The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-10

employed TO SdLnoT cdfSOtS VI 4 uduo, |
pearl and copra, which he shipped to San
Francisco. He built house on a COM
manding point on the island, and lived
there many years in tropical luxury.
The Good or Bad of Prohibition. Which?
To the Editor of the Press:
/ saw gentleman who went on the
Maine Central excursion to the White
Mountains last Sunday. There were six
teen cars in the train, averaging about
fifty persons to each car. Eight hundred
excursionists in all. The train was
drawn by two engines and pushed by an
other. My interlocutor sat beside a
stranger making the visit to the noun
tains for the first time. The converse
ton turned on many subjects not one of
which indicated the politics of the
stranger, but all Of them indicated that
he was an intelligent man. By and by he
said: II do not think there is another
State in the Union where such a great
crowd of men could be assembled on an
excursion like this, perfect order every
where, not word or act from anybody
unbecoming a gentleman" The excur-
sion left the Portland station in the
morning and returned in the early even
inc, with perfect order from first to last.
Now we have some very nice people
here in town who want to change all that
and bring back upon us what they con-
slider the good old rum time when such
an excursion would have been marked
with lots of fun and many blaekened
eyes, bloody noses, broken heads.
I was one of a small excursion to Cor
ham many years ago. was boy then
and had with me country cousin, jol-
ly good fellow twenty years old to whom
/ was showing the lions. We were at the
three storied brick tavern at the "cor-
ner'' and heard screams of female voices
upstairs. Cousin and rushed up, coun-
try cousin ahead. He burst into the
chamber whence the cries came and
found there half drunken rascal insult
ing some ladies. My cousin grabbed
him by the throat, dragged him out and
was about to kick him down stairs when
he said, mo, won't kick you down,
that might break your worthless neck.
Clear out from here; if l catch you back
I'll break every bone in your body"
Two or three days after that 1 was
showing my cousin about town. 1t had
been raining, there was mud in the
streets and on sidewalks. None of the
former and few of the latter in those
days were paved. We were on Congress
street, going down upon the north side
directly in front of wooden two storied
house at the corner of Elm. The middle
of the sidewalk was muddy puddle;
next the fence was narrow strip of dry
land, my cousin and I entered upon that,
cousin ahead, and had passed half way
through it when we were met by three
roughs out upon lark, it was early
evening. Instead of waiting for us to
pass out, they crowded in upon us to
force us into the mud puddle, but they
didn't. The leader of them came rudely
against the young country giant without
moving him. He had on-not my cous-
ina drab cloth overcoat with three
capes, the style then. Very genteel he
was, bound to have the pas wherever he
went. ''Clear out and make way there, -
he said in an imperative voice. Without
a word my cousin caught him by the
collar with one hand and laid him fiat
upon his back in the mud puddle. He
was up in a moment full of wrath, and
instantly in the same way my cousin laid
him in the puddle on his face. The
roughs saw they had a young Hercules
to deal with and left the remainder of
their lark for another day.
That old rum time was full of such
fun; fun to the roughts and rowdies, not
so jolly for ladies and other quiet people.
Sometimes the rogues caught tartar as
venge upon the first group of quiet peo-
pie they met. Now isn't it strange that
there can be any really nice folks who
want back again the old rum time with
its inevitable disagreements of many
kinds? Yet you find many such, or peo-
pie who seem to be such, angry with
Sheriff Cram because he is true to
his duty and oath of office;
because he extinguishes the
grog-shops which are a greater curse to
every community where they are tolerat-
ed, than all other sources of mischief
combined of whatever name. 1t takes
all sorts of men to make a world, know,
but / do not see any place in 1t for men
who, not influenced by appetite or inter-
est yet favor the establishment of grog-
shops, which cannot live without grind
ing up in their machinery our fathers,
brothers, sons and making drunkards OF
them.
was once walking home with a lady
who had spent the evening at my house,
she was near neighbor. | saw man
in the distance coming towards us walk
ing straight and true; when he came
nearer l saw that he began to stagger,
and that bodied mischief. When he came
near enough he made q lureh toward the
lady but pushed him off the sidewalk
into the gutter. He got up with an oath
rushing at me, calling me by name.
Without a word l knocked him down.