Roll Out the Barrel by Jay Zane
Copyright © 1998 by Jay Zane, Attorney at Law, and the Lithuanian Global Genealogical Society, All Rights Reserved.

In 1900,Schuylkill County, had ten bustling breweries and sported one saloon for every 50 adult males. In 1902, a total of 1,167 liquor licenses were issued (which translated into one for every one hundred county residents), 25% of which were issued to "eastern European" immigrants. By October,1903, the production of beer, ale and porter totaled 230,000 barrels, almost all of which was consumed within the anthracite community. If one included the almost 20,000 barrels of imported ale, the average annual consumption in Schuylkill County was over 47 barrels for every man, woman, and child per year! The mining town of New Philadelphia, which attracted many Lithuanian settlers, had one saloon for every 55 inhabitants. It featured one intersection that had a saloon on each of its four corners. My great grandfather was fortunate to own and operate one of them. While these statistics may astound you, one must remember that some of the surrounding "coal patches" had no saloons. The miners who resided in the outlying areas would have to venture into town for their "shot and a beer" which supposedly cleared the body of the coal dust.

"I get high with a little help from my friends..."

The Breweries, owned primarily by German-Americans, held enormous political clout in the Anthracite area. Their tentacles of influence reached into local municipal and county governments, controlling the alcohol distribution system. Many of the breweries helped Lithuanian immigrants become naturalized citizens which was a prerequisite to owning a liquor license. However, this was a two-edged sword as the eastern European saloon keeper was required to pay a certain percentage to the brewers for securing and maintaining the liquor license. Also, it was understood that their sponsor's product would be promoted at the saloon. Even so, it was a "win-win" situation. Brewery sales increased and the Lithuanian proprietors were able to take a small step up the economic ladder and out of the coal mines.

The explosion of liquor licenses during the "coal rush" did not bode well with all the citizenry. Many Protestant ministers anguished over the "wicked lifestyles" that rampant alcohol consumption created. "The only difference between the saloon on a Sunday and the other days of the week is that the front door is not wide open" was a typical observation by the Welsh and English established citizenry. In the book, which is the chief source of my article, entitled The Slav Invasion and the Mine Worker, by Frank Julian Warne, J.P. Lippincott Co. (1904), the author relates his observations on the overindulgence of alcohol among the "foreign immigrants," including Lithuanians, "On Saturday evenings and Sundays, at weddings, christenings, funerals, and other celebrations and observances, drinking...is carried to excess, the occasion not infrequently ending in a free-for-all fight, and sometimes in a small riot, in which participants are shot and stabbed and not infrequently killed. Many of the most serious crimes...are invariably traced...to some drunken orgy." The author concluded that drinking was "the first of their vices acquired after landing in this country." While this may be the author's personal bias, I had recently come across a newspaper headline in an old issue of the "Pottsville Republican" newspaper which read: "Anthony Stromious shot at a Lithuanian Christening at Mahanoy City." Therefore, it appears that some of the prejudices were based on facts and reality.

In defense of our ancestors, similar alcohol consumption patterns could be found in the coal and silver mining areas of Colorado and the gold mining areas of Alaska. Mining, by itself, created the demand for alcohol consumption wherever the mining occurred. Any assumption that Lithuanians as a group had some genetic predisposition to over-indulge can be laid to rest. Rather, it was the long, physically demanding, and extremely dangerous work which created the "beer boom."

Second only to the church, the saloon was the major social hub of the Lithuanian community. It was a place to socialize with fellow miners, to exchange information, to find lodging with fellow ex-patriots, and to have documents translated or notarized. But, most importantly, it served as a "hiring hall." Foremen could easily find available workers there as there were no means of mass communication other than the newspaper.

Ownership of a tavern created opportunities for the saloon keeper to enter the political arena, either directly or indirectly. On election day, many Lithuanian saloons became polling places. Saloon owners began to gain considerable influence as spokesmen for the Lithuanian community. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Lithuanians began to be elected to public office due, in a large part, to the saloons.

As the great-grandson of a Lithuanian tavern owner I offer one final question for you to ponder:

"Did you ever realize that your "mouse pad" makes a great beer coaster?"
By J.R. Zane, July 20, 1998

For further reading, I suggest a great book, The Kingdom Of Coal: Work, Enterprise, and Ethinic Communities in the Mine Fields, by Donald L. Miller and Richard E. Sharpless, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, (December 1985); ISBN: 0812212010.

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