Under the Influence...of a Book

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There, by Timothy Shay Arthur was a temperance novel published in 1854. It was one of the influences on the general public that eventually led to Prohibition.

It was also a book that was part of my grandparents' library. I found it in a closet box of books as a child, where it had eventually been stored many years after being read and re-read. It was well-used and well-considered. At least by some. Although not as much by others!

Prohibition in Canada was a bit different than in the States, and was repealed province by province all the way into the late 1940's...