Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: There are four words that no person wants to hear.
Speaker 1: They strike fear in the hearts of caffeine atticts and
Speaker 1: morning commuters everywhere. Those words We're out of coffee. To some,
Speaker 1: it's a fate worse than death. Whether you drink it
Speaker 1: black or loaded with cream and sugar. Many of us
Speaker 1: can't get through our day without our morning brew. And
Speaker 1: if that describes you, I need you to know that
Speaker 1: I am in the same club as you. Coffee is
Speaker 1: an industry raking in tens of billions of dollars all
Speaker 1: over the world each year, from global chains to independent roasters.
Speaker 1: Our lattes and machiato's are serious business. But America's love
Speaker 1: of coffee isn't new. We've been drinking it since before
Speaker 1: we were even a country. Yet during the American Revolutionary War,
Speaker 1: the colonies faced major food shortages. The farms that cultivated
Speaker 1: the livestock and crops that people consumed were left to
Speaker 1: the wives while their husbands went off to fight, and
Speaker 1: that meant that women were just responsible for taking care
Speaker 1: of the children and the home, but also the cows,
Speaker 1: the pigs, the corn, and so much more, all by themselves.
Speaker 1: International trade had come to a standstill as well, since
Speaker 1: the war had blocked all imports coming from the West Indies.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like families got to keep everything they
Speaker 1: grew either. Both sides, British and Colonial, were notorious for
Speaker 1: requisitioning supplies for their own armies, and that included what
Speaker 1: local farms produced. And you know how things go when
Speaker 1: the supply is low and the demand is high. Basic
Speaker 1: economics and greed kick in. Pretty soon merchants did one
Speaker 1: of two things. They either hoarded goods for themselves, or
Speaker 1: they started jacking up prices on basic necessities like sugar, flour,
Speaker 1: and you guessed it, coffee. With people already at their
Speaker 1: wits end, farmers and other local residents began taking measures
Speaker 1: into their own hands, leading to an outbreak of activism
Speaker 1: within the colonies, and they voiced their displeasure in a
Speaker 1: few different ways. Sometimes they boycotted goods that had been
Speaker 1: heavily taxed. For example, imported cloth from Britain was issued
Speaker 1: in favor of cheaper, homespun alternatives. Other Times they sought
Speaker 1: retribution through more violent means. Then, because so many men
Speaker 1: were enlisted in General Washington's army, this charge against greedy
Speaker 1: salesmen was led by women. Perhaps the best known incident
Speaker 1: occurred in July of seventeen seventy seven. A Boston merchant
Speaker 1: by the name of Thomas Boylston had gotten an idea.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the smartest idea given the current socio political climate,
Speaker 1: but it certainly was an idea. He decided to price
Speaker 1: gouge his loyal customers on the coffee that they drank
Speaker 1: each day. While the women who frequented his shop didn't
Speaker 1: take kindly to such an egregious abuse of his position,
Speaker 1: they kindly asked that he lowered the price back down
Speaker 1: to a more reasonable amount. Boilston, though, wouldn't budge, and
Speaker 1: the women of Boston wouldn't either. It wasn't like they
Speaker 1: could go grow their own coffee beans in protest, so
Speaker 1: they showed up on July twenty fourth, for a negotiation
Speaker 1: of sorts. As Abigail Adams wrote in a letter to
Speaker 1: her husband John at the time, a number of females,
Speaker 1: some say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a
Speaker 1: cart and trucks, marched down to the warehouse and demanded
Speaker 1: the keys, which he refused to deliver. What transpired was
Speaker 1: a short, yet powerful battle for dignity, decency, and dark roast.
Speaker 1: One woman grabbed Boylston by the neck and launched him
Speaker 1: into the cart. They all surrounded him, and with no
Speaker 1: one there to help protect him, he handed over the
Speaker 1: keys and then tip the carts and ejected him onto
Speaker 1: the floor before opening up the warehouse and loading up
Speaker 1: their trucks with as much java as they could carry.
Speaker 1: What's more, Boylston wasn't alone when all of this happened.
Speaker 1: There were several other men in attendants who stood on
Speaker 1: the sidelines and watched it all go down. Perhaps they
Speaker 1: didn't want to get involved in a matter that didn't
Speaker 1: concern them, or maybe they feared what the women would
Speaker 1: do to them if they tried to get involved. Whatever
Speaker 1: the case, the Boston Coffee Party proved two important things. First,
Speaker 1: protesters don't have to throw a beverage into the ocean
Speaker 1: to make a splash. And secondly, never get between someone
Speaker 1: and their coffee. If there's one thing we know about people,
Speaker 1: it's that no matter how hard you try to stop them,
Speaker 1: they will always find a way to get a hold
Speaker 1: of alcohol. Prohibition was the result of religious groups and
Speaker 1: legislators coming together to put an end to certain societal
Speaker 1: ills such as domestic violence and drunkenness. And what did
Speaker 1: they blame for all that alcohol? Once enacted, Prohibition shut
Speaker 1: down the production and sale of hootch in the United
Speaker 1: States during the nineteen twenties and early thirties, which led
Speaker 1: to a massive black market booze industry. But that wasn't
Speaker 1: the first time a country tried to outlaw alcohol. Back
Speaker 1: in Ireland, during the mid eighteen hundreds, another type of
Speaker 1: prohibition was getting off the ground, and the Irish people
Speaker 1: weren't totally into it. It started, just as the American
Speaker 1: movement had, with a religious organization in Ireland. It was
Speaker 1: led by a Catholic priest named Father Theobald Matthew. Father
Speaker 1: Matthew had created a group called the Total Abstinence Society,
Speaker 1: and once people joined, they took a pledge that they
Speaker 1: would not consume a single drop of alcohol. Ever. Again,
Speaker 1: Father Matthew was surprisingly successful too. The Irish people seemed
Speaker 1: to want to make a change. At its peak, almost
Speaker 1: half the adult population had sworn off booze for the
Speaker 1: rest of their lives after taking his pledge. But even
Speaker 1: though they had promised to keep alcohol out of their lives,
Speaker 1: some individuals couldn't stay away completely. They wanted a way
Speaker 1: to relax after a hard day at work without the
Speaker 1: guilt of violating their oath, so they sought other means
Speaker 1: of getting drunk, ones that were non alcoholic, and that's
Speaker 1: where doctor Kelly from Draperstown County came in. Kelly had
Speaker 1: found a loophole. He couldn't consume whiskey or other spirits,
Speaker 1: but he could drink ether. Ether had been discovered in
Speaker 1: twelve seventy five by Raymundus Luias, a Franciscan monk and chemist.
Speaker 1: Then in fifteen forty a German scientist by the name
Speaker 1: of Valerius Cordus began synthesizing it in a lab, creating
Speaker 1: what he called sweet vitrol. In eighteen forty two, an
Speaker 1: American doctor put ether to work as a general anesthetic
Speaker 1: during surgery, but doctor Kelly had found a new and
Speaker 1: specific use for it now in Ireland, to get drunk
Speaker 1: while still remaining faithful to Father Matthew's pledge. You see,
Speaker 1: he figured out that ether could be consumed as both
Speaker 1: a liquid and a gas, and so in eighteen forty
Speaker 1: five he started drinking it in small doses to get
Speaker 1: the buzz that he'd been so sorely missing. Then he
Speaker 1: got his friends and patients in on it. Thanks to
Speaker 1: doctor Kelly's ingenious life hack, ether became the drink of
Speaker 1: choice for adults all over Ireland, even the clergy. One
Speaker 1: priest remarked that it was a liquor on which a
Speaker 1: man could get drunk with a clean conscience. Ether was
Speaker 1: sold everywhere, including a grocery stores, and its widespread use
Speaker 1: quickly led to widespread abuse. Seventeen thousand gallons of ether
Speaker 1: were being consumed each year by as many as one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand Irish citizens. Even children as young as ten
Speaker 1: were found intoxicated from it, with the fumes clearly noticeable
Speaker 1: on their breath. And Ether also worked its way across
Speaker 1: Europe and even here Stateside. The French enjoyed it with
Speaker 1: their cognac while Americans drank it down in their whiskey.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it was watered down or spiced with cinnamon and clothes.
Speaker 1: It was even poured into people's mourning coffee. Although ether
Speaker 1: was only popular because of its potency, not its taste,
Speaker 1: it was a means to an end, capable full of
Speaker 1: some dangerous side effects. For example, some people who passed
Speaker 1: gas after consuming ether would find that their emissions carried
Speaker 1: a certain smell with them. Their chemical like odor was
Speaker 1: a dead giveaway that these were ether vapors. Flammable ether vapors.
Speaker 1: A careless drunk might sometimes light up a smoke or
Speaker 1: let one rip near a fireplace and suddenly be engulfed
Speaker 1: in a plume of fire, or at the very least
Speaker 1: suffer a burned posterior. Ether was consumed in Ireland until
Speaker 1: the law finally got involved toward the end of the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. As of eighteen ninety, the British government deemed
Speaker 1: it a poison and sales of the substance were restricted
Speaker 1: to chemists and pharmacists. But for a long time Ireland
Speaker 1: was an ethereal wonderland where a person could have stained
Speaker 1: from alcohol yet enjoy its effects without guilt. As long
Speaker 1: as they minded where the wind blew. I hope you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Describe
Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.