Did the Social Drinker Emperor Norton Close Out as a Teetotaler?
A Reported Signature on a Total Abstinence Pledge Raises the Question
THE ANECDOTAL consensus is that Emperor Norton was temperate in his consumption of alcoholic beverages — but not a teetotaler. It seems that the Emperor abstained from liquor — but that, at the free-lunch taverns, he had no problem accepting a complimentary glass (or two) of beer or wine from admirers.
Indeed, in July 1874, the Emperor issued a Proclamation that called for abstaining from "ardent spirits, as a beverage, except only for medical purposes" — but, he was careful to make clear that this prohibition "shall not be so construed as to interfere with the use of malt liquors for the working man, and 'wine for the stomach's sake.'"
In the medicinal wine category, one can imagine that the English Emperor might have harbored a fondness for sherry or port.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton on the manufacture, import and sale of “ardent spirits,” Pacific Appeal, 25 July 1874, p.1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Several weeks earlier, the Emperor had left a Proclamation at the office of the Oakland Daily News that stated his case more succinctly:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton drawing a distinction between liquor versus wine and beer, Oakland Daily News, 3 June 1874, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
It’s possible that these Proclamations reflected the influence of one or more of the freethinking, reform-minded clubs and societies whose meetings Emperor Norton attended regularly during this period. Often, one of the reforms on the agenda of these groups was temperance.
One such society that counted Emperor Norton among its members was the Lyceum for Self-Culture. The Lyceum met in Dashaway Hall, at 139 Post Street between Kearny and Dupont.
As I noted, in my September 2018 article highlighting a Proclamation of the Emperor’s dated just 5 days after the “ardent spirits” decree — and published in a journal edited by leaders of the Lyceum:
The Hall was built by the Dashaway Society, a temperance organization established on 1 January 1859. In his History of California (1866), Franklin Tuthill explained how the Dashaways adopted their name:
A company of firemen ("Howard, No. 3"), sitting in their engine-house late at night, celebrating New Year after the custom of the country, fell to musing over their prospects, and were vouchsafed a vision of their probable fate. At last they agreed solemnly to discontinue the use of intoxicating liquor — "to dash away the cup."
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AS THE TEMPERANCE movement gathered steam the late 1870s, the push increasingly was for total abstinence — not just moderation.
So it was that, on 10 January 1879, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Emperor Norton had attended a temperance rally at Platt's Music Hall the evening of the 9th…
Platt’s Music Hall, northeast corner of Montgomery and Bush Streets, San Francisco, 1870s. Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere
…and that, at this rally, the Emperor had signed a total abstinence pledge:
Excerpt from article, “The Temperance Crusade: Another Large Meeting at Platt’s Hall Last Night,” San Francisco Chronicle, 10 January 1879, p. 3. Source: Newspapers.com
The Chronicle noted that “[e]very seat was filled and several hundreds stood during the two hours meeting.”
The paper went on to report: "Some well-known old topers were applauded as they affixed their signatures" — 'toper' being a word for drunkard — "and when that old veteran, Emperor Norton, came forward and affixed his distinguished autograph the applause was deafening."
Did Emperor Norton sign the pledge primarily to set a moral example?
Did he actually keep the pledge for the last 12 months of his life?
The truth is, drinking seems to have more a “treat” for the Emperor than part of his regimen.
So, in signing and keeping this abstinence pledge, Emperor Norton might not have had that far to go.
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