The times., 1899-06-28
An Embarrassed Prohibitionist

The State of Maine owes some of its re-
nown to the fact that it was the first State
TO wage stern war against the appetite of
mankind for strong drink. To be sure
there are some unbelievers who assert that
there was more liquor drunk in the Pine
Tree domain after the Neal Dow law was
passed than ever before, and some of these
are in a position to know whereof they
| speak. fer they partook of the liquor snug
gled into the State, while the prohibition
lists naturally did not; and. since the days
| of internal revenue, the Federal liquor
licenses in the Commonwealth have been
as numerous, per capita of the population,
as in less puritanical jurisdictions. The
skeptical ones say that when fence is put
up between a youth and cider mill he
is almost sure to climb the fence and stay
on the side where the drinks are Per-
haps If a similar barrier were erected
around the well he would become a strict
teetotaler, but that is not practicable
! However that may be, something sad
/ happened in the State of Maine the other
| day-a thing calculated TO convince the
teetotaler that evil creeps into the fold by
ways entirely unexpected, and that it is
not enough to shut up the barrooms and
| forbid the making of cider: more severe
measures must be adopted The incident
also indicates that the most innocent man
may be the object of undeserved suspicion.
A farmer named Hart had large apple
orchard-devoted, of course, strictly to ap-
pies for export purposes, since Mr.. Hart is
prohibitionist. He has been in the habit
of leaving part OF the fruit on the trees,
not all of it being worth the trouble of
gathering and packing away in barrels,
and the partridges. squirrels. pine gros-
beaks, and other inhabitants of the woods
used TO come and peck and nibble at the
apples. The partridges seemed to be par
ticularly fond of the apple seeds.
| Last March was a warm month and II
| thawed the frozen apples. There were at
first great many partTidges in the or
chard. Then there were very few. Mr.
| Hart's curiosity was aroused and he went
down to see If the birds had finished feast
ing on the fruit. He had not gone far be-
fore he found plump partridge which was
apparently suffering from some sort of
| paralysis lie plcken II up ana Strokeu II
and it gave signs of life. but seemed stu
| pid. A little farther on he found another
bird in the same condition. and then an
other, and another. He took the part
ridges home and put them in his granary.
Next morning they seemed to be well and
active but anxious to get out, and he let
them fly. a little later in the day he
found more partridges in the same mystic
rious condition. Then he tried an expert
ment. He tied bits of red flannel to the
birds legs to identify them and when they
were recovered let them go. Subsequently
he discovered the same birds lying help
less under his trees. Then he sat down to
think about II.
Naturally he had but little experience
with intoxication, but he had -read about
it. and the symptoms of the eccentric
birds indicated that they were drunk Had
some one been keeping speak easy on
his premises? Were these unfortunate
partridges the victims of some designing
trafficker in the wine that is red?
II did not take long TO discover that the
owner OF the bird saloon was Mr.. Hart
himself. The frozen apples had. in pro-