In the mid nineteenth century some areas of the United States made it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages. It was not, however, illegal to give away alcoholic beverages, and thus a new business emerged and flourished whereby impresarios would present an unusual zoological specimen\u2014a blind tiger, for instance\u2014which a curious spectator would pay a nickel or more to behold. As the spectator gazed upon the strange animal, he would be offered a “free” glass of apple juice, butter milk, or whiskey, compliments of the house. Some citizens were so intrigued by the wonders of zoology that they purchased several tickets in a single afternoon in order to gaze upon the blind tiger. Needless to say, the authorities took a dim view of these establishments, which came to be known as blind tigers and, later in the nineteenth century, as blind pigs. The mayor of Chicago, for example, declared on October 15, 1897 that all such establishments would be closed, no matter how respectable their patrons were. “A blind pig is a blind pig,” he said, “whether it wears a dress, a suit, or an apron.” Also used since the 1880s as a generic name for these illegal vendors is speakeasy, which may have arisen as a variation of the idiom speak-softly shop, a term that dates back to the 1830s where it denoted a place for fencing smuggled goods. Both terms imply the hushed voices that patrons of these clandestine establishments would use.<\/p>\n
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In the mid nineteenth century some areas of the United States made it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages. It was not, however, illegal to give away alcoholic beverages, and thus a new business emerged and flourished whereby impresarios would present an unusual zoological specimen\u2014a blind tiger, for instance\u2014which a curious spectator would pay a nickel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b"],"yoast_head":"\n