Digital Bob Archive

JANUARY 1918 - PART 6:

John Haho, a respected and law-abiding resident of Douglas, was the first victim on Gastineau Channel of the new Alaska Bone Dry law that went into effect on the first day of the year 1918. The law was enacted by Congress after Alaskans voted that the territory should be \"dry,\" and it was called the Bone Dry law because it prohibited beverages with any alcoholic content whatever. It was thus \"drier\" than the Volstead Act, which would become the national prohibition law and which permitted up to one-half of one per cent alcohol.

John Haho owned the gasboat Pheasant which he used for charter work and would later use on one of the mail routes out of Juneau. On Wednesday morning, January 2, 1918, Haho was approached by Seth Orava who said he wanted to charter the Pheasant for a trip to Tenakee Springs. He said he had a little freight but would load it himself, and Haho went home to prepare for the trip. The fact that Orava had owned The Mascot saloon in Douglas apparently raised no danger signal in his mind.

Haho was preparing to set sail that afternoon when deputy U.S. Marshall Harry Morton appeared and asked him to open the hatch. Haho complied, although he need not have: only an officer of the Customs Service could have enforced the request. Under the hatch Orava's freight was found to consist of a barrel and a half and five cases of whiskey.

Haho explained the circumstances but his plea of innocence did him little good. John Henson, the U.S. Commissioner at Douglas, fined him $50. He fined Orava $100 and ordered the cargo confiscated. Haho was out not only the $50 but the charter to Tenakee Springs.

That was the only infringement of the new law reported for several weeks, but during January there was a good deal of scrambling around among the former saloons on both sides of the channel as they adjusted to the new conditions. In Douglas four saloons announced that they would remain open as billiard and soft drink parlors. They were Baritello's, the Hunter Hotel, Giues & Pusich and Sante Degan. The Alaska Bar, Bank Bar, Butte Bar, City Bar, Island Saloon, Little Douglas Saloon, Mascot Bar, Phoenix Saloon, Republic Bar and Victor Bar all closed.

On the Juneau side, the Circle City Hotel announced that its bar would become a tea room, although from an advertisement it appears that it may have had more billiard tables than tea tables. W.A. Ferguson turned the old Germania Saloon into what he called a workingmen's clubroom. The New York Exchange, the Montana Bar and Burns Bar closed their doors, as did the Old Stand and the American Bar. Lockie MacKinnon closed the Mayflower Saloon and leased the Zynda Hotel at Third and Main Streets. Tuck Flaherty of Tuck's Place said he would close for two months, then reopen as a soft drink place. The Grotto closed; the Mecca, in the Valentine Building, became a soft drink bar, as did the bar in the Alaskan Hotel. And the old Peerless Saloon, which in its day had been known as the raunchiest place in town, was rented by Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Personeus and converted into a reading room.