If you have never tried castor oil, be thankful. The stuff is beyond gross, and in 1922, Rome decided to force people exhibiting public drunkenness drink the stuff.
Fascisti Enforce Prohibition By The Lavish Use Of Castor Oil
Old Soaks Are Dosed and Drunkenness Is Banished
Thieves When Found Are Cudgeled in the Street
Rome, Dec. 22. — Drunkenness and crime have been banished by the Fascisti from Alessandria, in Northern Italy. Castor oil and the cudgel vigorously applied have wrought the changes.
As a first step the Fascisti set out to stop drunkenness. They did it in a couple of nights. Bands of stalwart Fascisti armed with the stoutest of sticks paraded the streets, and every person found even moderately under the influence of liquor was seized, very stifle dosed with castor oil and warned that the next time they would be very thoroughly cudgeled.
Then the Fascisti ordered that a supply of castor oil had to be kept in every establishment where drink was sold. It was to be prominently displayed as a warning that every excess would be quickly followed by a long pull of that nauseous liquid. Every half hour patrols of Fascisti would visit cafes, wineshops and restaurants to see if any one needed their attention.
On the third day it was reported that during the twenty-four hours no castor oil had been administered and there has not been a single case of drunkenness in Alessandria.
The Black Shirts then opened the second stage of their campaign, the abolition of crime of all sorts. A thieves’ congress was called and a sternly worded warning was issued.
The gathering was bluntly informed that the sternest possible measures were going to be taken to bring back to the straight and narrow path of rectitude all those who had left it. There was not going to be another chance for anybody. Nothing so mildly persuasive as castor oil would be resorted to.
The next day the campaign was opened. There was a day and a night when the cudgel was applied with good will throughout the town.
Finally all persons with police court records reported themselves as reformed. They were housed in a sort of prison dormitory and then, as work could be found, they received employment of an honest nature.
[Source: The Evening World (New York City, NY newspaper). December 22, 1922.]
