image via, The San Francisco Call, Mar. 1, 1903
After researching a bit about Raines Law for a previous post, it is clear that very little was effective in preventing people in Coney Island from drinking. In September 1901, the infamous hatchet-weilding temperance leader, Carrie Nation, paid a visit to Coney Island to cause some trouble. Coney Island's debauched reputation made it a natural target for Carrie Nation's hatchet, but surprisingly, Steeplechase Owner, George C. Tilyou was the one who brought her there!
Carrie Nation (also spelled Carry) began a branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in her hometown in Kansas, but quickly became dissatisfied with the results of the passive hymn singing outside taverns. In 1899, Carrie's signature "smashings" began, first with piles of rocks, then with a hatchet. She would storm into taverns, brandishing her hatchet and a bible, pour beer onto the floor, clear bars of beer with a single swipe and hack away at anything she could break. She considered her "hatchetations" to be the work of god, and referred to herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like." For this, she was arrested over 30 times in under 10 years.
New York Times, Sept. 3, 1901
To me, the biggest question is why would Tilyou, a showman who benefited from the consumption of alcohol in Coney Island, invite someone like Carrie Nation to speak at Steeplechase in the first place? Upon further investigation, the invitation had all the markings of a publicity stunt. It seemed that Tilyou expected a mocking crowd, and promoted the event with talkers, hatchet-selling souvenir venders and people walking around dressed as Kansas farmers.
New York Times, Sept. 3, 1901
The trouble didn't even start with her arrival at Coney Island. She boarded a steam ship to Coney Island and confiscated the cigars of several men (one of them sleeping) and threw them overboard. She went to the bar and dumped as many beers she could onto the floor, and ran after a waiter who narrowly missed her attempts to knock the tray out of his hands. At her actual lecture, despite the crowds that gathered to get a glimpse of her, only about 100 paying customers entered to hear her speak. During her lecture she said "Coney Island would not be what it is if it were not for the government of New York. But what can you expect from a lot of beer-besmeared, nicotine-faced, beak-nosed devils."
She did not leave Coney Island without getting arrested. She marched into a tobacco shop and smashed everything she could with her hatchet. Police came to arrest her, and after throwing a police wagon driver to the ground and resisting arrest, she was handcuffed (for the first time ever) and brought to the Coney Island police station. According to her memoir, when she refused to enter a cell with other women, a police officer struck her, breaking a bone. She was bailed out by George C. Tilyou, himself.
This seems to be an awful lot of trouble to stir up some publicity in Coney Island, but very little could be done to dampen the spirits of visitors in Coney Island's heyday.
