The Portland daily press., 1878-07-10
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY TO.
BridgtOn Again.

From my article on Bfidgton in the PRESS of
Tue Sd inst, omitted some matters which [
could not introduce without making it too
long, and ask the favor of the editor to be
allowed to supply them now.
remember Bridgton well, and all that re-
Rion OF country in the old time when the farms
were badly cultivated; when the houses and
other farm buildings were badly kept; when
every thing about them had an air of d.
iapidaton; when the people were poor,
doing nothing more than living from hand
TO mouth. That was in the old rum
lime, when the people used to waste the
products of their industry at the country gro
Gerry chiefly for rum, running up a long ac-
count with the "trader' which was secured
after time By mortgage on the farm; and
this was by and by foreclosed. In this way,
hearly or quite three fourths of the farms fell
into the hands of the traders, who became rich
while the farmers became poor.
Not long ago, a prominent citizen of Port
land who used to keep a great wholesale gro
Gerry establishment in the old time, told me that
Two thirds of all his sales to the Country trad
RS" was rum, which was taken by OK teams
and by the canal all up through the region of
which L have been speaking, and that its
course though the couatry was as distinctly
marked as that of fire through the woods,
blighting and destroying everything in its way
NOW, no rum goes there and the people save
the money which they would otherwise waste
Whitewater; they are now industrious, prudent
and thrifty, and the result of this great change
is seen every where in farms, houses, barns
and roads mir In Ior
better scaooi houses and in greatly improved
modes of living.
lshave been at many public meetings of the
people In all that region, in the old time SO 1
know the country well, and I know it now, and
can mark the wonderful improvement in every
public and private interest. L was recently
at great public meeting at Bridgtou, and re.
lated there story told me by our late honored
fellow citizen, Charles Farley, who at one time
had wire factory at Harrison, five miles from
Bridgton. A canal boatman, whom he ngmed,
told him that the year before the Maine Law,
he carried three hundred barrels of rum from
Portland up the canal into the country depend.
ing upon the canal for supplies, but the wear
after the Law, he did not carry even one barrel
there. After the meeting was over a Bridg-
ton man present told me this: He also ran a
boat on the canal, making always, regularly,
one TIP week. He never made trip with
out taking from Portland, from three to six
puncheons, and from ten to thirty barrels of
rum, and carrying them to the several points of
Landing upon the upper waters of the Canal,
while ne carried none there after the Law.
In answer to my questions he said: There were
eleven other boats besides his running regu.
larry on the Canal, and he had no reason to
suppose that his transported more liquor than
any one of the Others all of which were COM
mon carriers Now, no liquors whatever are
transported in that region, and the improve
ment is quite wonderful to behold, to any one
who knew the condition of things IN the old
time, and can compare with the present.
AT public meeting held at Fryeburg gen.
.eAan from Raymond said that in the old
time, the people of that town consumed in
strong drink its entire valuation in every period
OF eighteen years eight months and twenty
nve days. He was SO situated as to be able to
state positively the quantity of liquor brought
into town, though some might be brought by
private conveyance, of which he knew moth
ing. l was startled at this declaration. as it
seemed to be a frightful, CHASTITY fact but upon
the whole, the same thing might probably be
said truthiully OF every other town liz the State
dt is stated officially, that the annual drink
bill OF the United States is 81, O00, OOO That of
the United Kingdom with six millions fewer
people is stated by official figures to be $780,
OOO00 Now this sum, 00,0000 900 with an
nuai compound interest at six per cent, will
amount in twenty years to more than twenty
five thousand millions of dollars, while the to-
tai valuation of the country its property of every
Kind was but little more than thirty thousand
millions of dollars in 1870. The entire quantity
OF liquors struggled into this state and sold in
violation of law, L think, is not more than half
a million of dollars in cost, though Gov. Ding
ley thinks it safe TO state the amount at one
million, as the extreme figure, while our share
of the national drink bill would be about thir-
teen millions of dollars 1t is not too much to
say that for every dollar spent in strong drink
another dollar is wasted and lost in many ways
At the Brewers Convention recently held at
Brooklyn, N. Y, it was stated that the sale of
lager beer alone, in the city os New York was
thirty-three millions of dollars last year. Who
can wonder that the people are suffering for
want of employment and want of food? There
would be enough for all and to spare if none
were recklessly wasted ND.