The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-13
The GrOg Shops-NO. VII.

1 think we have the grog shops at present.
in decidedly bad way;-bad way for them L
mean. In one short week, they are pretty eff
fectually squelched But their keepers are by
no means extinguished; they are on the qua
uiue ready to take advantage of any possible
turn in the tide of public opinion, and are de-
vising cunning schemes, by which they think
they may possibly recover their lost ground.
The '1ow shops'-every body agrees, ought
to be ''extinguished'' and "smashed'l without
benefit of clergy; and SO they are smashed, ac-
cordingly, and there is none to pity But
the low rum-sellers shake their fingers signif-
cantly at those who think themselves grade
higher in the misunderstanding trade and say
eff we can't sell, you shan'tp' and so they Or
ganize their scouts and videttes who are ever
on the watch to "catch these chaps selling
grog" if they can!
One of these scouts was playing a very clever
game upon the apothecaries last week; he hail
ed from Cape Elizabeth and wanted pint OF
brandy for his daddy who was very, very sick;
he had an order for the brandy from the cele-
brated Dr. Bleedum who said his daddy
would die without the medicine" l haven't
any brandy, said one druggist "Well, have mt
you some gin? No. "Well haven't you some
whiskey?" Why this order says brandy for
sickness, and what do you want gin or whiskey
for? ''Why suppose any sort'H do; ones just
as good as another" Go to the City Agency and
get your brandy if you want any. mo, the
doctor said don't go to the Agency, IT you
can't get any at ali 1t saan neeadsT t the
while that this fellow was scout of the extin-
guished liquor-sellers
A gentleman about town who has been do
ing a wholesale business in beer by the barrel
sending it about in his wagon to the retail deal
ers, remarked in little meeting of the trade
held in a back door rum shop in Commercial
street, to consider "what next?"-that he
guessed the law wouldn't hurt him, for he
could send his beer around at night. No,
snarled squelched rumseller at him-"No,
Rufus don't you do it, if can't sell you shan't
and nobody shall you can't do it soft shan,t
know it, and I'll peach on yer myself; fair
play all rounds the word sayp'
These men imagine, perhaps shrewdly, that
if all the drinkers in town are compelled to
s'spit cotton wOoP' an hour every morning be-
fore breakfast, instead of having their "phlegm
cutters their EYE openers" and afterwards
their ''whets" at the instant before
first meal-that they shall be able to
muster force enough at the next election to
upset the present order of things, SO that they
can have rumselling winked at again. But
they have not considered that these fellows will
be done splitting cotton WOO, long before the next
election and will find themselves all the better;
and that they 1.-THE squelched iquor-sellers)must
find some honest employment before that time,
or go to the wOrkhOuse.
A manager of large factory here told me
that one of his men, skilled workman, earn
ing good wages, and working for him several
years, had never, in all that time, come to his
work on Monday, until the last Monday, the
8th, when the new order of things had been in
operation only one week. Often he wouldn't
come until Tuesday, and sometimes not until
Wednesday; losing on an average, nearly or
quite one third of his time. But last Monday
morning, bright and early, he came cheerfully
to his place in the Works-why? because Sher-
if Perry has squelched the rum shops where he
had been in the habit of spending his money
and his health and strength. No doubt, this
is only one case of hundreds. An overseer of
the poor observed that already there is a mark
ed improvement in that department of the pub
lie service, and if it continues, thousands of
dollars every year will be saved to the tax-pay-
| n