Washingtonians

IT was Friday evening, April 3rd, 1840. Six men, tipplers all, were gathered about a table at Chase's Tavern on Liberty Street in Baltimore. To the casual passerby, there was nothing unusual about them; just another bunch of harmless drunks. From the way they talked, one might gather that they were old friends, that this was no casual meeting but one made familiar through long repetition. Among them were two blacksmiths, a tailor, a carpenter, a coach-maker and a silversmith. At least that's what they were when they sat down. But when they left the bar that night, they were pioneers in a new field; the originators of an idea for the scientific rehabilitation of chronic alcoholics that was destined to sweep the country.