Saloon Culture Analytical Critique Writing Assignment HY 121 Spring 2005 Royal Melendy writes about a rising social culture taking place at the turn of the twentieth century. He depicts this culture as the ambiance emitted in early Chicago saloons. “Saloons served many roles for the working-class during this period of American history, and were labeled as the poor man’s social clubs” (summary of saloon culture, pg. 76).
Saloons were described as part of the neighborhood. An institution recognized and familiar to its people. Many laws restricted their services; however, they continued to exist. The article talks about two types of saloons.
The first being the more upscale in downtown districts. These would close around midnight not in accordance to law, but demand. The other type Melendy calls “saloons [of] workingmen’s districts” (Melendy, pg. 77).
He illustrates these clubs as home away from home.
They supplied the basis of food supply for those whose home was in the street or for those residents of cheap lodging establishments. It is even stated that many saloons provided free lunches. The article discusses the need for these early Chicago saloons as a neighborhood commune for those men who labor long hours only to come home to poverty and despair of a desolate household. Melendy focuses on the mental, physiological, and moral nature of these workingmen. He points out that this saloon culture allows it’s patrons to develop these traits by interacting with their peers-others facing the same despair. These establishments are described as the “workingman’s school.
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He is both scholar and teacher” (Melendy pg. 78).
Patrons gather at the bar, around tables and in the next room amongst games of pool, cards, and darts to discuss political and social problems, sporting news, and other neighborhood gossip. Here men, native and immigrant, exchange opinions and views of patriotism, brotherhood, and lessons in civil government.
Melendy describes this atmosphere as cosmopolitan, and articulates that these businesses advertise this issue in their names. For example one of the downtown saloons was entitled “Everybody’s Exchange.” The saloon’s customers experienced a buffet of nationalities upon which was not so for those of poverty in previous decades. Saloons also served as disguises of corruption as Melendy illustrates by declaring “they learn their lessons in corruption and vice. It is their school for good and evil” (Melendy, pg. 78).
The article also describes saloons as a meeting place for musical practice, fraternal organizations, political meetings, and celebrations such as anniversaries and wedding receptions.
As published in A Millennium Biography, Chicago in 1900: Interior of an 1890’s South Side Saloon from: History of Chicago and Souvenir of the Liquor Interest… p. 145 Taverns were not all dens of vice and iniquity. In 1900 Chicago had 6, 395 licensed retail saloons. Many had accommodations for dancing parties and lodge meetings. Some had restaurant departments attached.
Lange’s Pavilion at 445 Milwaukee Avenue (1896) advertised itself as a ‘family resort with a music pavilion where vocal and instrumental musical entertainments are given in connection with a vaudeville stage.’ Engel’s Opera Pavilion at 463-65 E. Clark Street also featured the music of a 12 piece orchestra, appearing nightly. Mr. Engel assured the public that it was ‘strictly high-toned… no ladies need blush’.
Other establishments catered only to men. Patrick Daly then at 1600 S. State Street probably did not blush when he advertised that ‘a woman shall never be allowed in his place – neither will he permit a disreputable character to frequent the premises.’ Other taverns catered to Scandinavian working men, to the Irish, to Germans, to Italians. They catered to singing societies, to businessmen and sportsmen (the owner frequently being an acknowledged expert in a particular sport from horse racing to dog breeding, to bowling).
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(Millennium Biography) Many of Chicago’s saloons were able to provide these amenities only because of support from the greater brewing companies. They supplied beer, varieties of meats and vegetables in abundance as to out due restaurants and other brewing establishments, and to mark the minds of its patrons with picturesque buffet and remind them of what their own barren cupboards held.
During this time competition between brewing companies was fierce and many were able to provide these services because “These companies own a very large number of the saloons in Chicago. Thus the cost of not only the beer, but the meat, bread, and vegetables, bought in vast quantities, is greatly reduced,” (Melendy).
Saloons also served as an employment function. In some neighborhoods saloons were instituted around specific labor practices. Some pubs boasted this in the very name of the institution. “The significance of these names is this: Men of the same trade, having common interests, make the saloon that represents their interests their rendezvous.
To the “Stonecutters’ Exchange,” for example, men seeking stonecutters often apply” (Melendy).
Many of those seeking employment in particular trades could depend on the exchanges that went on in many of these saloons. These meeting places emitted a brotherhood among its customers, not one that was spoken of, or celebrated, but felt in the spirit and the men knew they could count on aid when needed. “Grateful is he to the saloon that was his “friend in need;” bitter toward those who, without offering anything better, propose to take from him the only institution that has befriended him” (Melendy).
Melendy’s stance on this issue is best stated as .”..
a vast army of the laboring men and boys find the saloon the best place in their neighborhood for the development of their social, intellectual, and physical natures” (Melendy, pg. 79).
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He also states that these saloons .”.. appeal to lower natures… .” (Melendy, pg. 79).
After reading this article I was persuaded to uphold the author’s view surrounding the need and existence of these saloons as social clubs for city laborers. As the article states in one paragraph: “he is surrounding for miles by brick and mortar; not a blade of grass or a leaf of green to be seen” (Melendy, pg. 78), it portrays the absolute separation of city life from nature of the early nineteen hundreds. This alone will create a longing in any organism to develop intellectual and social traits to sustain this absolute existence.
Every human being holds certain physiological and social needs and these laboring workers of the early twentieth century had no place to fulfill these needs thus giving rise to the saloon culture. Melendy begins by di staining popular public sentiment of saloons. He states that many draw illusions from pictures or drawings of anti-saloon evangelists. He pronounces that these depictions of saloon culture are not totally false, but highly exaggerated.
The author’s argument for the saloon surfaces dominantly throughout the article by describing poverty and lack of communal development. In Melendy’s full length article he explains the full satisfaction a majority of the saloons provide to men and women with the exclusion of crudeness: “no obscene word is uttered, and but little that is suggestive of evil is presented. It affords an opportunity for the hard-worked men and women to escape from their stuffy homes and thoughts of poverty into a clean, well-lighted room, where with their families they can enjoy an evening of pleasure. To see the hardened, careworn expressions on their faces gradually relax and melt away into expressions of simple enjoyment, as they laugh heartily at the jokes, might at first arouse one’s sense of humor, but it would soon impress one deeply with the pathos of it all: with the thought that this little entertainment, cheap and vulgar as it is, seems to satisfy their longing for amusement.” (Melendy).
Some of the more upscale early Chicago saloons also fulfilled physical needs of it’s patrons by offering handball courts, bowling alleys, and shuffle board. The author also portrays the boredom of the male youth and how saloons would keep them off the street.
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Some cons, or weaknesses, of Melendy’s discussion are lightly touched on in the excerpt. The article does explain how some patrons abused alcohol and would “revel in drunkenness and shame,” (Melendy, pg. 76) and even how the saloon wrecked their life. It also expresses the fact that some saloons would display nude ness and play on human lust in order to boost liquor sales.
Finally, Melendy in his last sentence of the excerpt states “the youths are here [the saloon] corrupted is too well known… .” (Melendy, pg. 79).
Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society. Available at: web Millennium Biography, Chicago in 1900. (October 1999).
Available at: web Royal. “The Saloon in Chicago,” The American Journal of Sociology, 6 (November 1900): 289-306. Above references with page numbers note an excerpt of this article as published in For the Record: A Documentary History of America from Reconstruction through Contemporary Times. Edited by David E.
Shi and Holly A. Mayer. Other references denote the full length article available at: web.
