The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-05-21

DO you ever expect to exterminate the
grog shops thoroughly said a man to me
a day or two ago. ''Yes, feel verv confident
that it win be done. There is no difference of
opinion among the people upon the point,
that the liquor traffic is a tremendous mis-
chief in the community. Whether the
drink is sold in gildea saloons and grand ho-
tells, or in low Irish doggeries, it is the same,
an infinite evil, with the difference only, that
the genteel places are by far the most mis-
chievous, because it is in them, that respecta
Bile and temperate young people are taught
the first steps in the drunkards dance of
death. .....
1t is only this week, that the papers bring
to us the intelligence that gra ldson of one
of Americas greatest statesmen was picked
up in Boston streets drunk and put into q
cell, which in an access of drunken phrensy,
he set on fire and was so dreadfnlly burned,
that he is now lying at the point of death.
There is no State so large as to contain the
figures that can express the sum in gold, Of
the evils, the losses and mischiefs of the liquor
traffic. Everybody knows and admits this to
be true, and am confident that the people
win by and by demand some law that shall
effectually crush it,
''Whatp' said my interlocutor, "do you
look for any law more stringent than that
you now have?" eve look for a law, and
in due time, mean to have it, that shall ef-
fectualy do the work it is intended for. Just
look there-"some workmen were sinking
cellar"-when those men commenced work
upon that job, they used only shovels; the
earth was light and easily penetrated; by and
by they came to hard, compact gravel, aud
they took picks to aid the shovel; then they
came to the solid ledge, and you see they en-
ploy drills and gunpowder. They mean to
have cellar,-it is not to be had with shov-
els and picks only, other instrumentalities are
to be resorted to, and so we see the work goes
on;-slowly and surely, they are working
down into the solid rock, and by and by,
with patience and perseverance, the cellar
will be finished"
"Apd what further pains and penalties do
you suppose will be required to put the grog
shops do,cn % / cannot answer precisely.
That must be left to the rumsellers to answer.
We want them to stop their dreadful trade
If fine of five dollars or five cents will in
duce them to quit, it will be all we wish; we
only want them to quit. If five dollars, fifty
dollars, one hundred dollars, will not do it,
then we must consider what will.'' ST do
not think you go to work in the right way:
you should have a law to punish drunkenness
more severely; this is what you ought to do,
have law for putting ball and chain to a
crunkard's leg and make him work in chain
gang on the streets six months, every time he
is drunk, and that will cure the evil.''
mo, you are quite mistaken, that wouldn't
cure the evil, because the poor drunkard COM
mits the offense under the influence of a
temptation so tremendous that he feels it to
be impossible to resist it he would drink If he
knew the inevitable penalty to be hanging,
and that escape would be impossible. But
no man can commit this dreadful sin, shame
and crime of drunkenness without the coop
Grafton of the rumseler, whose temptation Is
very small and pitiful compared with that Of
his victim; the rumseller commits his share
of this great crime for twenty-five cents prof
t;-he can be restrained but the drunkard
cannot be, by law" ....t...
Now, how can you stop these unprincipled
men from selling? because they hope to es-
cape detection, and they don't mind fine."
why, / think to borrow your idea of the
ball and chain to the leg would do it. They
do not seem to fear fine much, because they
can soon make it up in the profits; but ball
and chain to the leg-not Of the poor drunk
ard, as you advise, whom the adversary, in
the shape of a rumseller, has in his remorse-
less grip, but Of the grog-shop keeper. l am
confident that one rumseller, working our
streets with ball and chain to his leg, would
cure perfectly the whole evil. We do not
mean to resort to that, nor wish it, unless the
rumsellers insist upon it; if they declare that
nothing but the ball and chain will make
them quit their dreadful business-why we
must yield, though reluctantly, to their de-
mand. r. -e.- N. d.