based on my reading of early san francisco newspapers and california 
temperance periodicals, i agree wholeheartedly with jon.  in fact, 
police disinterest in such things led to well-known attempts by private 
vice societies to enforce selective prohibitions on alcohol purchases 
and the violation of prescription laws. anyway, jack london's 
recollection that his first taste for beer came from the buckets he 
brought home for his parents rings true for me.

jim baumohl

Jon Miller wrote:
> My reading of nineteenth-century American literature and periodicals has 
> taught me two things. If there was a law, it could be widely ignored. 
> America was not much of a police state, especially before the Civil War, 
> and the decision to serve minors or not serve minors would be something 
> that the tavernkeeper would often make under no or some or great 
> scrutiny from his immediate community (and constituency and/or customer 
> base).
> 
> It also appears to me that children were often sent to fetch alcoholic 
> drinks for their parents. A child who makes regular runs to a bar-room 
> or pharmacy to purchase something for his parents would have no trouble 
> purchasing the same for his own use. There's no doubt, for me, that some 
> lazy parents would resist the enforcement of a minimum purchase age on 
> this count alone: it would mean that they would have to go get their own 
> buckets of beer or quarts of Lydia Pinkham.
> 
> Jon Miller