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Charles Demuth at 23 Fifth Avenue and Alwyn Court (cont) “At parties, liquor was never in the same abundance as
food. But, so ascendant was the rule of propriety, this precaution
against the hazard of overindulgence was hardly necessary. One
had come to enjoy himself in delightful company – a little
removed from rough reality, but so what? . . . Although there is evidence that some alcohol was served – rum and champagne sometimes were included in the hand-written menus for dinner parties – the Stettheimers themselves did not drink during Prohibition. It was their patriotic duty, they felt, to refuse to deal with bootleggers. It would have been necessary, therefore, for bibbers like Avery Hopwood and Carl Van Vechten and Charles Demuth to fortify themselves in advance for an evening at the Stettheimers’. Both Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works by Carl Van Vechten (Knopf, 1922) and Florine Stettheimer: A Life in Art by Parker Tyler (Farrar Straus, 1963) offer further accounts of periods of time during which Demuth was socially active in New York –BK.
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