The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-12-07
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
INTEMPERANCE IN MAINE.


of the drink habit than they were, say
fifty years ago." as the temperance
cause making progress, or is it losing?"
My knowledge of the drinking-habits
of the people goes back beyond fifty
years. l very well remember when
this habit was almost universal among
all classes of society. 1t may be said
to have been quite universal among
mechanics and other workingmen. l
rang at seven in the morning, at noon
and at nine o'clock at night, was also
rung at eleven in the forenoon and at
four in the afternoon to call working
men to their ''grog," when there were
fifteen minutes allowed them to absorb
their allowance of rum, which was
then spoken of as support" and was
held, even among the intelligent and
educated, to be a necessity to working
people, women as well as men, to en-
able them to endure the draft upon
their physical strength.
At the same time the drink custom
was universal among the upper classes
of society. Always when calling at the
houses of such people, whether social
ly, tremendously or on business, the
first thing after the greeting was an
something" which meant a drink of
wine, brandy, gin, or any other of the
many kinds of alcoholics there dis
played in long array of cut-glass
decanters, each having silver label
about it's neck to indicate the kind of
fuddle it contained. Whether the in
terview continued for ten minutes or
more, the same ceremony was repeated
tho formal invitation and the drink
Whether the caller were the pastor,
the doctor, the stranger, or the neigh
Dor, the invitation and the drink were
never omitted. 1t was thought rude
in those days, sometimes offensive, to
decline that sort of hospitality. These
civilities were extended alike to ladies
as to gentlemen.
In those days of liquors at public as
we'll as social gatherings, and at public
as well as social Hastings, alcoholics
were always present, with boisterous-
ness, coarseness, even vulgarities (the
ladies having retired); and even excess
to the extreme was not considered n
reproach to any gentleman. l have
seen such persons leap upon the table
at such feasts, and dance Jig" there.
making all the bottles, decanters and
glasses join in the fun. l have seen six
gentlemen doing this at one time, Mt a
long table-a few ladies and many gen.
tlemen being present. All these habits
and customs are gone now; they were
dismissed many years ago from all cir
.cles of which have any knowledge.
In Maine, which know better than
any other state, the change among the
entire population is wonderful,
not only as to drinking habits,
but in every other direction.
The liquor traffic here is under
the ban of the law, and has been so for
more than forty-two years, supported
by an overwhelming public opinion,
the people having put prohibition into
the constitution in 1884, by a popular
vote of 47,075 majority. the affirmative
being three times larger than the
negative. The liquor traffic here is re-
garded as infamous-in the same cate
CORY as gambling-hells and houses of
ill-fame. In large sections of the state.
being more than three-fourths of its
area with more than three-fourths of
it's population, the liquor traffic is prac-
tically unknown. An entire genera
ton has grown up there, never having
even seen a saloon, nor the effects of
one.
In the old time Maine was the poor
est state in the Union, consuming in
strong drink the entire valuation of all
it's property of every kind in every
period of twenty years, as the ma
ton is now doing in every period of
thirty-fve years. But now Maine is
one of the most prosperous states in
the Union, because of it's large savings
of the wages of abor and the profits of
business, which, but for the prohlbi-
ton, would be spent, lost, wasted in
drink as in the old time. y In the old
time no people anywhere consumed
more alcoholics, if so much, as did the
people of Maine.
The example of Maine is now being
largely followed out, not only by other
states in our Union, but by English
speaking people everywhere. The di-
rect and inevitable relation of the
liquor traffic to poverty, pauperism,
crime, misery, wretchedness, and ruin
among the people has become an object
of earnest inquiry and investigation,
not only in this country, but in the
United Kingdom, and in all her MANY
colonies. There are already three
large districts of London under pro-
hibition, with three in Liverpool, one
in Birmingham, and one in Manchester,
one important manufacturing town in
Yorkshire -Salataire--with more than
one thousand parishes in the conven-
ton of Canterbury. which have he'd
prohibition for many years. In the
manufacturing town of Bassbrook, Ire
land, and in a district containing sixty
two square miles, in county Tyrone,
there has been prohibition for more
than thirty years.-Hon. Neal Dow, in
Independent.
DISEASE OF THE NERVES.