Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-04
NEW ENGLAND WHISKY.
How the Temperance Laws are Evaded
in PrOhibitOry Maine.

In ProhfbitOry Maine.
was at Bangor, Me-, says a CORE
spondent Of the Cincinnati ENQUIRER,
when l sent my last report of observa-
lions in New England. The man who
values his life will not care to subject it
for great while to the risk of investi-
eating the practical workings of the
Maine liquor law. The poison liquors of
Maine are plentifully consumed bv the
natives in almost all localities. but in
Bangor there is a publicity about their
sale which induces one to think that there
are certainly no distilled spirits in the
compounds which are sold as whisky
and brandy. In fact, there is about as
little restraint about the traffic there as
tnere is IN Chicago or Cincinnati. | ar
rived at Bangor in the evening. and
a ankee hotel capper, under the
gulse OF bOarder, steered me into
the exchange Hotel, which he assured
me was one of the cOsiest places in New
England. The clerk, who had the wooden
smile peculiar to the New England hotel
keepers, welcomed me with the cordial
air OF frozen man, but had been accus-
TONED 10 That, and as soon as my traps
were placed IN the check room | asked
for the bar. The clerk nodded to a pious
looking, gray haired man who sat beside
the stove, and when he rose up and start
ed down the hall to the rear of the office
and dining room l followed him. Taking
Key from his pocket, he unlocked door
and we were within an eight-by-ten room,
which was fitted up with about as many
conVenlences as are usually found in
frontler Darroom. / was accompanied by
my friend Snow, who at once asked for
good, red drinking liquor" when the
plous looking barkeeper put up a black
bottle, and the moment | touched it | dis
covered that its temperature indicated its
recent proximity 20 the human body.
How or by what sleight.ofband the old
man got the ''pizen'' out of his
clothes l don't know, but GER
tain it is that he had it concealed about
his person. Had we asked for any special
kind OF liquor, I am certain the same
bottle would have been handed out, for it
is evident that in their greed to get in
toXicants any kind of a compound is
swallowed by the natives. When we
came out noticed that the barrOOm was
labeled, Ladies' Toilet" which, l sup
pose, was one of the Puritan expedients
which the legal necessities demanded. In
fact, l think the Puritan character is
equal to any emergency. The fraud
known and boosted of as Puritanism is so
unique that it becomes laughable. The
gliueu gin MIL OF bangor is the Darr0Om
of the Bangor Hotel, which is run openly.
and has a variety of bottles containing
liquids set out in plain view. Here the
barkeeper is the typical artist-short hair,
taultless shirt-front and diamond PIN
But oh! We gods! what liquor he
doth dispense! In all the list of
frontier names for such poison there is not
one that can convey any idea Of this
fearful stuff. . Paralysis" g instant
DEATH and ''double-dIstilled lightning''
are mild terms for it. And yet / saw
well-dressed native swallow nearly half
pint of it. Snow bought pint, and with
tive have killed one dog and have made
a pretty bad wreck of a sick woman whom
we met on a train, and who wanted
whisky. She was taken from the train at
the next stop after she swallowed the
whisky, and if she died | am certain that
Mr.. Snow is a red-handed murderer. But
there is not space enough in the Enquirer
to allow me to print all the eYasiOns of
the liquor laws which / saw in one week
III Maine. If my observations are any
where near correct, there is twice the
quantity of intOXicants sold in Maine that
there is in Georgia, where the people have
a local option license law. Everywhere
that l went liquor was in abundance and
as observable as in any other
State. The Maine prohibition law is a
fraud and humbug.