The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-05-23

wine cellar. A prominent citizen of Port
land swore out complaint against Mr..
Mains alleging that he had good reason for
believing that liquor was kept by Mr.. Mains
for illegal sale. The recorder of the munic-
ipal court. the judge being absent, issued a
warrant on the strength of this complaint,
commanding search of the premises and
seizure of the contraband goods. This war
rant was given 10 the marshal and it was
his duty to see that it was served. The idea
OF raiding this place was the conception of
the complainant and the municipal court
and the marshal had nothing to do with it.
The warrant was very properly given to
the officer whose beat covered the Mains es-
adjustment, to serve. Large quantities of
liquor were found, the bulk of it contained
in puneheons of the capacity of $50 gallons
which it was impossible with the facilities at
hand to remove. The proprietor of the es-
Enlistment alleged that the property was in
the hands of an assignee, that it was not in
tended for sale in this State, and that none
of 1t had been sold. He also explained in a
way which to the officers seemed satisfacto-
ry, the suspicious circumstances that had
given rise to the complaint. The city mar
shall of last year, whom the Argus seems to
regard as the pink of efficiency, would I'M
doubtedly, under such circumstances, hare
abandoned the liquor, just as he did the case
against Sullivan when Sullivan told him he
had ''good point" The present city mar
shall very properly concluded that it was his
duty to consult the prosecutor as well as the
prosecuted before disseminating the proceed
ing. He therefore detailed two officers to
guard the liquor until the complainant could
be consulted. Had the marshal abandoned
the liquors without this precaution the Ar
gus would no doubt have charged him with
letting up on Mr.. Mains for political reasons,
or very likely it would have gone further
and insinuated that he was bribed.
Finding itself estopped from making eth
er of these charges it accuses the marshal OF
uncovering the beats and exposing the banks
in order to guard the liquor In its zeal to
get point on the marshal it did not stop to
inquire into the facts. Had IL done SO its
point would have disappeared. AS matter
of fact no beat was uncovered. There was
an officer on every beat in the city. Al the
banks employ no less than six private
watchmen, all of whom were on duty Tues
day night, the Argus's anxiety about the
banks would have been groundless had the
facts been as 1t alleged even.
But there was burglary Tuesday night,
and the Argus thinks it has discovered some
connection between this and the "surveil-
lance of AR. Mains's wines. AS matter
of fact there is no connection whatever be-
tween these two occurrences. The beat
which includes the store of Messrs. Hoyt,
Fogg & Donham was covered as effectively
against burglars on Tuesday night as ON any
night during the administration of Marshal
Andrews or any other administration. If the
Argus takes the ground that the commits.
sion of a burglary is itself evidence of the
inefficiency of the marshal under whose ad
ministration it occurs, we invite its atten-
ton to the score or more of such crimes
which occurred during the administration
of Marshal Andrews.
The Argus wants to know further fol
whom the burglars voted. We have no in.
formation on this subject, but it is altogeth.
er probable that the burglars followed the ex.
ample of the 298 rumsellers and voted in the
interests of the man who never caught any
of tham