The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-11-28

There are some facts about liquor-selling and
liquor-drinking in Portland that are not only
curious but for the most part unknown to the
general public Even local pride is not SO
strong as to invest Portlanders with enough
assurance to claim that their city is at all in
clined to be Puritarical, or that its people are
peculiarly ,,bstemious. Yet some facts show
that the birth place of the Maine law is not al :
together unworthy of that enviabe distinct on.
1t is not now the Mecca to which teetotalers
make their pilgrimages, or the Jerusalem to-
ward which they turn their faces when in the
act of devotion, but it comes nearer to answer
ing the requirements of a metropolitan city of
Temperance than most people suppose.
Az this point skeptical people will point tri-
umphantly to thepolice court reports publish
ed in the daily papers and ask how abstinence
happens to bring SO many people before that
tribunal on search and seizure process or a
charge of drunkenness. The reply is that the
large number of arrests is due chiefly to
"oUTsIDE BARBARIANs.'
For instance, an examination of the records
at the police station shows that out of twenty
persons arrested for intoxication only t,oo on
an average are Americaus,and of these two one
lives out of town and has come to the city to
enjoy himself. 81 that only five per cent. of
intoxicated persons are native Americans. Of
dealers in liquor the same large proportion are
aliens The impre ssion that Portland is espec-
ally to be Stunned as a place in state of moral
ruin is mistaken one. On the contrary the
men who are native citizens are believed to be
quite remarkable for their sober and quiet
walk and conversation. Comparisons may be
invidious, but other cities more pretentiously
virtuous are said to suffer in their reputation
when judged by our standard.
But notwithstanding the relatively high
standard of morality in Portland, especially
among its native citizens, it is deplorable fact
that there is still too much use of stimulants-'
1t is not to be inferred, however, that the city
authorities have not done their duty. There
are many reasons why their efforts are not per-
fectly successful. In the first place it is in the
nature of things impossible that legal restric-
tons should entirely stop the traffic. Among
the reasons for failure to approximate nearer
to success is
THE LEGACY OF THE PAST.
Last year under Democratic administration
tsco hundred grogshops were opened in addition
to those already doing business! During the
entire year only twenty seizures were made
This nefarious branch of industry therefore re-
ceived an impetus that could not be instantly
checked. Every second shanty became rum
shop and the business fourished in the genial
sunshine of official favor.
THEN AMP NOW. t.4 -r+
1t will surprise radical temperance men who
think that the present city government is do
ing nothing toward enforcing the liquor law
to learn that lthere were never before so many
seizures made in the same length of time. In
stead OF twenty, as last year, or sixty nine, as
under the constabulary law, there have al
ready been over one hundred liquor seizures by
the present Republican authorities! LARGE
proportion of the more disreputable dealers
have suffered their first prosecution and paid
their fine of fifty dollars and costs. The second
series of prosecutions, inficting Imprisonment
as the penalty on such as are subject to it, has
already begun. Most of the offenders when ar
raigned for the second offence enter an appeal
and in this way defer the inevitable sentence
for some time. Hence the notion that the
dreaded second prosecution is not resorted to,
and that the relatively innocuops first prosecu-
ton is merely for effect and not really to put
an end to the business. The liquor dealers
themselves, however, know better, and many of
those who have already been once before the
court and see their doom impending have
stopped selling Some twenty or thirty of the |
WORST places have been permanently closed |
Ii the authorities are permitted to go on in this
way without committing any extravagances. |
the number of these pestleptial holes will he |
sensbly diminished.
FINES AND COSTS
Though the incidental advantage resulting
from the fines imposed upon liquor-sellers is
not one to be regarded with unmixed gratifca-