The Republican journal., 1881-12-08
Drunkenness-A Growing EVIL.

We will call no names and make no charges; we
merely repeat that there 10 fewer than %
places on Main street between Crockett Block and
| the Gen. Berry engine house, where liquor is sold
! contrary to law Roekiand Courier
We quote from the Courier to show that Waldo
| boro IS not SO bad, after all There are not more
than twenty such places in Waldoboro. Lincoln
County News
According to the statement Of timid temper
| ance man who is afraid to have his name mention
ed, there are four rum shops i'll Richmond Bee
From Portland, Bangor Biddeford,
Augusta and other places come similar
reports. Liquor is more or less openly
sold in nearly every town in the State,
and our exchanges show, as natural re
suit, that drunkenness is alarm:ngly on
the increase. This city is no exception.
cases OF drunkenness and of offences due
to the use of liquor, but the arrests by no
means include all the offenders. The
Rev. Mr.. Ross in his sermon at the North
Church on Sunday morning last, called
attention to the disgraceful scenes which
had been witnessed upon our streets for
some weeks past. Saturday nights have
been saturnaias of drunkenness Our
prohibitory laws are certainly stringent
enough, but what is the good of laws that
are not enforced, and which, Judging from
the present status Of affairs, are not like
ly to be enforced? We have been able
heretofore, if not to completely eradicate
the sale and use of liquor, at least to con-
fine it within narrow limits. 1t is a grow
| ing evil, and one that should not be al
lowed to spread as it is doing now, in
| bold defiance of law. The drunkard is
not only a curse to himself and family,
but nuisance to the community. If we
do not wish our young men to become
| lrunkards, and those who have been re-
claimed to return to their evil courses,
we must see that they are not placed in
the way OF temptation. But what is to
be done 1t is plain that further prohib-
ltory legislation in the direction Of that
| already in our statute books would be of
no avail. A correspondent offers the fol
j lowing suggestions
All our present laws are against the seller, yet
man get drunk aud disturb the peace per
hapS njuFe several cripple an officer, and do much
damage, and he is simply put in jail for ten to
thirty days, and fed what he likes al the ex
pense of the county Now why not enact law
that any one who gets drunk may be arrested by
| an off for hn offap =,
labor for not less than thirty days and for each
subsequent offence double the prior sentence In
time they would either keep sober or keep out OF
the way If locked up they would be compelled to
work; now they like to lie in jail and be fed \
law such as proposed would help the temperance
cause, and save much expense Nothing else will
do. The better class who drink would keep out of
the way or stop drinking.
These suggestions are worthy of con-
slderation. They come from practical
business man, and staunch advocate of
| the temperance cause. Locking up the
drunkards would certainly be an ettectual
way of stopping the sale Of liquor, and the
prospect of thirty or more days at hard
labor would no doubt deter many from
drinking. To be sent to jail and fed at
the public cost is no punishment to the
| great majority of offenders. A Virginia
correspondent of the Detroit Free Press
throws some light on this subject. He
says
Northern drunkard or brawer or villaiuous
wife heater who can not pay fine goes to Jail, or
| the work house. III thousands of instances men
commit otfenses in order to be sent there. They
hive WELL sleep well and have little to do In Yir-
! gina this class OF men go to the chain-gang, and
are made to benefit the general public and pay their
way. Roads, bitches, bridges and parks are built,
! improved and kept clean, and the law enforced at
the same time And the result is that Richmond,
with Its %, 900 population and its chain gang does
not show one sixth of the arrests made in Detroit
with its 100000 population and Jail and Work
| house A hummer sent to our Work house gains
| from three to five pounds of flesh in thirty days
| has warm suit, good bed, and five or six hours
| of work per day. One sent to the chain gang of
Richmond lets the first time be the last unless he
| is a chronic oafer.