Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-11
Prohibition Does Not Prohibit.

To the Editor of the Dispatch:
The prohibitionists are quoting from an
article published by Ex-Governor Ding
lev to prove that prohibition does pro-
hibit in Maine. The following evidence
is submitted 10 show how little reliance
is to be placed on Mr.. Dingley's state
ments
"At a meeting of the Maine State
Temperance Society, at Augusta, Colo
mel W. T. Eustiss, late Prohibitionist
candidate for Governor, declared that
the law was not enforced. On Exchange
street, in Bangor, he had that day
counted seven open bar-rooms-open IN
every sense of the woodland he saw
from the street men drinking in them.
The Maine law is dead letter in most
towns in Maine.
Rev. Mr.. Mcintyre, Of Waterville,
said the records would show county at
torneys and municipal Judges to be
guilty Of completely in crime with
rumsellers. II is quite customary" he
added, "for these officials to settle
with offenders for 800, when under
the law they should have been sent to
Jail; and sometimes cases are bought
Of for IS or So"
Rev. Mr.. Haskell, Of Damariscotta,
said that for the "past ten years rum
selling has been on The increase IN
Name" There were now twenty-five
Young men in his town that we're ad-
dcted to drinking where there was only
one seventeen Yeas ago.
Joshua Nye, of Augusta, the great
apostle of prohibition, said that Con-
gresham Dingley's statement that there
was no liquor-selling in many OF the
towns of the State was" a. trdud, de-
lusion, and humbug; liquor-selling
was "terribly on the increase all orer
the State, and every woman and child
in the State knew it. Drugstores were
only gilded ram hellS under another
name"
A Bangor correspondent says
Under the fanatics the public bars Of this
| city were ali closed in 1877. and the liquor
trade, though not decreased IN volume pc
| came degraded. There were searches ana
| seizuTeS without number or stOppage, ana
en- lodged in by bachelors. took drinks
| from "bOttle. carriers ana ffom ialieh
! women. Joined so.called clubs, the primary
| object OF whose formation was TO OBTAIN
| LIQUOR and place to drink IT, Dut WhIcn
| soon grew to be gambling denS aud formed
! the foundation OF the faro banks which
| cursed Bangor Not q drop less OF liquor
was consumed. but the liquor that wassoiu
| got to be the Vilest stuff purchasable.
| II Is estimated that there are Two nun
dred open bars in the city OF Bangor, some
of them finely fitted up, One small one.
fittings. During the Eastern Maine fair one
bar sold $500 worth OF drinks in one day.
/ The hotels all have bars two OF these being
finely fitted up.
The mayor of Bangor was asked by
the Governor of the State what assist
ance he would require to stop the sell
ing of liquor in Bangor, and replied
Forty extra policemen and $4,000"
In Portland, the largest and most
stagnant city in the State, public senti-
ment tolerates a continuance of the war
on the liquor trade, and yet liquor is
sold there. 1t is to be found in cellars,
hotel Easements, and cheap groggeries,
in club rooms and in houses Of Hire
pute, to which places people sneak
with guilty step as though 1t were a
crime to drink. The effect of the
prohibitory law was that poor
rum in a basement was substituted for
fair quality of liquor at an open bar.
In Lewiston, a manufacturing city
on the Androscoggin river. it is the
same old story as in Portland. There
are no decent bars, but multitude OF
dives, in which gambling and other
criminal practices are combined with
beer-sellng. The Dexter people have
discovered a brilliant scheme for over
reaching the liquor constables and OBJ
tanning all they want of the ardent.
They import it in quantities from New
Brunswick to Bangor, where 1t is
allowed to lay in bond at the custom
house. The importers sell the pack
ages, which are small, to individual
purchasers, and when these packages
are brought to Dexter directed to pri'
yate citizens the constables cannot seize
the stuff.
Ex-Governor Dingley himself, in O
temperance lecture in Washington, as
serted that 1.-THE most reliable report:
obtainable show that there is in Maine
one RETAIL LIQUOR DEALER tol
erery seren hundred Of the population
Mr.. Louis Schade, ofVirginia, remarks :
MIR Dingleys figures are probably toe
modest. The number OF retail liquor deal
| ers in Maine last year (1sS4b according tC
other reports, was l,I62, without including
The dpOfhecdrieS. The population OF Maine
7 probably hasn't Increased much since the
last census. when il was 6is. 9S6. That would
give one dealer to every $50 OF population
or say one dealer 10 every liz voting citi'
| zeps There is In Virginia one dealer u
! every 100 voting citizens For thirty
three years the Maine pronibitionists ha a.,
' They have got almost everything they hav,
I asked Of the Legislature, and yet ever,
a | defence OF the system that they maxi
sounds like confession Of failure.
> NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. G. G. Vest, o
= Missouri, gives the following to tn
: public
y In November last, at the Fifih.Avenu
;. hotel in New York, while serving on tn
3 were members. asked Governor Dingley
i during q recess of the committee. "Wha
n has been the result OF prohibition II
Main0?" lie replied substantially as ii
;, the letter published In the ST. Louis Re
q publican, pntting great stress upon the edu
cational effect OF prohibition. There wer,
2 some twelve or fifteen ship builders AM
!, ship.owners nom Portland. Lewiston, AM
other towns and cities OF Maine present 8
4. witnesses, and my recollection is that ever,
. one OF them said the law had not decreased
the amount OF rum sold or drunk In thei
I places OF residence, but the only effect ha'
, been TO make the rum more poisonous an
deadly.
The following is from the Gazette,
newspaper published in Lewiston
Maine:
Never. perhaps, has the temperance ele
ment OF Lewiston 30 stirred up things II
this city as IL has done within the last feV
days. The statement made over and owe
again for years past IN the Gazette tina
Lewiston afforded @ notable Illustration
the fact that, Rs at present enforced, prom
bition failed TO prohibit. has AT last peei
confirmed and intensified by meeting o
over fifteen hundred persons asse 10 oled .
the call and under the direction OF nearly
all the clergy OF the city. The meeting wa
presided over by the mayor. ana many
ointment gentlemen were present
The resolutions adopted by the meetius
call for faithful enforcement OF the law
relating 70 the sale OF intoxicating drink,
In every part OF the city: they request thai
all policemen who indulge In the use OF In
tOxicating Liquors a. o beverage be re-
moved and conclude by calling on all tc
lend active sympathy aud hearty co-opera