The Portland daily press., 1872-07-13
FUN UUN EhNUh,
SIDNEY PERHAM.
The Maine Democracy and Prohibition

1t was but yesterday that every issue of
the Tribune told how there was ''sympa-
thetic cord' connecting the Democracy with
every grog-shop and brothel in the land, how
every drunkard and rum-seller was a Demo-
crat, and how almost every member of the
Conservative party worshipped at the shrine
ofSt. Gambrinus. All these statements were
much too strong, but the Tribune never sac
rificed strength to precision. 1t would have
been much more accurate to say that far the
greater number OF consumers Of alcohol and
almost all the opponents ofreformatory stat
utes are Democrats. We had begun to
think that even this guarded statement was
too strong, " hen plaintive Mr.. Rawson offer
ed resolution at the Democratic State Con-
vention, expressing disgust at prohibit
ton and especially at that part of
the code which places certain restric-
lions on the sale of cider, and had it reject
ed Alas poor Rawson! He must have felt
as bewildered and dazed as Nasty did on his
return to the CROSSROADS, when he saw
negro's beaming face at the post Office deliv-
cry. What! Had the Pillsburys and Hub
bards brought it about that an honest Demo-
crat, already deprived of the sweet luxury
of ''damning the Niger" could not,
as a party man, damn the Ram
rod" either? We had begun to hope
that the Rawsons were brought face to face
with just this condition of affairs, and that the
prohibitory millennium had fairly set in. But
in this we are disappointed. The Democrat
cjournals are at work as busily as ever max
ing party capital out of prohibition. The
sympathetic cord'' that Mr.. Greeley spoke
OF is not quite broken, and if his supporters
in Maine should carry the State election in
September, their very first act would be to
sweep away every vestige of the prohibitory
code and with it the astonishing results of the
reformation that has carried its blessings in
to almost every home in the State. Having
refused, however, to take the usual distinct
position of avowed hostility to prohibition in
their party platform, they cannot well in
dulge in direct denunciation of the obnoxious
law. They accordingly plant themselves on the
alleged fact that the farmers are fiuriously op-
posed to the tyrannical provisions of ''the cider
law" One would think from the statements
of Democratic papers, that the agricultural
population of Maine were on the point of talk
ing up arms, and would shortly march on Au-
gusta in a body, as resolute as their patriotic
sires at Concord, where ss-ei %
the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world
One would suppose, too, that every farmer
in Maine is absolutely certain to vote in No
vember for the great prohibitonist, Horace
Greeley, whose abandonment of this as well
as his other principles, has given him the
support of the grog-shops and brothels that
formerly resounded with curses at the men
ton of his name.
Now we have taken some pains to ascer-
tain what is the real state of feeling among
the farmers of this State, and we find that
there is not the slightest foundation for the
reported detection among them. In the first
place the farmers of Maine constitute the
backbone of the prohibitory party and always
have. They are in favor of the liquor law
any tcdy, whether it hurts the cider market
or not. In the second place, the present law
oOohio especially uCoiSHcu W uelp Cne CIDER
market. He must be strangely constituted
person who complains of it as an injury to
that branch of industry. Why, it is the ci-
der-makers haryest-time! There never before
in the history of the State was time when
sales We're so ready, and when prices were so
high. The diminished consumption of stron-
ger liquors has increased the demand for cider
immensely. The manufacturer of this bev-
erage may sell absolutely without restriction.
and the consequence is that the farmers |
yards are thronged with eager buyers, who
willingly give almost any price that is de-
manded for the coveted apple,juice. You
cannot ride mile along a country road with
out meeting one or two red-faced supporters
of the Chappaquan teetotaler with casks or
barrels of cider which they have bought of
some manufacturer at fabulous prices. Pope
Joan and Prester John are not purer myths
han the suppositious farmer who is going
to vote for Kimball and Greeley because of