Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-01-26
For the Journal.
PROX1BITOR Y LEGISLA TON VINE
AND CIDER.

As the matter of restoring to the law for the
suppression of drinking houses and tipping
shops"-the section upon cider and wine, as
it was in the original law, is before the Com
nittee upon that subject. and will probably
come before the Legislatures few facts up
on the subject may not be unimportant.
Many think that wine and cider are COM
paratively harmless drinks, and do but very
little mischief. This is great error. Wine
and cider are intoxicating even in their pure
state. They contain quite per cent. of al
cohol, and of course are intoxicating. They
create, wherever habitually used, an appetite
for stronger drinks. They are the more dan
gerous, because the more insidious.
Dr. A. A. Hayes, the State Assayer OF
Massachusetts, was furnished, few years
since, with four specimens of the Fighter
drinks, as they are termed, with a request
that he would analyze them, to ascertain the
actual amount of alcohol each contained.
The following is condensed extract from
his report:
Porter contains 4.l0 per cent. Of absolute
alcohol, or Is 80 per cent of proof spirit
xxx ale contains $40 per cent. of abso-
lutte alcohol, or 16 4-l0 per cent. of proof
spirit.
Beer contains c LILO per cent. of alcohol.
or IL 40 per cent. of proof spirit.
Cider contains 9 ITO per cent. of absolute
alcohol, or Is $40 per cent. of proof spirit
of the strength of whiskey or rum.
These beverages" he says, shave not been
found sophisticated; they appear to represent
fairly the quality of such articles as are sold
at the more respectable drinking and eating
houses in this city (Boston), and do not con-
tain poisonous drugs or metallic salts
Ale, porter and beer are included among
the intoxicating liquors prohibited by the law
why should there be an exception in favor OF
wine and cider5 According to the above re-
port, these contain larger per cent of al
cohol than those drinks, the sale OF
which is prohibited. Moreover, the excep-
ton of wine and cider is virtual recognition
of their harmless saess, as is license Of their
sale-thereby destroying the very principle
upon which the law is based. If it is right to
sell alcohol as beverage in one form, it is
in another, and therefore this principle of
prohibition is all wrong.
DIR. Hayes further says, "Native wines,
properly fermented, contain from nine to
eleven per cent of alcohol; those met with
in commerce contain from fifteen to nineteen
per cent, a large part of which is added to
increase the volume of spirit"
The cider and wine shops are doing i'm
mense mischlef IN our State. Large quantl-
ties Of reputed wine are sold, represented as
being manufactured from ''fruit grown in the
State" Why, as things are, our State is one
of the greatest wine manufacturing States in
the Union. 1t is almost equal to California.
AS the law now is, il is a very easy matter
for these shops to sell stronger drink under
the name OF wine and cider, and they are not
slow to avail themselves of this opportunity.
1t is hoped that the present Legislature will
view this subject in a proper light, and pro-
tect our young people from this great tempta-
ton to intemperance. The other amend
ments asked for are equally reasonable, and
the people of the State have right to expect
that the Legislature will enact them. The
recommendation of the Governor, making the
sheritfs a special police to execute the laws OF
| the State, has its merits, and have no doub,
the Legislature will make a law in accordance
! with that recomme ndatiOH. $50