shun the Bar-room Sister: Corvallis Gazette-Times (Corvallis, Oregon), 18 Aug 1866, p. 4.

     Who’ll Buy: Orleans Independent Standard (Irasburgh, Vermont), 11 May 1869, p. 1. 

     Don’t Drink Today, My Boy: The Sumner County Press (Wellington, Kansas), 23 April 1874, p. 1.

"The Blue Ribbon Army. Noble Movements in Lancaster," The Semi-Weekly New Era (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 25 Aug 1877, p. 2.  

     “Too Strong For the Rummies,” The Leader (Wichita, Kansas), 22 June 1880, p. 2. 

     Laura Brigham Brice: Swanton Courier (Swanton, Vermont), 16 Oct 1880, p. 1. 

     Papa Be True To Me: Punxsutawney News (Punxsutawney Pennsylvania), 2 April 1890, p. 3

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