formed in Hopedale in 1878“; it is not known if this was connected 
     
     directly with the club, but is is probable that many club members were 
     
     connected with it. Whether or not members sincerely supported the 
     
     movement was irrelevant; they were part of a society still ruled by the 
     
     province’s elite and these men, at least in public, respected club policy 
     
     and the prohibition crusade. 
     
    

    
     The fever to quench the liquor craze, to ban the bottle, was 
     
     widespread on the Island but never unanimously supported by Islanders. 
     
     There were, throughout the temperance era, always some who rejected 
     
     the cause and continued to drink, in secrecy and in public. There might 
     
     not have been evidence of indecorous behavior at the 1876 games, but the 
     
     praise that had been lavished on the guests that year was not offered the 
     
     year after. A number of people in attendance at the 1877 games were seen 
     
     in varying states of inebriation. The newspapers and public brought 
     
     their wrath down upon not only the offenders but the Caledonian Club 
     
     as well. The previous year’s organ of praise, the Patriot, became this 
     
     year’s hand of judgment. It accused the club of permitting liquor at the 
     
     event (a refutable point) and expressed its disapproval of such lack of 
     
     proper controls. But this paper was an affirmed advocate of prohibition, 
     
     in its words, “A Semi-Weekly Journal Devoted to Local Interests, 
     
     Temperance, Agriculture, and News.” 
     
    

    
     Another leading newspaper, the Daily Examiner, may have been 
     
     less zealously supportive of the anti-liquor league; it may not have 
     
     wished to castigate openly the club to which it normally gave favourable 
     
     publicity. A letter to the newspaper’s editor was, however, probably 
     
     more injurious to the club’s respectability than the remarks by the 
     
     Patriot. The letter asked for clarification of the situation: 
     
    
   
   
    
     To the Editor of the Daily Examiner 
     
    
   
   
    
     SIR — Will you kindly inform me whether, at the Caledonia 
     
     Gathering, intoxicating drinks were sold on or near the 
     
     grounds; if so, whether the persons selling had a licence to sell 
     
    
   
   
    
     there, and by whom such licences were issued? 
     
     ENQUIRER 
     
    
   
   
    
     The editor’s response was as vaguely suggestive of the club’s guilt 
     
     as the letter itself: 
     
    
   
   
    
     Refreshments were, we are informed, sold on the grounds by 
     
     the proprietor of the “North Star” Drinking Saloon. A good 
     
     many persons were drunk; but we are unable to inform our 
     
    
   
   
    
     53