The Portland daily press., 1895-01-14
BOSTON HERALD AND MAINE LAW.
Rev. G. Munger Writes in Reply to that
Papers Recent Articles on Prohibition.


High License and Revenue. Argue that
Prohibition does not prohl Bit"
This was the advice given to the Ne
braska liquor dealers in 1880. The Her
aid is practicing it, and its unfairness
appears in the fact that 1t has been
pouring barroom logic upon us for more
than month at the rate of two columns
q week out refuses any hearing to the
other side. Hon. Neal Dow charged
that the Herald found money in it,
which charge the Herald did not deny,
but answered by an evasion which was
equal to an unintended confession.
The Herald argues and it's logic is this:
The liuuor law is failure. 1t is not
enforced everywhere; has not extermi-
mated drunkenness. Therefore it is a
failure. Men will sell, and it can't he
stopped. Therefore license them. This
is the argument of the bar room and the
brothel, and equally good for both. The
Herald man says he is informed, but
by whom he cannot tell, for, says he, lit
is manifestly impractioa BILE for me to
give names and exact localities. Mani.
testify impolitic, for then the quality OF
his witness could be examined. How
would such a witness fare in court?
But he has one witness that he is not
ashamed of, and it is practicable to name
him, He quotes Bishop Nicely as say
ing, II do not think that the vice of
drunkenness has been in the least less
ened in it's prevalence here by any legls-
lative enactments." If the Bishop said
know the facts. The drummer whom
the Herald man found sin the smoking
car" plainly contradicts the Bishop. He
said: ain many places remote from the
railroads, there is often abso-
lutely no liquor except posi- bly, few
ounces in the hands of the village doc
tors, In these localities the
law finds nothing to prohibit. In other
places the law is enforced with such
rigor that it is practically impossible to
procure liquor in the town." Then be
says that those who get drunk do it with
"bitters, Jamaica ginger, etc.
These rural districts are more than
four-fifths of our territory and contain,
SAYS Ex-Governor Dingley, about three
fourths of our population. He also says
that before prohibition, under license,
about zone in every forty-fve were &C.
customed to get beastly drunk. "but now
"lio uor selling is almost wholly confined
to five or six cities of the State.n
Will the resu bmissionists name the
State where license has produced such
But / more than balance Bishop
Neelv's opinion by the testimony of SEN
ator Frye: 'sThe Maine Law has not been
a failure" "Therenovation and..reforming
the country portions of our State are the
worthy trophies of our Maine liquor
Law" at has done more good than any
law on our statute book" And SO Hon.
Woodbury. Davis, Judge of our Supreme
Court: "The Maine law has produced
a hundred times more visible improve
ment in the character, condition and
prosperity of our people than any other
law that was ever enacted" So also
Hon. James G. Blaine: Intemperance
has steadily decreased in the State since
the first enactment of the prohib1tory
law. until now it can be said with truth
that there is no equal number of people
in the Anglo-Saxon world among whom
so small an amount of Intoxicating
liquor is consumed as among the six
hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants
of Maine"
Again the Herald man shows that the
law is not failure when enforced. He
in Maine. He says: The authorities
make it exceedingly lively for the liquor
dealers in Hancock county" His wit
ness-a bar keeper-says that "three or
four fines year leaves very little profit. !"
Another says, We hadn't any trouble
until last June, when woman moved
into town who has kept us moving ever
since She went right to work getting
out warrants, and HASN'T let up yet
Even the drug stores caught it with the
rest, and now you've got to be pretty
we'll known to an apothecary to get even
a prescription put up that has any alco-
hol in it," A hotel keeper testified that
be paid $500 in little over year. but
all the others who were indicted
skipped. =" "We don't know when we are
SAFE" said another, for we may be-
raided any minute" And so some keep
an outside guard to give arning of the
approach of anybody that looks like an
officer"
Notice the "trials" the Herald man had
in finding drink" He hired some
Knowing YOUTH" "jokipg fellow" a
"jimmy," to "pilot him" to the bar "in
some invisible place." sometimes a
mans pocket, ana his whiskey Jehu on
landing him at the dive knowingly said.
Does license su bject to such trials'
nim to find liquor" Yes, and it was pos
sible for him to find gambling hells or
brotheIs if he was SO Opposed.
But the Portland rumshops fill him
with delight. In blazing headlines he
saws: "All kinds included there are
about 400 of them" That is beauty.
A rum shop in Maine is place where
LIQUORS are CO0cealeQ ana SOlQ cldDueS-
ii nelly, with $40 fine for advertising
them, and 500 or $50 fine and impris-
onment for selling. But the Herald's
rum shops in Portland are simply places
where liquors are sold. Some of them
were described some years ago by DR..
Warren, then editor of the Christian
Mirror: "They are uniformly concealed,
buried in the earth, behind cellar walls,
in chimneys, in partitions, between
floors, under piles of wood or coal or
ashes, in stables and hen roosts, in pig
styes, under manure heaps, in priyy
vaults, connection with them being
maintained through flexible bes. "All
kinds included there are 400 of them. I"
And here is another. A woman vender
seeing the officers coming scram bled her
bottles together, and got into bed and
took to dying. At the door they were
told she was dying and couldn't be seen.
But they walked in, and as they were
Investigating she moaned out, "Can't
you see Pm dyin,' dyin." They saw it,
and began to pull out the bottles And
when one of them mistook her great toe
for the neck of a bottle, she forgot her
" dyin,'" and hitting him in the eye
hoped out of bed and executed a war
dance in the middle of the floor This
was one of "Portland's rum shops" and
a unique case of search and seizure"
WIN "a NOT the 1iuuOr law enforced in