The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-08-24
RUM TALES IN MAINE.
~ ROHIBITION in Maine keeps devel-
oping queer phases ana making
material for funny stories. Not
long ago a Methodist Episcopal

~ ROHIBTTION in Maine keeps devel-
optng queer phases ana making
material for funny stories. Not
long ago a Methodist Episcopal
presiding elder arrived In a Maine
village Saturday evening. He was to sup
ply the pulpit the next day at the village
church. He arrived late and went to the
hotel. He was in a hurry to make a call
on some friends and when he went to hts
room in the hotel he didn't stop to light
a lamp. but FASTENED to remove some of
the dust of travel from his face. He
poured from the ever into the bowl
fluid that he supposed was water and.
dousing in his hands, scooped the liquid
blinded and strangled. He believed he
had run. foul Of some terrible poison
and, standing in the room with his eyes
shut and gasping for breath. he yelled
for succor. The landlord came rushing UP
and the moment he entered the room he
realized what had happened. Prohibition
was having a run in the village Just at
that time and the constables had been
rading. The landlord had Temporarily
concealed some Of his whiskey by pour
ing 1t into pitchers In the guests rooms.
Acting on the hint of Edgar Allen Poe
that thing not concealed is best con-
cealed, the landlord had been able to de-
ceire the local sleuths. But the elder had
gone to his room so hurrIedly that the
landlord had forgotten the whisky. AS
his anger took a new turn. He discovered
that his hair was soaked with whiskey.
and that he had q baccnalian odor that
was overpowering at forty PAGES.
Right on the heels of the landlord came
the friend whom the clergyman was to
call on. sanity man Of strictest temper
ance principles. He shifted the air and
for one Mortified instant believed that the
presiding elder and the hotel man were
taking a drink together. The landlord did
oil ho the mischief He
assisted his elder to wash his head and a
nearby drug store was drawn on for per-
fumes and deodorizers.
-
But the elder had a decidedly Sporty
smell about MIN when he went out on the
street, and even at the church next day
more than one old lady at the reception
whispered:
He seems like real nice man. but
how he does stink himself up with CO.
lonny water!'
Penobscot county village HAD a still more
embarrassing experience. His wife had
been away lately. summoned to the bed
side of a sick relative. He had been tax
ing his meals at the village hotel. The
local physician boards there also. Last
Sunday morning when the doctor went in
to breakfast he asked the landlord to put
q pint of whisky into his overcoat pocket,
as he though he would want something
to zcounteract the mosquito bites.
3 ..You'll find my coat right here on tho
hook in the hail." said the doctor. who had
his own reasons for not wanting to be seen
slowing away whisky about his person.
When he put on his coat after breakfast
he slapped the pockets No mask was
there. He asked the landlord about 1t.
Il put it In your pocket" declared the
hotel man.
.I'n bet you SO you put that bottle in
the minister's pocket!' cried the DOCTOR
"He just left the table and his coat Was
hanging there when I went into the din
ing room."
It was so. And that wasn't the worst
mart Of 1t. The minister strolled down to
church with his hands behind his back.
wholly unconscious of what he carried in
his overcoat pocket. When he entered
a chair and the bottle slipped out. It
rolled down over the pulpit steps and
crashed against the post OF the altar ran:
The situation In the village Is strained
people insist that someone at the hotel nut
that bottle in the clergyman's pocket Tor
a wretched joke.
After the Portland saloons had been
closed, and liquor began to get scarce
there, Parson Sheriff Pearson discovered
that women were peddling liquor from Bos-
ton bags. The liquor was put up in little
walls that contained about drink. The
name sand peeps was given to these lit
tie bottles. When women with fat Boston
bags became such objects oil suspicion
that only the most u1tra-respectable wo-
man would venture forth In Portland
with one in her hand. the pocket peddlers
Edevised other schemes One young EEL
low was able to dodge the sherin Tor some
time by carrying on a board IN front OIL
him bottles that ostensibly contained INK.
hot inst drink ana sofa
for 10 cents.
Another pocket peddler arrayed himself
in paint spotted overalls and trudged me
streets carrying quart can prominently
T labeled "varnish." When he struck a Gus
toner he slipped a glass out OF his coat
pocket and poured a drink from his can.
The officers have arrested one or two men
who carried their stock In tin re ccptacles
made to fit around their bodies. The fau-
cat was concealed under the watStcoat
In Androscoggin county the "strong
door, is the special feature Of the liquor
business The saloon has front room
with a showcase or two full OF cheap cl-
CARS that no one ever buys partition
| runs across the middle OF the snop anu .a
! is pierced by door as massive as one
! of the gates of GAIA. 1t Is estimated that
| by the time the liquor deputies have been
able to chop down one OF these doors anu
force their half dozen bolts the men oenino
| the bar will have time to pour all the
honor into the sewer. Many times thesa
great doors are taken away by the officers
| when they make their raids ana are uh
! able to secure liquor. The doors are pro
duced in court as proof that the owner
was engaged in unlawful traffic of liquors
One Maine genius has invented dynamite
bomb that an of..cer may throw against
ono of these doors and demolish 1t quickly
| enough for the liquor to be seized.
WISE LAWS NEEDED.
| eirce the beginning the chief work o.