Wines & Spirits: Dry to the Last Drop

WINES & SPIRITS

A visitor would never know it, but Mississippi is the only state in the Union not to have repealed Prohibition. Until this week, that is. Only after Governor Paul Johnson warned that he would en force the law and "dry up this state like the Sahara" (TIME, Feb. 11) did Mis sissippi's bourbon-liking voters agree to legalize drink — following 58 futile years of Prohibition. This week at long last, liquor became legal in Mississippi.

It was about time. In a nation that still supports a substantial bootlegging industry, nowhere was the law more openly derided and easily flouted than in Mississippi. In Vicksburg, menus listed mixed drinks, and bars and package stores operated undisguised and advertised their wares in strident neon. Indeed, the state itself was an active partner in the illegal operation, imposing a 9% black-market tax on the outlawed liquor.

Red Ball. Mississippi was not alone in its violation of hypocritical and antiquated laws. Most other states still persist in keeping confusing statutes. Kansas' Governor William H. Avery likes a dash of bourbon once in a while, but, since Kansas law forbids drinking on state property, Avery must leave the Governor's mansion whenever he wants to take a sip.

South Carolina liquor stores close at sundown (hence the red ball on their windows), and newspapers there print front-page boxes listing the daily witching hour. In North Carolina, as in most states, individual towns and counties vote themselves dry or wet, so it is not surprising to find a place like Forsyth County, which is dry except for its biggest city, Winston-Salem, which is wet. Some North Carolina cities sell beer and wine only, others hard liquor only, and others all three—but nowhere in that state are individual drinks served at a bar. Legally, that is. North Carolina, like most of the South, is a land of ubiquitous "clubs" and brown paper bags. Drinkers buy a bottle at a store, then take it into the club in a paper bag. The law does not seem to notice as long as bag and bottle are kept under the table (public display of liquor is forbidden).

Other states are not so fussy. Supermarkets in many states sell liquor; so do drugstores in others and even some newsstands in Nevada. Although the Georgia legislature decided in 1964 that individual cities could legalize mixed drinks, many have not bothered to do so. Savannah and Albany have always served mixed drinks openly—and illegally. The state doesn't mind; it collects taxes from the sales anyway. Georgia package stores are forbidden to sell more than two quarts of booze per person, but storekeepers seem to forget what customers look like if they step outside the door for a few seconds.