Bottles and Extras Winter 2006 7 PARALYSIS IN A BOTTLE (The “Jake Walk” Story)

by Cecil Munsey Copyright © 2005 Fig. 1

RECOLLECTIONS patent medicines. Prominent among Jamaica , with the empties “JAMAICA ,” an article by them would be a good supply of various always landing in the river, and I went Dewey Moss that appeared in Western brands of Jamaica Ginger. This product there expecting to see him fall in too. I Collector in 1967, was my first introduction was an amber color, colored perhaps don’t know what I would have done if to Jamaica Ginger and the bottles in which with burnt sugar or ginger itself. he had fallen—somehow he never did. it came. Moss was one of several pioneering Usually on the label would be the “One day I asked my dad why the old authors who devoted themselves to creating alcoholic content, which was always watchman had such a peculiar limp. literature for bottle collectors during the above 90% [75-90% would be more ‘Jake leg’ was his reply. first years of organized collecting. The accurate]. This was the beverage the ‘What’s Jake leg?,’ I asked. following is his short article based on weathered drinkers would buy very ‘Well, son, when a man drinks Jake recollections from his youth in the 1930s: cheaply and with no trouble. long enough he gets a sort of paralysis “In the town was a mill powered by a in one or both legs,’ he told me. [This “Years ago the counties here in Utah water wheel. After the shift would leave, is not exactly true. Jake had been used regulated the sale of liquor; some were one of the old guzzlers would take a seat for almost 100 years as a cheap source dry while an adjacent one was wet. above the water wheel as a watchman. of alcohol. Only Jake of the early 1930s Travel then was slow, but on special I found it very amusing to sit on a hill, that contained a toxic adulterant caused occasions ‘the boys’ would pool their which overlooked the mill as well as paralysis. It took seven to sixteen days money and send one of the gang by train the river and spy on the ‘watchman.’ for onset of symptoms, and many cases to a wet county for a supply of their After he was there just a short time he resulted in permanent neurological favorite brands of hard liquor. would take from a lunch box a bottle of damage]. “I was a small boy but I can remember Jamaica Ginger, extract the cork stopper “Still a little confused, I asked him the merry makers meeting the train with and drink the entire contents in one what Jake meant. ‘That’s short for a buckboard, their eager hands gulp. Even today I marvel at how he Jamaica Ginger. He drinks it every day outstretched to help the returning could do that without gasping for breath and one of these days he’ll die in one of member struggling with two heavy or dropping dead from lack of oxygen. his drunks on Jake.’ laded ‘please don’t rain’ suitcases Very soon he would be woozy, stagger “1 cannot recall whether dad’s (cardboard). Being a curious kid, I around and cut ‘figures.’ prediction came true. However, looking managed to get hold of some of the “I took my perch evening after evening back on those days and the people of bottles and read their brands. If the gang watching this character get falling- those days, I cannot help wanting a fair- was prosperous the brand was usually down-drunk on about four bottles of sized collection of Jakes (empty or full). ‘Yellowstone,’ but when they were short of funds the brand would invariably be Fig. 2 ‘Joe Folsom.’ “There were a few older gents in my town who were ‘alcoholics,’ these codgers having to have their drink daily. Although the county was dry and the sale of whiskey, wine or beer prohibited, it was perfectly legal to buy and sell a much stronger drink. The merchant who sold everything including wagons, rakes, harnesses and all hand tools dispensed this product. I can picture so vividly the cracker barrel, the pickle barrel, the cheese cutter, the tobacco cutter, the many bolts of cloth, along with the spools of thread and the many brightly colored ribbons. And, there were always the coils of hemp rope. “In one corner of the store were the 8 Winter 2006 Bottles and Extras

alcohol, the label had to say so. extractives (oils and resins) were increased 3 Jake was the alcoholic “essence” of to twice the previous level. At this Jamaica ginger, extracted from the concentration the tincture became pulverized root and closely resembled the extremely unpalatable unless diluted; and standard pharmaceutical preparation illicit preparations began to appear on the “Tincture of Ginger” described in the market to sidestep the restriction. Although Pharmacopoeia (U.S.P.). It labeled as conforming to official was one of several thousand dubious but specifications, these misbranded products generally harmless patent (proprietary) were actually adulterated, substituting medicines that Americans had been relying molasses, glycerin, castor oil, and other on for over a century. It was a pale orange- additives for much of the oleoresin of to-amber concoction usually packaged in a ginger, thus greatly reducing the strong small glass bottle, and promoted as a pungent taste. “They were not large bottles and were carminative, cure, a remedy to The economics of National Prohibition almost always aqua, and the names treat catarrh, flatulence, “late by 1930, eleven years after it started, homed embossed in the glass are interesting. menstruation” and other real or imagined in on the urban and small-town poor. Many makers of sarsaparilla, whiskey illnesses. Because it averaged 80% alcohol Affluent cityfolk could buy bonded liquor and also produced and (160 proof), a small bottle packed the kick from Canada; backwoods hillbillies often sold Jamaica Ginger. The earlier Jakes of four jiggers of whiskey. Priced at 25 to had access to stills, but low-income are crude, many with short tapering 35 cents, it was readily available in local townsfolk drank what they could get— collars. The old ‘F. Brown’s Ess of drugstores, groceries, and even dime stores; rubbing alcohol, hair tonic, doctored Jamaica Ginger’ with a pontil scar is and anyone, including preachers and antifreeze. These desparate people were very much desired. The tapered collar schoolmarms, could slip the little flat aqua referred to as “rummies,” “stewbums,” on these is so much more attractive than or clear glass bottle into a pocket for a “boozegobs,” “hooch histers,” or simply the newer square collared F. Brown’s. discreet nip at home or away. Common “drunks.” Some would take Three-in-One “Perhaps Jamaica Ginger did some “drunks,” however, might take a bottle into shoe polish and strain it through a powder good when properly used. In our house the store’s back room, which many Jake it was used as a toddy greatly reduced sellers kept as low-rent speakeasies, mix Fig. 5 with water and sweetened with sugar the Jake with Coca-Cola or some other for the relief of stomach cramps mixer and have their own furtive and colds, administered at night little party. before retiring and again in the Jamaica ginger bottles, easily morning. The more temperate recognized by shape, label, and 4 families used similar toddy but embossing were available in made from ground ginger root hundreds of different brands and and other spices with no are sought by today’s collectors. alcoholic content. Most are considered common and “Some seasoned drinkers often generally not expensive, but they used Jake for ‘sobering up’ [‘hair do represent an interesting period of the dog’]; how one could in American social and health ‘sober up’ on a 90% alcoholic history. A random photographic drink is beyond me, but that’s the selection of Jamaica ginger bottles way it goes. is shown throughout this article. “My collection—well, it’s The Volstead Act, also relatively small when you known as the National Prohibition consider the number of Jakes Act, went into effect February 1, available, but that means its 1920 to further define exactly always challenging and what was prohibited by the just rewarding to find a maverick.” ratified 18th Amendment. It turned every state dry, but banned only Jake beverage alcohol. Essence of The Pure Food and Drugs Act Jamaica Ginger and other of 1906 had in effect guaranteed alcoholic “medicines” originally neither pure food nor pure drugs. were exempt from the ban. By It required only honest labeling. 1925, however, in the face of If a patent medicine contained widespread use of Jake as an morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, intoxicating beverage, the alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, Treasury Department had ruled cannabis indica (marijuana), that it could be sold over the chloral hydrate, acetanilide, or counter only if the ginger root Bottles and Extras Winter 2006 9 muff , “. . .it would be just as clear as water,” Reconstruction Hospital in Oklahoma City. according to one writer. It was not The patient’s feet dangled like a One of the first newspaper stories about uncommon for foolhardy drinkers to filter marionette’s, so that walking involved the epidemic was headlined, “The Worst Sterno (“canned heat”) through bread to swinging them forward and slapping them Has Happened.” A one-paragraph story in separate-out most of the ingredients except onto the floor. Within a few days - in the the Topeka Daily Capitol exclaimed, alcohol. Songwriter wrote East, the South, and the Midwest - many “Emporia, the Athens of Kansas, has ‘Jake “Canned Heat ” in 1928 to other men began to exhibit the same rubber- leg.’ “ Newspapers across the country came commemorate that particular activity. What legged gait. Worcester, Massachusetts up with other nicknames for the ailment: many drinkers really preferred, however, reported fifty-five cases; five hundred cases “Jake walk,” “jakeitus,” “jakeralysis,” was “Jake.” practically overnight in Wichita; six “gingerfoot.” The mystery plague afflicted hundred and ninety were reported in Johnson City, Tennessee particularly hard. The Paralytic Epidemic Topeka; a thousand in Mississippi. William According to writer Dan Baum in The New In early 1930, a strange new paralytic G. Shepherd described the malady in Yorker: plague with symptoms similar to anterior Collier’s Weekly this way: “It was discovered that numerous poliomyelitis began to be reported in the “The victim of ‘Jake paralysis’ people had bought some Jake in Johnson American South and Midwest. Victims of practically loses control of his fingers. City at a roadside store run by a man the disease developed numbness and pain The feet of the paralyzed ones drop named Will Kite and his daughter. The in their legs, followed by muscle weakness, forward from the ankle so that the toes Kites denied that their Jamaica ginger and finally paralysis with foot drop. point downward. The victim has no extract had caused the illness. They Although fatalities were unusual, recovery control over the muscles that normally pointed out that the bottles were all was slow and many cases would result in point the toes upward. When he tries to labeled ‘United States Pharmacopoeia permanent neurological damage and long- walk his dangling feet touch the 70% alcohol.’ Because it was labeled term disability. It also caused impotence. pavement first at the toes, then his heels so and carried a governmental The name of the first person to come settle down jarringly. Toe first, heel certificate, it couldn’t be the cause of down with Jake Leg is lost to history. On next. That’s how he moves. ‘Tap-click, the illness, the Kites argued. They February 27, 1930, a man staggered into tap-click, tap-click, is how his footsteps backed up their beliefs by openly sound. The calves of his legs, after two consuming the Jake in the store. The or three weeks, begin to soften and hang Kites continued to operate the store for down; the muscles between thumbs and a time. This was accomplished with index fingers shrivel away...” Fig. 6

Fig. 7 Fig. 8 10 Winter 2006 Bottles and Extras

difficulty because they both had to crawl Ain’t got nothin’ now to lose Fig. 10 on hands and knees from the back Cause I’m a Jake walkin’ papa with the rooms of the store to the counter to wait Jake walk blues. on customers.” Listen here papa, can’t you see Once Jamaica ginger was established as You can’t drink Jake, and get along with the culprit, there was no escaping the me eventual accusation that victims had You‘re a Jake walkin’ papa with the Jake brought the affliction upon themselves. walk blues “God is handing out a redflag as a danger I’m a red hot mama that you can t afford sign to those who violate His law,” to lose. thundered Dr. C. K. Wingo, one of the two ministers of the Munsey Memorial Listen here daddy, while I tell you once Methodist Church in Johnson City during more the period 1928-32. If you‘re gonna drink Jake don‘t you knock The first person to record a connection at my door between Jamaica ginger and the paralysis Listen here mama have to call your hand that caused the foot-flopping gait may have I’m a Jake walkin‘ papa from Jake walk been Ishman Bracey, the black blues singer land. and songwriter who recorded “Jake Liquor Blues” in March 1930 at Grafton, I’m not good lookin’ and I’m not low down Wisconsin. None of the contemporary news I’m a Jake walkin papa just hangin’ around or medical accounts mentioned what Now I’ve made this song and it may not appears to have been the disease’s most rhyme embarrassing consequence; but Bracey But I’m a Jake walkin’ papa just havin’ a relates in his song, “It’s the doggonest good time. disease ever heard of since I been born. You get numb in front of your body, you My daddy was a gambler and a drunkard Appendix]. can‘t carry any lovin’ on.” Other references too by Bracey were to “limber leg” or “limber If he was living today he‘d have the Jake It is estimated that during 1930-1931, trouble,” both of which suggest that Jake walk too some thirty to forty thousand people were Leg often caused impotence. When I die you can have my hand affected, many ending up in poorhouses, Dr. John P. Morgan, a professor at the Gonna take a bottle of Jake to the promised county farms, veterans’ homes or similar City University of New York Medical land. places. School who called himself a “pharmaco- ethnomusicologist,” was a lover of early Now I’m feelin’ kinda drunk, brother “Who Dunit?” American vernacular music and collected Be a wearin’ Jake socks after awhile The Jake leg epidemic broke out just a number of songs about the Jake leg or the You know they call them iron socks* after the infamous stock market crash of Jake walk. A typical example is The Jake You know, l bet you don’t know one from 1929 and before full effects of the Great Walk Blues, written by brothers Austin and the other, brother, which is the other? Depression were really felt in America. In Lee Allen, recorded May 5, 1930 in those years government was small, Memphis. It is estimated that the original *braces regulations were skimpy, enforcement was release of the song sold over 20,000 [Other Jake-based songs are listed in the almost an afterthought, and product- copies.— Appendix The Jake Walk Blues Jake-Based Songs of the 1930s I can‘t eat, I can‘t talk Date Writer Song Been drinkin’ mean Jake, Lord, now can’t 1928 Lemuel Turner “Jake Bottle Blues” walk 1930 Allen Brothers “Jake Walk Blues” 1930 Ray Brothers “Jake Leg Wobble” - instrumental 9 1930 Byrd Moore “Jake Leg Blues” 1930 Ray Brothers “Got The Jake Leg Too” 1930 Narmour and Smith “Jake Leg Rag - instrumental 1930 Tommy Johnson “Alcohol and Jake Blues” 1930 Ishman Bracey “Jake Liquor Blues” 1930 Mississippi Sheiks “Jake Leg Blues” 1930 Daddy Stovepipe “Jake Leg Blues 1933 Asa Martin “Jake Walk Papa” 1934 Willie Lofton “Jake Leg Blues Bottles and Extras Winter 2006 11 liability was yet to be invented. The synthetic materials from becoming brittle, Agriculture Department’s small Food, Drug and commonly used in the manufacture of 12 and Insecticide Administration policed drug products such as lacquers, leather dopes, standards, but the idea that the federal and airplane finishes. Only two companies government should play a role in fighting made it: Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New Jake leg was hardly even discussed. There York and the Celluloid Corporation of were no Centers for Disease Control such Newark, New Jersey. as we have today; and as the affliction The Treasury Department had ordered spread across the land many theories were the doubling of bitter extractive solids in proposed to explain the cause. Most Essence of Jamaica Ginger to prevent centered on contamination of Jamaica people from getting any pleasure from ginger. drinking it as a beverage. Ignorant of the The National Institute of Health (newly toxicity of TOCP, vendors used it to boost created out of the Public Health Service’s the total solids in Jake in a criminal effort Hygienic Laboratory) was as poorly funded to foil the government’s assay. as the Agriculture Department. Its annual Dr. Maurice Smith traveled to consuming a cheap ‘medicinal’ liquor budget was less than a million dollars and Cincinnati and to Johnson City, Tennessee substitute that had been adulterated with it had only twelve PHS physicians on its to examine personally some of the victims an industrial plasticizing chemical for staff. One of the doctors was Senior of Jake poisoning. Jamaica Ginger extract purposes of evading scrutiny by Pharmacologist Maurice I. Smith, who in was sold in Cincinnati under at least eight Prohibition enforcers. But when the early 1930 decided that he needed to get different brands and in Johnson City under mysterious outbreak of paralysis his hands on a sample of poisoned Jake so at least four. Unfortunately for bottle occurred there was no reason initially it could be analyzed. collectors, history has not yet revealed a list to suspect that adulterated Jake had any It wasn’t an easy task. of the brands of adulterated Jake. Dr. Smith role.” As word of the epidemic spread, wrote in Public Health Reports: storekeepers, fearful of prosecution, “Only a chemist of some ability could The poisoned Jake samples obtained removed Jake from their shelves. More than have thought of [using TOCP] and had from privies and cesspits ultimately led once, like today’s bottle collectors, Smith there been anything known about the investigators to Harry Gross and Max had to recover bottles from cesspits and pharmacological action of this Reisman, two Boston brothers-in-law. Both outhouse privies. He found his first samples substance and the possible dire of these men had been involved in shady in Findlay, Ohio and sent them to consequences, it is probable that it businesses and known to law enforcement Washington where tests were performed by would never have been used and the for years. It was 1928 when Gross and Bureau of Industrial Alcohol chemists. disaster would never have happened.” Reisman rented the third and fourth floors They soon identified the neurotoxic of a building in Boston, renamed their adulterant as tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate Dr. John Morgan researched the business Hub Products and went into full- (TOCP)—a plasticizer formulated to keep problems of the Jamaica Ginger paralysis time production of Jamaica ginger extract. episode of the 1930s for They shipped the Jake around the country twenty-seven years and in big barrels, which they filled at night Fig. 11 made these comments in and labeled “liquid medicine in bulk.” After JAMA: some complaints from customers about the “Often these quality of their Jake, and reassurance from companies were not Celluloid Corporation that TOCP was traceable, and all sellers harmless, Hub Products bought a hundred involved had numerous and thirty-five gallons of it. That was names, mailing addresses, enough TOCP to adulterate 432,000 bottles and fronts. In more than of Jake and to paralyze tens of thousands one state, a grand jury of people. indicted one ‘S. A. Hall’ of Gross and Reisman were charged with Brooklyn as a conspirator conspiracy to violate both the Prohibition in the traffic of adulterated Act and the Pure Food and Drugs Act. The Jake. This was a mail-drop charge of “conspiracy” was important office used by a Brooklyn because it qualified the offense as a felony seller and was so named and could lead to imprisonment. The because it stood next door owners of Hub Products were in violation to a Salvation Army of Prohibition laws because their Jamaica installation.” ginger extract was intentionally altered so “Tens of thousands of that it could be consumed as a beverage mostly poor drinkers were rather than a medicine, a legal distinction afflicted with paralysis usually impossible to prove. Most (‘Jake leg’) after Prohibition-period Jake labels carried the 12 Winter 2006 Bottles and Extras warning: “This preparation must not be Smith, Maurice Isadore, and Elvove, E. Fig. 5: Embossed F. Brown’s Ess. Of used for beverage purposes under penalty et al. “Pharmacological and Chemical Jamaica Ginger, Philla. of law.” Hub’s product was also prosecuted Studies of the Cause of So-Called Ginger Fig. 6: Standard Extract of Jamaica Ginger, under the Food and Drugs Act because the Paralysis: A Preliminary Report,” Public J. Hungerford Smith Co., Manuf. Chemists, toxic Jake was adulterated and misbranded, Health Reports, Vol. 45, October, 1930: pp. Rochester, N.Y. but such violations were classed as 1703-17 16. Fig. 7: Aqua bottle with part of the label, misdemeanors and normally punishable Internet: H.H. Ricker & Co. only by fine. [email protected]: Perham, Bill. Fig. 8: Jamaica ginger was commonly The men eventually pleaded guilty, the Archivist of Munsey Memorial Methodist found in aqua bottles, such as this example. company was fined $1000, and each man Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. E-mail: This one is embossed C.M. JOHNSON’S sentenced to two years in prison; but “Looks like you have a choice of names for EXTRACT OF JAMAICA GINGER. sentences were suspended with two years the 1930-34 time frame. The ministers of Fig. 9: Record cover. Tunes include: Jake probation. They were convicted in April Munsey Memorial Methodist Church were: Walk Blues (Allen Bros.); Jake Leg Wobble, 1932. Later, Gross was charged with Dr. C. K. Wingo who was here from 1928— Got the Jake Leg Too (Ray Bros.); Jake Legs violation of his probation and ordered to 32, and Rev. W. F. Blackard from 1932 until Blues (Byrd Moore); Jake Leg Blues (Willie serve his two-year prison term. Reisman 1937.” Lofton); Jake Leg Rag, Limber Neck Rag never did time. http://www.caribbean7.com/articles/ (Narmoure & Smith); Jake Walk Papa (Asa As the 1930s progressed, pressure for jamaica/jamaica-article-5151.html “The Martin); Jake Liquor Blues (Ishman reform of food and drug legislation Public Health Service and Jamaica Ginger Bracey); Jake Bottle Blues (Lemuel increased. By 1937 such tragedies as the paralysis in the 1930s. Turner); Jake Leg Blues (Mississippi one involving Jamaica Ginger created http://www.herbalgram.org/iherb/ Sheiks); and Jake Leg Blues, Jake Walk enough public outrage to cause passage of herbalgram/articleview.asp?a=957&p=Y” Blues (Maynard Britton). the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. “The JAMAICA GINGER Paralysis Fig. 10: Tradecard advertising Dow’s This law prohibited the marketing of new Episode of the 1930s.” Jamaica Ginger Cordial, “for colds, cramps, drugs in interstate commerce until http://www.ibiblio.org/moonshine/ Malaria, &cc.” N.Y office at 42 Hudson St.. manufacturers provided the FDA with drink/jake.html “The Jake Walk Effect.” H. Scripture, Manager. The caption of the satisfactory evidence of their safety. front reads, “Johnny, you get the ball, I’ll Photos: stay here!” References Fig. 11: “Two Jakes.” One, McMillan & Amy, Henry V. Principles of . Fig. 1: Embossed N.K. Brown’s Aromatic Kesters Ess. of Jamaica Ginger, S.F., the Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1926. Essence Jamaica Ginger, Milwaukee, Wis. other, Mertan, Moffitt & Co., S.F. Baum, Dan. “Annals of Epidemiology: Fig. 2: 1937 postcard showing Jamaican Fig. 12: Early wooden dovetail box with Jake Leg: How the blues diagnose a medical women “scraping” ginger. paper label advertising Thurber’s Jamaica mystery,” The New Yorker, Sept. 15, 2003: Fig. 3: Clipping from Johnson City Ginger. p. 50. (Tennessee) Staff News. Fig. 13: Embossed R. Brown’s Ess. Of Jackson, Charles 0. Food and Drug Fig. 4: Dr. Lynas’ Unexcelled Essence Jamaica Ginger bottle. Legislation in the New Deal. Princeton, NJ: Jamaica Ginger with its original label. Princeton University Press, 1970. Jean [anonymous]. “Experiences as a Bootlegger,” The New Yorker, September Cecil Munsey 1926. 13541 Willow Run Road Kidd, John G. and Langworthy, Orthello Poway, CA 92064-1733 R. “Jake Paralysis: Paralysis Following the (858) 487-7036 Ingestion of Jamaica Ginger Extract [email protected] Adulterated with Tri-Ortho-Cresyl Phosphate,” Bulletin ofJohns Hopkins Hospital, Vol. 52 (1933): pp. 39-60. Morgan, John P. “The Jamaica Ginger Paralysis,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 248 (October 15, 1982): pp. 1864-1867. Moss, Dewey. “Jamaica Gingers,” Western Collector magazine, Vol. V, No. 5: pp. 37-39, May 1967. Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide to COLLECTING BOTTLES. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1970. Shepherd, William G. “Description of Jake Victim. Collier ‘s Weekly, July 26, Fig. 13 1930.