Water For Elephants 4

            From 1920-1933, transporting and drinking alcohol in the United States of America was against the law, this is referred to as prohibition. Prohibition was national law and was actually part of our constitution, the 18 amendment. It is hard to believe that something so ordinary and person al was regulated by the government to such an extent. We live in a world today where bars are on every street and restaurants make the most money from the sale of alcohol. To think of a time where this was illegal, is difficult. Water for Elephants takes place during this period in American history where people brewed their own liquor and everyday citizens became criminals just because they had a beer.

            Life on the circus train was full of adventure, hardship and colorful characters with nowhere else to go. The Benzini Brothers train car was, not surprisingly, full of illegal alcohol. At any time, performers, workers and owners could be seen drinking alcohol from cheap homemade moonshine to expensive brandy or champagne. Jacob was confused about how so much alcohol made it onto the train. “We always head through Canada in the beginning of the season…their laws are much more civilized” pg 92.  When the train went through Canada, the staff would smuggle huge amounts of alcohol in the animal cars, the ones border patrols were less likely to search on there way back into the U.S. Prohibition didn’t seem to work at all, The Benzini Bros. staff was drunk all the time, like the rest of the country they had little regard for this law.

            Illegal drinking took place all the time in Prohibition America, it made ordinary people into criminals. I think it was a very ineffective policy because 13 yrs after the 18^th amendment was passed into law, it was overturned by the 21^st amendment and alcohol was legal once again. As we see all the time, alcohol can be the undoing of many people but I’m not sure that I agree with the government telling you can’t make your own decisions about it. At least when it is legal it is regulated and safe to drink. Illegally made liquor was not always safe to drink as Camel, Jacobs working man friend would find out the hard way. He drank some illegal Extract and ended up becoming paralyzed and disabled. There was a compound added to the extract to get around certain laws, this compound caused paralysis. Tragedies like this would not have occurred if liquor was legal at the time.