Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1919 — FUNERAL MARCH WILL BE PLAYED AT MIDNIGHT. [ARTICLE]

FUNERAL MARCH WILL BE PLAYED AT MIDNIGHT.

New York, June 2(L—The at Madison Square Garden on the night of June 30, when prohibition .goes into effect at midnight, to celebrate the last hours of John Barleycorn. Promoters of this festival of the grape promise that more liquor will be consumed in the-last few hours before the dry spell than was consumed at all the notorious Bacchanalian revelries in ancient days. The passing of “booze” will be invested with all the ritual fitting the occasion. The garden will be draped with black crepe and at 12 o’clock, when the laws of the land declare the gay fluid taboo, the band will play Chopin’s “Funeral March.” Fifteen thousand persons are expected to participate. The equipment for the festival, according to the promoters, will consist of: Two hundred bartenders, 500 kegs of beer, 24,000 bottles of beer, 2,000 bottles of wine, mostly champagne; 5,000 quarts of whisky, 30,000 glasses and soft drinks. There will be individual and team drinking contests. At 11:30 p. m., a warning will be sounded that the country goes dry in thirty minutes and that the drinkers better fill up. Two officers in the aviation corps of the army leased the garden for this festival and let out concessions to liquor interests. Only a proclamation by President Wilson, setting aside wartime prohibition, as unessential, will upset the festival.