The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-02-19

uiout anu astOnlbumbuL. 1n6 IAltn, Tue DO0Or
OF the government, that every Senator should
hold higher aud above all else, demand of Us
that we pause 10 this kind Of legislation.
The Beer snd Cider Committee Of the
Legislature.
To the Editor Of TIE Daily Press:
The shameful document put forth by this
committee under Ruise of R. port to the Leg
islsture, ought not to be permitted TO pass
without indignant rebuke. The performance
can only rise 10 the point Of exciting indiena-
tion from the circumstances that it comes out to
the world under the sanction of the Maine
House Of Representatives.
The Report ends with the recommendation
that "cider, native wine, porter, lager beer and
other malt liquors TO bs allowed free sale In
Maine. With no figures of speech, with no
shade of exaeaeration, with an exact conform
ity to truth, the bill might be entitled "An act
TO promote poverty, pauperism, wretchedness
and crime. To brutify and degrade the people;
to make homes now happy miserable and
wretched; to fill our aims houses and jsils with
miserable wretches who bat or this bill would
be useful and respectable members Of the CON-
munity; to stimulate robbery, incenAiarism and
murder and to excite men to all manner Of
violence and outrage" All this is exactly true
of this bill, and Darius 81. IDgrahsm, Gorham
L. Boynton, B. Fspell and Arthur Moore
havo ared put their names to it, say dared"
because assume tina, they claim to be intslli-
gent men and that hey pretend to desire the
peace, good order and welfare Of society. I
know nothing of them; nothing to the contrary.
only stigmstlzs this report as a disgrace to
the Legislature under whose authority it Is
printed.
1t is only just and fair to say that these four
men are only minority Of o com mittee which
was packed in the interests of rumsellers, bat
the majority even Of this committee would not
put themselves on record as favoripg such an
actrocious proposition, which is, In short, to 70
back to the old time when liquor selling aod
ibtemperance were q terrible curse to this
State.
These four men dare to affirm over their own
names that liquor selling aud liquor drinking
in Maine are as great as ever. can fnd no
decent terms In which to express my sense Of
this shameful falsehood. It is bad enough that
this should be said by the blear-eyed, carbon.
cled, staggering customers of the Center street
whiskey dealers, but to be affirmed In . report
to the Legislature indicates degree of ignor.
ance of the facts an indifference to the plain
est truths that are not creditsble to the men
signing the paper, nor to the constituents who
sent them to Augusta.
Every intelligent man who knows anything
Of what the State was, and. what it Is nov,
knows that this committee have deliberately
affirmed thing which Is not true. Mr.. Charles
Farley, who hs1 Wine Factory in Harrison
told me this: "a canal bostmsn raining from
Portland up Sebago Lake and Long Lake said
SIN the year before the Malne Law 1 carried
three hundred barrels Of rum up into those
lakes; the year after the law l did not carry
one :" told this story last autumn at great
meeting at Bridgton, on Long Lake, and after
the meeting was over. man stopped me ct the
door and said: 81 was also Q boatman on the
Canal and made one trip to and from Portland
every week, and I never broughs into the
county on each trip less than from ten TO thirty
barrels and from from five to ten puncheons Of
run. But after the Maine Law did NOT trans
port any"
"How many boats were there on the Canalf"
"rhere were Twelve besides mine"
"H.vs sou any reason to sappose that you
carried more liquor than any other one of those
boats?"
mo, was only common carrier. I took
whatever was brought to my boat, as ell the
others did,
Aud now there is no liquor whatever taksa
nto that region, except it may be on Ne sly
and 10 small usntities. One Of our nsst re-
Sd ectable citizens, who was ut ons tine mem
ber of great wholesale grocery hrm, tolo ne
th is:
81 was looking over some old boohs Q few
days ago aud was surprised to find tAss more
than two-thirds of all our sales 70 ssesHy
traders were in liquors Of various sortA. fhsse
ing out like q fan as they made distance ffoa
Portland, and all their track through tAs
country was as distinctly marked ~ the ooaru
of fire through q forest. And nov no liuoon
90 there, and the whole face of the coaasry =
wonderfully changed tor the bettsr."
At great meeting at Fryeburg yssr 80
heard gentleman from Ray mond say thS in
q speech he made: "When Va wess talhina
up public opinion against the liquor u.As -
had weekly meetings 10 Raymond A. Que Of
th-se meetings l said that she peoplo Of ths
town were consuming liquors to the aaoant Of
the tire valuation Of tne place in every pssi-
cd of tweoty years. This excIced great aerri.
ment 10 the meeting, rs an absurd ssatemsst
bat [ said-very well, that ia my opinisn; Aa
in position 20 ascertain almost exsosly whsa
the real amount s, aud will tell yeu st The
next meeting. At the next meeiiAg | seid:
here are the facts and figures, aud there u Nc
mistake about them, aud they show tA.t - -
p1ur,ng down our throats the entire vaaasea
of all our real aud personal estate 10 every Pc
riod of eighteen years, light mouths aud tves-
ty five days; and there was NO more l.sshiss
az apy state nent Of thss CHASTITY faos. Aad
now there is no liquor whatever broasss ists
the town, except on the sly and for prvas ass,
aud the whole town is wonderfully iasxsvs1
10 all its interests
TIE sane stories may truthfully BE- ssA Of
every part Of the Ssste and yet those fear mes,
The pitifui minority OF packed ran oss uis
ter, d are to say that there Is as ma LIQUOR
sold aud druUk IN Maine as ever theto was
have uften heard 1t said that dummy tslking
10 he interest OF rum will lie The legs Oh sa
iron pot.
Ia Portland We we many secret, low, dirty
Irish rum dens; bar beiors the Law We bsd Q
great many open rum shops. wholesale Aod re-
tail; now not one ALI no sod down OonSr~
street from Safe street to NE niif were NOR
or less rum sh IDS; down Gfeep street 70 ne
br,dye. down Middle street; down Exchange
and Uuion stree s; all along Fore street almost
everv shup was a RUN deo, and the street ass
swarmioe with oruuken sailors aud f-hermep;
dovu Gay cove, IN 81 We La and "cin Pot"
what places they we're, to b. surrl aud yet
these four men dare to say over their nsmss,
that there is as much liquor sold and drank in
Mann now as before the law.
-hould not have thought the Report worthy
moments notice but for the fact that the
Boston and New York rum papers will gladly
spread it before the public as "a Legislative"
del verauce onthe Maine Law; aud u may 20
to England where its false hoods cannot De- east.
ly exposed, and thus bs an obstacle 10 the war
OF the grand effort goiEg on there to abolish
the system Of Incense and substitute fcsit tbs
law oi prohibition. NEAL Dow.