Excerpt on Prohibition from "The Pennsylvania German Dialect and the Life of an Old Order Mennonite"

ANOTHER BIG CHANGE IN MY LIFE.

At this time I purchased from Levi Bowman Jr, his property on the Heidelberg road. It had a large house, a barn and 9 acres of good garden land. Levi Jr.had the sawmill, but it had burned down, so he wanted to sell the property and move to Elmira. This was an ideal market gardening place, and had many apple, cherry and mulberry trees, a large asparagus patch and rhubarb, and we planted about an acre of strawberries.That winter Heppler and Sehl Garage on King St. in Waterloo send word that they wanted to see me. They knew me well, as I used to do a lot of work for them when I had the welding shop. They were right across the road from what was the Huether Hotel, and I think it is now called the Kent Hotel. The garage was a red brick two storied building, and lately has been occupied by an advertising agency. The top floor was office and for overnight car storage. The lower floor was garage work shop.My job was as night operator, sell ing gas and looking after car storage. I did not know what all was involved In this job.

Those were the days of prohibition, and bootlegging was big business. Especially In Waterloo because Seagrams Distillery was located here.Bootleggers from Wind- sor and Detroit made a section of Heppler and Sehl downstairs into their head- quarters. This was a branch of the AI. Capone gang, and a Mr.Yarrow was the head of this branch. They kept 4 Reo trucks on the ready downstairs. Mr.Yarrow drove a large Cadillac car with bullet proof glass. They were large wholesale boot- leggers and did not sell locally. Bootleggers from all over Ontario came here for their supplies, and always at night. These were no petty bootlegers, but pro- fessional gangsters, and they all carried revolvers. They had "spotters" at var- ious locations in town who watched and reported to them the location of the Provincial police. lt was illegal to sell or have liquor in your possession in Ontario, but it was not illegal to export liquor to a foreign country. When they decided they were not being watched by the Provincial Police, they would make out regular export papers for a load of Seagrams whiskey. They would then go to Seagrams Distillery after midnight, present the export papers and load up. They would then drive along the back streets of Waterloo, never using the same route, and would head for Elmira. They had a warehouse some place above Elmira in the sand hills where they would hide the whiskey, and return back to the garage. They would usually be able to evade the police, but occasionally they were spotted, and the police gave chase. They would try to out race the police, but if they were caught, they would show their export papers and would drive to Toronto or Hamilton and actually export that load, and there was nothing the Police could do about it, because exporting was legal. When they came back to the garage, it was my job to open the doors and let them in, and many times I saw bullet holes in the back and sides of the truck where the police had tried to stop them.

They now had a good supply hidden away up in their Elmira warehouse and were ready for business. Bootleggers from Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor and from allover Ontario would phone in and using a "code" would place an order.Soon after mid- night a truck with two men would leave and go to Elmira to pick up this order. The rest of the gang would stay in their office downstairs, waiting for the cus- tomer to arrive. They would be playing poker while they waited for the truck to return. I saw them playing, and it was for high stakes with lots of money on the table, and their revolvers beside them. Sometimes I had to answer the phone and would be given a message in code, such as: "Tony is interested in 60 bushels of corn tonight". I would give them the message, and they would go to Elmira to pick up whatever "60 bushels of corn" meant. These bootleg cust- omers would usually drive big Cadillac cars, and I would have to let them in. They would always drive in and turn around so that the car is facing out for a quick get away.

While they waited for the truck to come back from Elmira with the whiskey, they would pay for it and be ready to slip out quick before the police could catch them. The whiskey was all in bags, and when the truck from Elmira drove up I had to have the doors open fast. They would drive in, transfer the bags of whiskey into the customers car, and he would speed out fast. lt did not take more than 2 minutes to transfer the whiskey.

I myself was not involved in any transactions, all I had to do was to open and close the doors, but I sure knew what was going on, and should not have taken any part of such transactions. Mr.Yarrow, the boss came up from Windsor once in a while to check on his operations. He would park his big Cadillac up stairs and would sleep in the Hotel across the road. He would ask me to wash his car over night, and gave me his Hotel room number, and I was to come and wake him up at 5 a.m. in the morning. He always gave me a $10.00 tip, and that was a big tip in those days.

All through these prohibition days the hotels had bars and were bootlegging. They only kept one bottle of whiskey on the bar at one time. The rest was well hidden, and they had one man who would bring a fresh bottle from this hiding place when needed. Behind they had a square shoot, about 12 inches square. This shoot went down to below the cellar floor into a hole, and in this hole they had sharp stones. There was a tap where they could let water run down the shoot. Everyone wanting a drink would have to stand close to the bar. They had two heavy doors that were locked from the inside leading into the bar, and a watchman between these doors. The watchman had a peep hole where he could see who wanted to get in. lf the watchman recognized you, he would let you in, and if he did not recognize you, then you had to get someone he knew to vouch for you before he would let you in. The Police made regular raids on these bars and they were rough. They would run into the hotel with axes and started smash- ing the doors down to get in. As soon as the watchman saw them coming he would sound the alarm. The bartender would throw the bottle of whiskey down the shoot and all the customers would have to throw their glasses down the shoot, and they would turn on the water to wash away the whiskey. Before the Police could lay a charge, they were required to obtain at least one ounce of whiskey. By the time the Police had smashed the doors down, all the whiskey was smashed on the stones at the bottom of the shoot, and water had been turned on to wash the whiskey away.

I will now describe a portion of my life of which I am not proud. But as I promised at the beginning of my life story, to tell it as it was, the good and the bad. We were living up on the Heidelberg road on this market gardening place. We had a cow, and my wife used to make "kuhch kays" cook cheese. I knew the owner of the Raisig Hotel, because it was here that I started my vulcan- izing business. I took some cook cheese in to him one day and he liked it and asked me to bring some in to his bootleg bar, as he wanted to serve it as free lunch to his customers. Bread and butter with cook cheese. I started to take some in every week, and it was not long until other Hotels found out about it and send word for me to bring them some. I started selling to the Queens Hotel where Charlie Bruder was the owner, and to the American Hotel where Charlie Schmaltz was the owner. These hotels were all bootlegging, and at that time I felt quite important, because as soon as the watchman saw me coming he would open the door for me and would announce "The cook cheese man is here".The customers at the bar would greet me, and they would buy me drinks. By the time I had delivered cook cheese to the three hotels I was pretty well loaded. A person was not considered drunk as long as he could navigate by himself, He was considered drunk when he could no longer walk by himself. If this was the definition of being drunk, then I guess I was not drunk, but I sure was loaded. My horse knew the way home as well as I did, and by the time I made the 6 miles home from Kitchener I was quite sobered up again.

Through all this period I was a member in good standing in the Old Order Mennonite church. The drinking of alcoholic beverages and using tobacco was permitted by the Old Order Mennonites In those days, but they preached moderation and frowned on being drunk.