Hi Rod...

1,  Tracy Cameron's (1977) earliest reference to the "drunk driving
problem" was:

"Motor Wagons," 1904, (Editorial) _Quarterly Journal Inebriety_ 26, pp.
308-309.  Reprinted in _Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol_, Suppl. 4,
May, 1968, opposite p. 1.

It's short but it may touch on the transition from horse-drawn to
automotive transport.

2.  I have a limited library here in Wallace, but I checked two or three
books for mentions of
drunken equine driving.  No luck.  Richard Erdoes (_Saloons of the Old
West_, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1979) writes delightfully about some other
kinds of intersections between the horse and
drinking/drunkenness though:

p. 17 (and regarding colonial taverns):  "Most innkeepers brought a stirrup
cup on a tray to a horseman in a hurry who did not wish to dismount--an
early example of 'drive-in' refreshment."

p. 46 (and regarding old west saloons):  "Next to or behind the saloon was
usually a livery barn.  Sometimes a cowhand with too much of a load on
would forget all about his horse, leaving it tied to the rail while
staggering off for his ranch on foot.  Some of his pals would check the
brand of his pony and turn it loose.  The smart and sober animal would go
straight home, usually overtaking its rider on the way.  Some customers had
an arrangement with the stable next door to take care of their horses if
they intended to go on a drunk of more than a day.  The town's sheriff
could read brands jus as easily as a modern city cop can read license
plates, and he would take care of the 'parking' problem if he saw a horse
tied to the rack overnight."

See pp. 217-218 for horses invited INTO bars by their drunken owners.

Ron

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From: Roderick Phillips <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Drinking and driving
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2000 2:03 PM

From: Rod Phillips, History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
[log in to unmask]

RE; DRINKING AND DRIVING

I can't add much substance to this very interesting discussion, but I
have a question and a couple of observations.

My question is whether there were regulations against drinking and riding
a horse or driving a horse-drawn carriage/cart. I don't mean
regulations covering unsafe driving, where being drunk would
contribute to a violation, but I'm wondering about laws that refer
specifically to alcohol.

The reason I ask is that so much of the early automobile culture drew from
what we might call the equine model. I recall from some research I did
long ago on the first introduction of "horseless carriages" to New Zealand
(in, I think, 1897) that the regulations, maximum speeds, and so on, were
based on the prevailing behaviour and experience with horse-drawn vehicles.

If there was no law against being in charge of a horse while under the
influence of alcohol, the introduction of drinking and driving laws would
have been that much more an innovation and, one might expect, would have
taken that much longer to introduce.

My first observation is that attitudes toward drinking and driving have to
be seen not only in terms of attitudes toward alcohol, but also attitudes
toward driving.  Historically there's been a tendency to minimise driver
responsibility for damage, injury, and death.  It's significant that we
use the word "accident" to refer to events that are generally avoidable,
and that penalties for offenses with serious consequences have until
recently been very light in many places.

Second, and to pick up the point made by Ron Roizen, drink-driving laws do
in part depend on the ability to measure alcohol levels. Even so, until
recently many jurisdictions have used impressionistic evidence.  I recall
that when I was a reporter in a small Ontario town in the late 1960s, one
of the least-sought-after assignments was covering Monday's court session,
when the weekend's alcohol offenders appeared before the magistrate.
Apart from the sad procession of regulars who got their weekly homily and
a fine of $25 or three days in jail, there were the Friday and Saturday
night drunk-drivers.  The evidence the police gave never varied: the
accused "had alcohol on his breath, had slurred speech, and was
unsteady on his feet."  That observation was enough for conviction before
the use of breathalyzers.

Rod Phillips

Roderick Phillips
Editor, Journal of Family History/
Professor, Department of History
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Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
Tel: (613) 520-2600 ext 2824; fax: (613) 520-2819
Email address: [log in to unmask]
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