The Press., 1884-01-31
Issued EEerY 9huFsdaI ETening'

I then, an eqaal number como in to fake their places. If is 50 in every thing. The percentage of good there is in the regular moving of these beings is the liability to railroad accidents, Tn the const ant change some of them must be killed However, ] don t know as that is an advantage. Were ! they to stay one place they would drink I themselves to death It is about Q stand off
 HOW THEY DREAD IT.
 ITO show the mortal dread the hotel mer have of the law is evidenced by the follow. ling letter, addressed by the proprietor oj lone of the principal hotels to Gen. Dow, l only 2 few days ago
 wish to make letter explanation, feel ! ting that an hopofable man like yourself, and l man that has done So much good in thit state and the country ,at large, would moi I Knowingly injure any one.
 understand that parties have been to you \ and told yon that I am, or was, allowing . man to run aii open bar, and in q conspicu, fous place. This is; ;a very unjust statement las there is no bar run by the house, and the l house has never paid fine for any man. l The place where the liquors have been kepi is little dark ooia, or closet in the cellar oi the house, and the offieers will tell you that \ whsn they found my, it has been in, this Ieoalil find it without s great deal of trouble. x And the intention is that no one but guests ot I the house will find 1t, but sometimes there Eyvll1 b6s a maI in company with a guest of the house get that which hs should not
 low N know of my own personal knowl- edge. that the statement of this man to l Gen. Dow is not true in any particular l In conn apany with . gentleman from Bos- I ton, not asguest at the house. and entire Istrang CTS to every one connected with 1t. i've inquired for the bar. We were direct led to t, by an attAche of the house, in the most nn nnatteI-of4 fact way It was difficult to find and when we oama to 1t, 1t was in 1 q dark gas-lighted room, but 1t was bar all the same. And liquor was bought and paid for, the bar keeper Knowing that we were not guests of the house, and more lover he was q very commnnicat catiye young man, and he very kindly explained to us the methods of evading the law.
 l The proprietors wrote to Gen. Dow, ap- lpeallng to his well known goodness of heart, and hoped thereby to secure im- nunity from seizure. It didn't work, how lever. The principal hotels do violate the law Iregularly and will, till the prohibitionists l get an amendment to the law, naakaag St Imprisonment for tse first o6essse, and fines for succeeding ones. That will be 1done, it is hoped, this winter, and that done the business is closed forever. They can afford to pay the fine for they get that out of their customers, but they will not risk imprisonment.
 There are two. clubs in Portland in l which liquor can be had by the members  cess would be long and tedious, and as li- quor is not exposed for sale it is doubtful ] if the law could reach then. were if .in- voked for their suppression.
 Formerly, that is some years ago, there were hundreds of drinking clubs in the city. Parties of men who thought they wanted liquor would organize club, rent premises, fit them up and stock them with liquors. Each member had pass-key, and he could go there and drink all he saw fit.
 They were fitted up according to the means and tastes of the members The well to-do furnished them luxuriously, and took all the papers and made them con- fortable places of resort. Laborers and poor men simply had room, with keg of whisky, and totally unfurnished
 These fourished for long time, but the | legislature passed an act declaring them nuisances, and brought them under the iron grip of the sheriff's officers. They were speedily closed out, and none of them are in existence to-day.
 WHERE LIQUOR IS SOLD.
 Where else is liquor sold in Portland :? It would puzzle anyone but 8 detective to answer tho question. Liquor ds sold. There is no doubt about it. The police reports testify to that. However, as the law makes it the duty of the officers to seize and confscate it wherever found, 1t requires much skill and trouble to get it into the state. The railroads are watched, and the strictest espionage is had over the boats. But the dealers in the stuff man. age to smuggle great deal of it into the cities. The Portland dealer in flour ar ranges with the house in Boston from which he gets his supplies. The Boston liquor dealer sends his kegs of whisky to the four house and it is packed in four barrel and goes forward with 8 shipment of flour. When the shipment of, say 50 barrels, reaches the Portland flour mer- chant, a certain number of them has liquor hidden within, and it is transferred in the night to the party ordering it, and from thence distributed to the retailers. Liquor comes to the city in nail kegs, and in all sorts of packages.
 But this care and secrecy, combined with the danger of seizure, which means 8 total loss, makes the traffic exceedingly precarious, and despite the prices obtain ed of the consumer, it does not pay very largely. The law has it so environed that 1t is far from profitable
 THE MoDUs oPERANDI.
 An Irish woman, known to her country men as dealer in the liquors, has a room in the rear of her miserable dwelling fitted up something like bar, She has one bottle of whiskey and few bottles of rum in sight, but over them she has a weight suspended by. a string, and under, a tub filled with water in which kerosene oil has been poured. The beer is kept in water sprinkler. E.l.
 She is ready for the officers. They can only approach by the front door and when they appear she darts into the back room, cuts the string, the weight descends and smashes the bottles into the tub of water ed kerosene, to destroy the smell of the whisky, the sprinkling can of beer is over. set on the floor, and the evidence is de. stroyed.
 They search the house for liquor and sometimes find it. One man had dug through his cellar and made an opening sufficient to hold a small stock. The door to this opening was huge double affair filled with sand, so that tapping the wal
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