Drinking, Life, and Money: ccording to one New Yorker. In the aftermath of World War I, many Americans were tired of making sacrifices; they wanted to enjoy life. did not consider drinking a sin but a natural Most immigrant groups part of socializing, and they resented government meddling. Ironically, prohibition’s fate ailed to budget enough men and money to entorce the law. The olstead Act established a Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Depart- ent in 1919, but the agency was underfunded. The job of enforcement involved patrolling 18,700 miles of coastline as well as inland borders, tracking down illegal stills (equipment for distilling liquor), monitoring highways for truckloads of illegal alcohol, and overseeing all the industries that legally used alcohol to be sure none was siphoned off for illegal purposes. The task fell to just 1,550 poorly paid federal and local police–clearly an impossible job. sealed by the government, which was agents SPEAKEASIES AND BOOTLEGGERS Drinkers went underground, flocking to hidden saloons and nightclubs known as speakeasies (so called because when inside, one spoke qui- etly-“easily”-to avoid detection), where liquor was sold illegally. Speakeasies could be found everywhere-in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, rooming houses, tenements, hardware stores, and tearooms. To be admitted to a speakeasy, had to use a password, such as “Joe sent me present a special card. Inside, one would hnd a mix of fashionable middle-class and upper-middle-class men or one and women. A young woman demonstrates one of the means used to conceal alcohol-hiding it in containers strapped to one’s legs. Joe selling illegal alcohol