The Portland daily press., 1866-12-29
The ApOtIiecaries.

- The ApOthecaries.
40 THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS:
4 1t is gratifying to the friends of Temperance
| to see our city authorities enforcing the law
against liquor sellers. Although it is not done
| in the most efficient way, and fails to secure
fully the desired result, the law is being vindi-
| Gated, to some extent.
But there ia one class of men who are violat-
ing it every day, openly, without any interior
ence or restraint. OF the thirty apothecaries,
more or less, probably every one sells intoxi-
| eating liquors as freely as if he was the regu-
lar agent for that purpose Every one who
has had occasion to purchase other medicines,
must have noticed that liquors are sold, gem
orally without inquiry, and to every one who
calls for them. And yet no one OF them has
been indicted, prosecuted, or subjected to
search and seizure. Why is this?
1t is but fair to say that the friends of tenn
perance themselves are not free from fault in
going to the City Agency, or for some other
reason, many Temperance men, and even
members of our churches, have been in the
habit of going to the apothecary'st to buy liquors
for medicinal purposes, thus encouraging them
| in their illegal trade. And this has been, and
still is, so common, that we can hardly blame
the City Marshal for looking the other way
when he passes by such places Let us do our
DUTY in this respect, and then the police ofi-
GERS will do theirs
The apothecary has no more right to sell
| LIQUORS than the grocer, or than any other per-
son. The object to be secured by the law is to
| restrict the sale to the regular agent, who has
no interest in the profits, and is liable to be re-
moved for negligence OF misconduct such
an agent has no motive whatever to sell for
| improper purposes; and thus there Is double
safeguard for his carefulness. But the apoth-
ecaries are interested to sell all they can,-as
much so as the keeper OF the hotel, or the
restaurant. 1t is for this reason that the law
prohibits them all alike. How long, then, will
Temperance men give them an excuse for SELL
ing?
In some respects the apothecary shop is most
dangerous. Men purchase liquors there who
would be ashamed to buy elsewhere. And
they are kept open on the Sabbath when other
places are closed, not only for the sale OF medl-
cines, but of other things. Having occasion
not long since to obtain some medicines one
Sabbath evening, went to one of the best
shops in the city, and found nearly a dozen
young men inside. Though they were not
temperance men, I do not know that they had
been drinking But as most of them had CT
gars which the apothecaries all sell, the place
had the appearance and odor OF a bar-room
quite as much as it had of a well-appointed
medicine store If the keeper of one such
store may sell intoxicating liquors, then all
may; and the whole design of the law will
thus be frustrated. If the law is good, then it
should be enforced against all, without discrim-
ination or favoritism. Amy other mode of en-
forcing it must necessarily prove failure.
The low groggeries, where confirmed drunk
ards dissolve their bodies in poisonous adulter-
ations, is not half so dangerous to the commu-
nifty as the glittering saloon, OF the brilliant
apothecary store, where young men buy their
nice wines, or sip their cool soda, favored with
some unnamabls preparation OF alcohol If
the law is to be enforced at all, let it be en-
forced against all alike; and thus we shall
prove our CoNsrsTENcy6