The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-10-23
PROHIBITION IN MAINE.
After Years Of Legal Prescription, the Sale Of
stimulants Has Not Died Out-A Bitter
Fight In Progress.

II u plOhibitoly iiIuoi l"" yes
first put on the statute-book years ago.
Gen. Neal Dow and his c%o-laborers in
the field of temperance reform take
the ground that prohibition has proved
a great success. The old white-haired
father Of the Maine law, who is o
81 years Of age, and who, despite his
years, is as active and jealous in his
war on the grog-shops as ever, will
tell you that prohibition has crushed
out every distillery and brewery in
Maine, and such is the truth. He will
tell you that under the operations of
the law liquor-selling has been nearly
suppressed in the rural towns, which
embrace nearly three-quarters of the
state, and he will point with pride to
the evidences of thrift and prosperity
as compared with the condition of
things in the old rum times, when that
beverage flowed as freely as water,
and, as the result, poverty and degra-
datlon were to be seen on every hand.
There are many grains of truth in this,
and yet, at the same time, liquor-sell.
ing has not been abolished III the
try towns. The traffic has only been
circumscribed and driven into narrow
er limits. Any respectable looking
person, even though he be q stranger,
can find no difficulty in buying all the
liquor he wants of the village apothe-
cary, should he fail to get it at the
country inn. The druggists. in fact,
carry on the liquor business in Maine.
Registered druggists keep liquor on
hand for the compromising and manu-
featuring of medicine, but are not al
lowed by law to sell liquors of any
kind unless compounded and manu-
featured in good faith.
The great weapon of the law is the
search and seizure clause, which re-
quires proof of two elements-tirst, of
the keeping. and second, of an intent
to sell liquor in violation of the law.
With the ordinary rumseller the mere
fact of finding liquor in his shop is
usually enough to convict, because it
is not kept there for any legitimate
purpose. With druggists, however,
there must be proof of sale. AS Il re-
suit they have n constitutional right to
sell liquor, and, Is it is now heading,
they are fast obtaining Il monopoly of
the rum trade in Maine, on account of
tine Inherent defect in the constitution
which no law can get around. But it
Is in the cities and large towns where
liquor is principally sold, and where
the evils of the traffic are more plainly
seen. There is no doubt but what pro-
hibition has accomplished u great deal
of good IN the way of suppressing
the rum traffic, and it is equally true
that the men, women. and children OF
to-day are more abstemious than were
their fathers and grandfathers. Still
the rum traffic ilourishes; officers are
untaithful in enforcing the laws. and
when they are executed the chances
are that from some defect or loophole
In the law the rum-sellcr escapes. The
situation to-day does not show that
Maine is the prohibitory state that she
is represented to be. 1t was only a
few days ago that Gen. Dow was
forced to admit that sit is not over
stating the matter to say that in
Maine to-day the liquor traffic is in
tiicting upon the people far more mis-
chief, Indebtedness, and ruin than
they suffer from all the robberics and
burglaries, frauds OF whatever kind,
from incendiarisms, conflagrations,
and murder"
For the past six months the city of
Bangor has practically enjoyed free
rum. There are over one hundred
places there where liquor is sold and
nc attempt has been made to enforce
the law. The law is a nullity. In
Lewistown, Bath. Augusta, and other
cities no difficulty is experienced if
one wants to wet his whistle. In the
city OF Portland, under Gen. BOWS
own eyes. the liquor traffic llonrishes,
and yet at the same time in no other
+, city has the law, for the past ten years,
been more faithfully enforced. Tic
illustrate how hard it is to break nE
the business in Portland. the prohibi.
toni to for five years pursued il rum
seller in thai city. They made him
pay fines more than forty times. and
then got him in Jail. But this did moi
break up his business. for his brother
took charge of it. Then the prohibi
tionists went for him, and when. afte,
a protracted siege, he was forced tc
retire, his brother-in-law took hi.
place, and carries on the business to.
day.
Since the first week IN January the
prohibitioDists have renewed the wa
on Portland g~rogshops, and the cam.
paign is to extend throughout thu
state. under the auspices of the Law
and Order league. Rev. MIR. Mnnson
the agent of the league, is now enforc
ing the law with more vigor than wa
ever known before. Already he ha.
sworn out more than six hundred war
rants, at al expense of over 50, 800 [,
the taxpayers of Cumberland county
and in return, the amount of fines pait
into the CITY treasury will not exceed
$500. Last year there We're nearly on,
thousand prosecutions of liquor deal
crs in the state, and, while there wcr,
numerous convictions, the number o
ing the last fourteen years som
twenty-three thousand persons hav
been arrested in this city for drunken
ness, and yet one would be puzzled t
find one rumscller the less. Gen. Doy
himself says there are as many rum
shops as ever. Mr.. Munson will fin,
it exceedingly difficult to exterminat,
the last vestige of the liquor traffic
as he has announced he will dc
This onward movement thus ia
has not PANIED ont well. Tn
liquor dealers understand thci
business so well that they are not ga
lily scooped. They may be put t
trouble or expense. but somehow the
always manage to hold the fort. Nc
whose breath is redolent OF cardamo
seed or snake root, rarely if ever give,
in their evidence against the parties G
whom they obtained their s%nifters
Municipal officers are loath to have tn
law enforced, and even the governo
is not disposed to appoint special cor
stables for the enforcement of the lie
uor law. The friends Of the Law an
Order league came before the legisl.
ture this winter, and it was only b
the casting vote of the president Of tn
senate that they succeeded in 90