Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There

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Ten Nights in a Bar-room and What I Saw There
Author Timothy Shay Arthur
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreTemperance literature
Publication date
1854

Ten Nights in a Bar-room and What I Saw There is an 1854 novel written by American author Timothy Shay Arthur. The book is a temperance novel, written expressly to discourage readers from drinking alcohol. It was a commercial and popular success upon its release and was later adapted into other media.

Contents

Plot

Illustration: "Come, Father! Won't You Come Home?" from an 1882 edition of Ten Nights in a Bar-room Ten Nights in a Bar-room Plate 1.png
Illustration: "Come, Father! Won't You Come Home?" from an 1882 edition of Ten Nights in a Bar-room

The novel is presented by an unnamed narrator who makes an annual visit to the fictional town of Cedarville. On his first visit, he stops at the new tavern, the Sickle and Sheaf. The owner, Simon Slade, is a former miller who gave up the trade for the more lucrative tavern. The business is a family affair, with Slade's wife Ann, son Frank, and daughter Flora assisting him. The narrator also observes the town drunk, Joe Morgan. The father of a loving wife and family, he meets his moral downfall when introduced to alcohol. Morgan quickly becomes an alcoholic and spends most of his time at a bar.

One day, his daughter begs him to return to his family. He initially ignores her desires until she is hit in the head by a flying glass as she goes to retrieve her father. Slade had initially thrown the tumbler at Morgan so, to a degree, her death is on his hands. On her deathbed, the daughter begs Morgan to abandon alcohol, to which he agrees. The novel progresses through the ruinous fall of more characters all at the hands of hard drink and other vices (gambling becomes another major reform notion in the text). Shay spends some time discussing corruption in politics with the corrupt "rum party" candidate from Cedarville, Judge Lyman. The narrator continually notes how even the drinkers in the story call for "the Maine Law" which will prohibit alcohol from being so temptingly available.

The novel closes with the death of Simon Slade, already mutilated from an earlier riotous sequence of murders and mob mentality, at the hands of his son. The two had gotten into a drunken argument and Frank strikes his father in the head with a bottle. In the final scene the narrator sees the post with the once pristine and now gross and rotten Sickle and Sheaf totem chopped down after the town's moral fiber finally showed itself in a series of resolutions that led to the destruction of all the alcohol on the premises.

Analysis

In addition to its advocacy of temperance, the book is also significant because of its promotion of the Cult of Domesticity and prohibition. Arthur used the book to argue that women needed to steer men to the path of morality to protect the home. Nothing was as dangerous to morality as alcohol, so its use needed to be restricted by women. [1] The book is the first work to openly call for prohibition and was a popular temperance melodrama. [2] [3]

Response

Ten Nights in a Bar-room was a financial success for Arthur and became the second most popular book of the Victorian Era, following Uncle Tom's Cabin . [4] The novel was easily transferred to play format, so it was frequently used to promote prohibition to large audiences. The play based on the novel continued to be popular even after the end of prohibition in the United States, although it was usually presented as a parody. [5]

Its first adaptation was for the Broadway stage by William W. Pratt in 1858 as Ten Nights in a Barroom. Among its film adaptations was a 1910 silent film starring Frank H. Crane and Marie Eline (now lost), a 1913 adaptation by Lee Beggs with a cast including Gladys Egan, a 1921 film directed by Oscar Apfel, and a 1931 film starring William Farnum as Joe Morgan and Tom Santschi as Simon Slade. [6]

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A pub is a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in the late 17th century, and was used to differentiate private houses from those which were open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but CAMRA states a pub has four characteristics:

  1. is open to the public without membership or residency
  2. serves draught beer or cider without requiring food be consumed
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  4. allows drinks to be bought at a bar
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prohibition</span> Outlawing of alcohol

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bar (establishment)</span> Establishment serving alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises

A bar, also known as a saloon, a tavern or tippling house, or sometimes as a pub or club, is a retail business establishment that serves alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, liquor, cocktails, and other beverages such as mineral water and soft drinks. Bars often also sell snack foods, such as crisps or peanuts, for consumption on their premises. Some types of bars, such as pubs, may also serve food from a restaurant menu. The term "bar" refers to the countertop where drinks are prepared and served, and by extension to the overall premises.

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A bartender is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but also occasionally at private parties. Bartenders also usually maintain the supplies and inventory for the bar. As well as serving beer and wine, a bartender can generally also mix classic cocktails such as a Cosmopolitan, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Mojito.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washingtonian movement</span> 19th-century temperance movement in the United States

The Washingtonian movement was a 19th-century temperance fellowship founded on Thursday, April 2, 1840, by six alcoholics at Chase's Tavern on Liberty Street in Baltimore, Maryland. The idea was that by relying on each other, sharing their alcoholic experiences, and creating an atmosphere of conviviality, they could keep each other sober. Total abstinence from alcohol (teetotalism) was their goal. The group taught sobriety and preceded Alcoholics Anonymous by almost a century. Members sought out other "drunkards", told them their experiences with excessive alcohol use, and how the Society had helped them achieve sobriety. With the passage of time the Society became a prohibitionist organization in that it promoted the legal and mandatory prohibition of alcoholic beverages. The Society was the inspiration for Timothy Shay Arthur's Six Nights with the Washingtonians and his Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Shay Arthur</span> American novelist

Timothy Shay Arthur — known as T. S. Arthur — was a popular 19th-century American author. He is famously known for his temperance novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There (1854), which helped demonize alcohol in the eyes of the American public.

Ten Nights in a Barroom may refer to:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prohibition in the United States</span> 1920 to 1933

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<i>Ten Nights in a Bar-Room</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room is a 1931 American Pre-Code film directed by William A. O'Connor. The film is a remake of a 1910 movie and follows the storyline in the 1854 novel, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There by Timothy Shay Arthur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temperance movement in the United States</span> Efforts to reduce or end the consumption of alcohol

In the United States, the temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the prohibition of alcohol, through the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, from 1920 to 1933. There is some disagreement whether the policies were a 'failure' or whether they triggered an increase in organized crime, though that remains a commonly held belief. Several years after Prohibition policies were lifted, alcohol use remained significantly lower but eventually rose to pre-prohibition levels. Crimes that were associated with excessive drinking such as domestic abuse also saw a sharp decline during Prohibition. Alcohol consumption is much lower than it was in early 1900's.. Today, there are organizations that continue to promote the cause of temperance. The World Health Organization has noted that out of social problems created by the harmful use of alcohol, "crime and violence related to alcohol consumption" are likely the most significant issue.

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<i>Ten Nights in a Bar Room</i> (1910 film) 1910 film

Ten Nights in a Bar Room is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. Adapted from the novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There by Timothy Shay Arthur, the production focuses on Joe Morgan after he has become a hopeless drunkard. Often Morgan's young daughter, Mary, comes to beg her father to return home. One day, she appears during a fight between the two men and is fatally struck by a bottle thrown by the saloon-keeper. Before Mary dies she asks her father to promise to swear off alcohol and he accepts. He is reformed and becomes successful, while the saloon-keeper is killed in a fight in an irony of fate. The film was released on November 4, 1910 and met with mixed reviews. The film is presumed lost.

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Ten Nights in a Barroom is an American film released in 1926. The film had a temperance theme and an African American cast. It followed on Timothy Shay Arthur's 1854 novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There and William W. Pratt's play, as well as earlier film adaptations albeit with white casts. A man's drinking causes him to lose money, his business, and his daughter. The film has been restored and is archived at the Library of Congress. Charles Gilpin stars. The film was released during the Prohibition era. Roy Calnek directed.

<i>Ten Nights in a Bar Room</i> (1921 film) 1921 film by Oscar Apfel

Ten Nights in a Bar Room is a 1921 melodrama film directed by Oscar Apfel. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Timothy Shay Arthur.

<i>The Bottle</i> (etchings)

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References

  1. Martin, Scott (2005). Cultural Change and the Market Revolution in America, 1789-1860. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 219.
  2. Adams, Bluford (1997). E Pluribus Barnum: The Great Showman and the Making of U.S. Popular Culture. U of Minnesota Press. p. 125.
  3. "Ten Nights in a Bar Room". Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  4. Chrzan, Janet (2013), Alcohol: Social Drinking in Cultural Context, Routledge, p. 76
  5. Walters, Ronald (1997). American Reformers, 1815-1860, Revised Edition. Macmillan. p. 134.
  6. Hischak, Thomas S (2012), American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations, McFarland and Company, p. 239

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room at Project Gutenberg

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