In the short story, The Griffin and the Minor Canon, by Frank Stockton, the word rum is used:
“When they found that he [the Griffin] had not come to spread rum, but simply to see his stony likeness on the church…”
I might have thought that spreading rum was the distribution of the tipple on a British ship, and therefore something to be looked forward to. But it seems to mean causing trouble or destruction. Does it come from the former horrible triangle of commerce involving humans, sugar and rum? That’s just an off-the-wall guess. (The sun is not yet over the yardarm in these parts and I’m already thinking of booze, although it is Friday)