From the April 14, 1933 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Beer is flowing freely, albeit not all dispensaries are in operation as yet, and the question of issuing licenses is somewhat up in the air in some of the towns.

But beer is here, the 3.2 per cent, non-intoxicating beverage, so defined by the powers of the land, and apparently there is a heavy percentage of local residents who find the beverage just as satisfactory as it used to be in the days of old.

Up to Wednesday, three licenses had been issued in Oak Bluffs, but no beer arrived until afternoon of that day when the Island House opened its grill-room for the sale of ale in bottles, to be consumed on the premises. This was done under a thirty day permit issued to the hotel in order that the retailing of beer might be carried on as soon as a supply arrived. The permit will, of course, be made permanent at a later date, the limit being placed upon it pending arrival of copies of the newly-enacted law and instructions to the licensing board.

The selectmen of Tisbury, at a meeting, voted to grant thirty day permits to the Mansion House to dispense beer to be consumed on the premises, and to the Tashmoo Springs Water company, this to be a distributor’s license.

The Edgartown selectmen granted three licenses, one to George F. Hallowell for his Main street restaurant for beer to be sold for consumption on the premises, and one each to Frank J. Connors and Philip S. Pent for sale by the bottle in their grocery stores. The fact that Oak Bluffs was granting licenses made it certain that the Edgartown board would act as it did. It is believed that the selectmen considered it impossible to keep Edgartown dry with beer flowing only a few minutes away in Oak Bluffs.

No applications for licenses have been received so far either in West Tisbury or Gay Head, and none is expected.

In Chilmark three applications were received, although they were not acted upon. Benjamin C. Mayhew Jr., member of the board of selectmen, said that public opinion would be thoroughly sounded, and that the board would act in accordance with the desires of the townspeople.

Old timers, who cultivated their taste for beer in the olden days and whose tastes have been sharpened by the long years of enforced drought, say that the present brewing is too new to register one hundred per cent in flavor, but that, given the proper aging, it lacks nothing that the old time brews possessed.

The Island House in Oak Bluffs is using the ancient mahogany bar at which men of fame and fortune have quaffed for many generations. There is this difference. Since the law forbids patrons to stand at a bar and drink, seats similar to those in lunchrooms have been installed along the bar. This is not inconsistent with the purpose of the establishment, since lunches are served as well as liquid refreshments, and the customer may have his choice of sitting at the bar or at a table, where he may enjoy the same menu as is served in the hotel dining room.

Did you know that the only known location of a colonial whipping-post and pillory on the Vineyard is in the village of West Tisbury? It stood on the triangle formed by the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, and the Scotchman’s Bridge Road, nearly opposite Gifford’s store.

The Vineyard once owned a vigilant society which took the law into its own hands when occasion demanded?

On Middle Road, an ancient tree still stands to which, it is said, a man was tied and whipped before being tarred, feathered and set adrift in a boat without sail or oars? Another old tree near North Road is said to have been the scene of a triple hanging.

One of the first so-called “wet sinks” was installed in the town of Chilmark, and that the waste-pipe which carried off the water, made from a hollow log, was used until a few years ago?

Certain sections of the ocean bottom between the Vineyard and Nantucket are thickly covered with large cedar stumps, indicating a connection of the islands by land at some time in the ancient past?

Christian missionaries, following the ancient custom in Europe, discouraged the use of the name of their most prominent deity by the Island Indians where it was applied as a place name? Thus Moshup’s Bed, Moshup’s Den, Moshup’s Foot-print, became Devil’s Bed, and so on, these pious souls classing Moshup with the evil one.

Many old Vineyard houses have walls that are packed between boarding and plaster with chopped hay and mud, and plaster mixed with sheep’s wool instead of the commonly used hair?

A deep, broad entrance to Lagoon Pond once flowed across the land now occupied by the office of the Dukes County Garage? And that the principle feature in blocking and filing this creek was the hulk of a vessel, filled with stone and sunk there?

Less than a century ago, there was but one pleasure vehicle in the county? A chaise, capable of carrying two persons.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com