Antler is a small village in southeastern Saskatchewan, near the Manitoba border. At one time it was a thriving community, especially during the days of the bootleggers in the early and mid 1930's. There were three such merchants in the village at the time and even though this was in the depression, they all did a thriving business. If one wanted liquor legally in those days, you had to send by letter to Weyburn and this took three or four days. It was much more convenient to "shop" locally.
One of these establishments was also noted for its poker playing games - especially on Saturday nights - gaming and booze seeming to go together. I might add that these vendors of the "juice" sold only good government liquor. I think that is probably how they got away with it for so long. Two of the dwellings containing these activities still stand, though now vacant. I recall that beer in these places cost a dollar for three bottles; wine was about a dollar a bottle or 3 bucks for a gallon. My dad had the local pool hall and barber shop and so we were around the pool room a lot - many times some guy playing pool would give me a dollar to slip over to one of the bootleggers and get 3 bottles. I also recall that one of the brands was "White Seal".
The bootleggers would sell to almost anyone and selling to kids eventually brought about their downfall. Saturday nights, kids would come from surrounding towns, get tanked up and fights would break out. Under one street light a fight would be going on whilst down the street under another, a group would be singing and preaching the gospel. You could take your choice as to which entertainment you wanted.
Though these booze businesses managed to carry on for several years, there were so many complaints to the police that eventually they had to act. Two men came to town one day. One, off the noon train, was supposedly in the business of selling patented stove pipes. On the evening train from Winnipeg, another stranger arrived and he was supposed to be peddling a patented axe handle. They stayed at the local hostelry and in a day or so they became friendly with some of the local drinking crowd - and got to the bootleggers.
A week or so after "Lame Louie" and "Frenchie" left - the police presented the evidence. As well, on one of those Saturday nights, one of the merchants had run out of booze, so a local resident who had some homemade beer came to the rescue. As a result, he too was caught.
They had a trial in the local schoolhouse and that was a big event. Three or four Mounties were there in their scarlet tunics. The judge found each of the accused guilty and they got two months each in Regina jail. They wouldn't part with lucre to pay fines in those hard times.
After this first event the merchants were put on the indicted list, which meant that if liquor was found on their premises they were automatically charged. This didn't deter them as they came back from their sentences and kept right on going.
The third time they were caught was rather exciting. It was after supper one evening and a few of us were standing in front of the café, shooting the breeze. Suddenly, down at the end of the street three shiny cars swept into town. One went to each of the bootleggers, a uniformed Mountie and a plain clothesman sitting in each car. The one car came right up to where we were and they jumped out and went to the house next door to the café, where one of the merchants resided. But he had moved, so they asked us where this fellow now lived. We told them and they duly caught him as well as the others. These two policemen did look perplexed when they found their target empty - the uniformed man having run to the door, the other to the window.
This finished the bootlegging era in our little town and it's never been on the map for excitement since. As some would say: "Those were the days."
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