Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-01-14
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while we seek, through our schools to create
Q large intelligence amongst our people, to
make life and property more secure, a hun
dred rumsellers, more or less, are taxing us
an equal sum to sustain them in business
that corrupts the young, and 10 large extent
counteracts the influence both of our schools
aud our churches. We must insist and de-
mand that our jury boxes be filled with the
names of men of pure life and high intelli-
gence. We must rise in our might, If need
be. and hurl from power all in authority, no
matter what party name they bear, who do
not who will not stand between us and this
terrible scourge." He complains also that
he has s'been robbed Of more than $1,000
during the past fifteen years, and of $50 with
in the past six months. and his taxes double
what they would be were II not for rum"
Is &C. H." full-grown man, with ordinary
mental perceptions. with an average brain IN
normal condition? Is he endowed with rea-
soning powers and good common sense. or is
he child without even an ordinary childs
intellectual powers! Or, what is by far the
more pitiable, is he so blinded by passion and
prejudice, by his unreasoning monomania,
that he sees only with distorted vision, refuses
TO recognize truth, preferring error!
1t is really lamcntable to see a man. occu-
pving a responsible public office, who is so
willfully blind, so intensely bigoted that he is
utterly incapable of seeing the plainest truths
and facts. Such talk as this, of which he
seems to have monopoly just now. is mere
twaddle, empty buster. 1t is worse it is not
true, has not an element of truth in 1t. sc.
H." paws, doubt not the same rate of taxa
ton that his neighbors pay, both city, county
and State, no more, no less. lie receives
precisely the same protection from the law
that accrues to every citizen, taxpayer and
non-tax-payer alike.
have no parade to make of tax bills, l
don't intend to attempt to excite sympathy for
nv side of the argument by any cheap talk
about being robbed by the tax collector If
&c. H." has paid an average annual tax of
800 for the last fifteen wears, il can only be
because he has accumulated handsome com
potency. and he has no right to complain that
he is taxed in proportion TO his means. by
what process of mathematical calculation he
proves to his own satisfaction that his taxes
in this city are double what they would be but
for rum. passes my comprehension. In my
innocent simplicity had been led to believe
that the amount of taxation on account of
public schools, Sprague purchase, war loans.
streets, salaries, &C., with which rum can
have no possible connection whatever was
at least 90 per cent. of the entire levy. aside
from State and county taxes.
III spIt VI tut iirIt VI Y. II iuSiu
statement, must still adhere to that belief
The police expenditures of Augusta during
the last ten years have averaged small for a
city Of our population, and in view of the fact
that ours is a central point to which gravitate
large number of those who are homeless,
out of work and who seek aid and charity.
A word further in relation to his interpre-
tation of the statute. II he be correct, it be-
hooves our pharmacists TO sell no more tinct-
ure of Rhubarb, Essence of Peppermint, or
Spirits of Camphor for l am told they con-
tain 90 per cent. of alcohol, and the statute
which declares ''that no person shall sell any
intoxicating liquors, no not one drop" and
under which the sale of cream beer containing
2 34-l00 per cent of alcohol must be punished
by the dictum of &C. H. by fines and i'm
prisonment, would by the same ruling put
every druggist in the city in Kennebec Jail
within week. This is the legitimate conclu-
sion, the inevitable result of his law and logic.
Now, Mr.. Editor, one more matter, and l
leave the subject. &C. H." after his sorry and
impotent attempts to infiame the public mind
against our city government, our courts, our
juries, and in fact against everybody who
dares 10 differ with him in opinion, has been
called upon, repeatedly, to furnish the name
of single person who sells Intoxicating liq-
uor, or designate a single place where it is
unlawfully kept, with the promise, in return,
that upon doing a search shall be
made within thirty minutes thereafter, and he
has uniformly declined to do so. Oh, no, it
is not his province, it is not incumbent upon
this immaculate model of American citizen
ship, 1t is unbecoming in gentleman Of his
cloth, of his exalted position, his ETHEREAL ma
ture, to descend to any such means to extir-
pate this gigantic "crime of crimes" He
aos lei, l.
does not hesitate to smirch the character of
his fellow citizens. He cannot indicate any
person or place, where or by whom liquor is
unlawfully kept or sold, but he can stab men
in the dark. He cannot stoop to find and
point out guilty parties, but he can fulfil to
rare perfection the Office of n ''rogaD,on
scoid." He cannot leave his public duties
long enough to give information to the Chief
Of Police, Mayor, Municipal Judge or other
city officer, even under the assurance that
such information shall be Immediately and
faithfully followed up, but he can find time
TO hurl denunciations and threats and abuse
and invectives at q jury who tail to find ver-
dict in accordance with his notions, can pro-
claim to the community that the jurors are
an ignorant, stupid, disreputable, set of men
who have mo idea Of the real issue in liq-
uor case"
He filings out mass Of statements which
he labels statistics, TO prove that. rum is
the cause of enormous taxes among us, even
though he fails to explain why, under our
new Maine Prohibitory Law, framed with all
ingenuity of experts in the business, rum, in
Maine, where only 81 .o00, 900 worth of it is
used annually, should impose on our people
q tax nearly, or quite, double the average
rate in Mass. where a License Law prevails,
and some other States where rum is free as
water. yield neither to &c. H." nor to anv
other, in my detestation of rum, in my total
abstinence principles, but do believe in fair
play, in at least show Of justice.
And now, sir, in closing this communica-
ton let me say, the opinion of &c. H." to the
contrary notwithstanding, l affirm distinctly
and unequivocally, that the jury in attendance
1t the recent term Of the Superior Court in
this city was composed Of men of as pure
life and high intelligence" of as sound iudR-
ment, as sturdy common sense, as strict i'm
Partially, sterling integrity and as good rep
utation, as ever sat in q jury box in Kenne-
bee County, and hurl back the foul libel.
the base insinuations, the malicious ISLANDERS
contained by implication in the remarks of
&C. H." II he we're man, and not coward.
if he were . gentleman and not black
guard, he would say in open, manly language
what he dares now only hint and intimate