The Press., 1884-02-14

spirits annually, Now none is sold to be used as beverage. Minot (then includ- ing Auburn, with a population of 2,9O3 in 1883, had 13 grog- shops. Now these towns with population of 10000, have not a single place where liquor Is known to be sold as beverage.
 Third-Fifty years ago, even in our rural districts, nearly every male drank liouor. Liquors were kept in most of the houses to treat callers. Nobody thought of having ,mpany, or raising, without a supply of ardent spirits. At musters and other public gatherings, drunkenness and drunken affrays were common. Now, three-fourths of the males in the rural districts are total abstinents, and the prac- tice of keeping liquors in houses to treat callers has practically ceased. It would be considered an unpardonable offense to furnish spirits at a public meeting. A, large public gatherings, ,ses of intoxica- ton are surprisingly few, and drunken al- tercatioas rare This improvement is strikingly shown by statistics. In 1883, Sec Pond, of the Maine Tempera 2ce As sociation, reported that in the town of Al fred there were 55 men and three women accustomed to get beastly drunk in Ken nebunk, 95 notorious drunkards in Top sham (population 1, ,564), 40 drunkards i New Gloucester, 40; Pennington, 80 j; Wayne, 30. Recent reports from these towns show that the present number of no torioils drllnkards in these and other towns is not one-eighth, and many towns say nc one-teath, of what 1t was 40 years age. The reports also show marked improve 1lent in the condition of the people.
 Fourth-In the cities and larger villages, representing less than one-fourth of the population of Maine, the improvement Is less marked thaa in the rural districts, ai- though undeniably real even there. There are three reasons for this less marked i'm provement; the greater facilities that vice has to hide itself in crowded populations ; the conc antration there of 8 large popula- ton which has come into this state withi., 30 years and the resort to the city of the drinking men, still left in the rural re- gions, for supplies of liquor. If the cities had simply held their own under these cur cumstances, it would be great gain. But they have done more than this. As 8 rule, there are no open dram-shops even here Occasionally, through the failure to elect both city and county sheriffs friendly to prohibition, the law will be neglected, and open dram shops will appear here and there That is the case at the present time in two or three cities. But generally speaking, even in the cities, intoxicating liquors are sold only surreptitiously, and are to be found only by those who know the signs and pass words of the liquor fra ternity-and then mainly in places kept by foreigners. The open dram shops tempts no one. In the cities of Lewiston and Au- burn, with a population of nearly 30,0O0, there is not a single open dram shop, and no hotel has even a secret bar. In the larger cities there are many cases of drunk enness, but three-fourths of them are oi foreigners, who resort to the most des- perate expedients to obtain 8 supply of Ii. quor. As confirmed inebriates in the ru ral districts are obliged to resort to the cities to obtain their potations, it frequent ly happens that the police reports of city like Portland show nearly all the cases o1 drunkenness for populous country.
 Fifth-The charge is frequently made that so far as the cities are concerned, the traffic has been simply driven out of sight. Even il nothing more had been gained, 1t is some thing to banish the temptations of the dram shop where only those seeking them will fn6 them. It is also occasionally alleged that club-rooms, more dangerous than dram-shops have taken the place of the latter. After careful inquiry I cannot learn that club rooms exist outside of two cities in Maine and even there not so extensively as ln many cities of similar size in license states. Setting aside the large foreign population in ou1 cities, I am satisfied that the improvement 1T the drinking habits of the remainder is mark ed. This is especially so with the bone and muscle of the native population.
 Does prohibition prohibit? It does or rather, it can be made to. It does in every place where the people say it shall, and every. where it has accomplished great and lasting good. It has crippled the traffic in the cities and driven it almost entirely out of the coun- try. It has given Maine generation of men who know not the taste of rum, generation of men healthy in mind and body. It has not accomplished what was hoped for it, but it has done more than could reasonably have been expected.
 It can be enforced everyU here, and in time it will be. It required a half century to free America from slayery-it may require even a longer time to free it of the greater curse, Ium. But 1t will be done. America is now land without slave-the time will come when it will be land without drunkard. The greater curse will follow the lesser.