The Press., 1884-02-07


 The men who patronize these women go for the drink alone, and their drinks they take by themselves. In the very na- ture of the case they dare not go in parties. Two dare not enter the house together. To separate, to isolate the drinkers is to kill drinking for anybody except those in whom the appetite Is too strong to be re- sisted. The dangerous drinking for the sake of hilarity, which afterward makes drinking for the appetite's sake necessary, does not obtain when rum is driven into holes and corners. These present patrons of an unlawful vice are not at the begin- ming of their career, They are nearing it's end When man will sneak into house and take drink of whisky out of greasy bottle in dirty kitchen, he is very far gone indeed.
 SECRET DRINKING. I'
 It has been claimed that the closing of the bars drove men to the keeping of liquors in their houses, and was the cause of increase in secret drinking. This is all bosh. Men don't drink that way unless they are confirmed drinkers to begin with. Of course if man of means who is and has been in the habit of drinking wants liquor he will have it. All the law ever made can't force him to quit. Money will bring liquor into Maine, and if 8 man wants it badly enough he can get it. No advocate of the Maine law ever expected to prevent its use entirely
 THE BoYs
 The point to it all is, it keeps it out of the way so that no new drunkards are being made. The boys of Maine are not frequenting sa- looms The saloons are not on the public streets and in the most prominent places. There are in Portland DO Hoffman House bar rooms with it's $20, ,OOO pictures, and it's gor- geous furnishings to attract them to their ruin. To get it at all boy must go to places which auy decent boys nature shrinks from, and he. must take more trouble for it than it is worth. Consequently he passes the dan gerous point in boys life untempted. He comes to manhood in & community which holds drinking to be disreputable, and which properly associates rum with badness.
 ONE MANS EXPERIENCE.
 One prominent business man of Portland was opposed somewhat, though very mildly, to prohibition, with whom the following con- versation was had:
 sWhere were you born and reared ?''
 He gave the name of small village near Bangor.
 "Your age?"
 ''Forty."
 ''Then you were 10 years of age when the Maine law came into operation ?"
 s'Yes."
 "Can you remember anything of the condi- ton of things with regard to the rum traffic in your village before that time?"
 Certainly. Every grocery store, or rather evary general store in the village sold rum in any !.8Ia quantity at desired" @ ,,. ..
 "A great deal of it. The farmers all drank and the citizens generally. I must confess that there was great deal of drunkenness there"
 'At what age did you leave home for the cities?"
 ''At twenty-three."
 "Then II years of your life were spent in that village after the Maine law went into eff feet ?"
 ''Yes."
 "Was there any drinking during that pe- riod ?"
 ''No. The stores were forced to quit tell- ing"
 7sAnd the people ?''
 s'They followed the stores, and there has been but very little rum used there."
 ''You do not drink now ?"
 HNo, nor never have. You see grew up to manhood without being exposed to it, and when became man I did not want to com mence. Until left home and went to Ban gor scarcely ever saw any one drink. never tasted it myself, because, I suppose, it was not to be had, and because it came to be considered disreputable for any one to drink"
 There was the strongest statement in his person of the good effects of prohibition that could be made. He was not exposed to temp tation between the ages of ten and twenty one, the age that makes drunkards.
 The fact is that the present sobriety of the middle-aged men of Maine is due to the fact that they grew up outside of it's influence in the country. The boy who escapes it till he becomes a man is not likely to fall into the habit afterward, and as the population of the cities come from the country, it is something to keep that pure and sweet. If prohibition can be enforced in the country and it saves that only, it is a great thing. It tends to el- evate the average of city life. The question is settled so far as the country is concerned. Prohibition does prohibit.
 A generation has grown up in Maine that has been partially educated against it, and the next will be entirely so.
 TOO MUCH ExPECTED.
 The trouble with everybody who doubts the effect of prohibition in Maine is that too much has been expected of it. No one should expect that a state, so given to rum as Maine was, should be entirely renovated in 30 years. A vice so widespread and SO deep-seated can- not be rooted out in one-third of century. Human nature cannot be so easily moulded or so readily changed. It was doubtful if it could accomplish anything. It has accom- plished wonders. It has demonstrated the feasibility of prohibition; it has shown that the traffic is not above the law, and that it can be restrained and finally eradicated. Maine has shown other states what they can do, and has pointed out the way. Neal Dow has done this, and for this work he deserves a monument higher than any ever built upon the continent.
 MORE EXPERIENCE.
 The advantages of having the traffic driven into holes and corner was illustrated in the case of a young man of Boston who had come to the last. stages of drunkenness. The habit was so fixed that escape from an early grave seemed impossible. No matter how good the resolution, his will was undermined and he could not resist He would swear he would not touch it in the morning, and be drunk be- fore night, only to arise in the morning and go through the same experience. His bus mess was gone, his means had followed his business, and there seemed to be nothing but death before him. He was brilliant young fellow, and but for this terrible appetite, an altogether good man.
 His friends determined upon one effort to save him. They took him to a little village In Maine and secured board for him at a ho- tel. There was just three places in the yil- lage where liquor was sold secretly. His friends went to these places and said ssThis young man is here to be where he can't get liquor. You sell it and so do two others The only other place where he can get it is 12 miles distant. We leave him here alone If he touches liquor we know one of you three