The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-17
NO DRY DAYS IN MAINE
ETFTY YEARS OF PROHIBITION FAILS TO SQUELCH THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
Retards Temperance cause-EveFJ Campaign Against the Saloons Followed by Long Period of Comparatively or Entire
 ly Open Bars.

Bangor Cde.), Letter in The Philadel-
 4phia Record.
 For fifty years Maine has been trying Ro legislate the aquor business out of existence in the State, but the traffic still goes on.
 In some counties it is confined to wretch ed dives and 'kitchen bars" nearly ev- erywhere 1t is more or less hampered and fin a few places 1t thrives as freely as any other business.
 It was with the avowed purpose and un- doubtedly, the honest expectation of pro- noting temperance that the legislators of half a century ago assed the original urohibitory statute, but while at times and in places the law made it difficult for some people to procure liquor, it Is 8 fact that cannot be concealed that the cause of temperance has been retarded. rather than advanced, by the operation of this law, however and by whenever administered.
 The history of prohibitions workings in Maine, if written out in full, would be rather monotonous narrative of moral spasms and relapses, fruitless efforts of mistaken zeal. political intrigues and off, ciai. corruption. The warfare on the sa5 looms has been intermittent and every campaign has been followed by truce a period of comparatively or entirely free liquor selling. continuing until the ap- perance of other crusaders to renew the battle.
 What Pearson attempted in Portland In the past few years Neal Dow, 'the father of prohibition" tried to do long before Pearson had been heard of. What Jer- rard attempted in Bangor in the seven- ties Weaver tried to do twenty years earlier and Bangor, now a ''wide-open" NnA same settlements and disgraceful scenes that have kept Portland in a turmoil since the late Sheriff Pearson, a good man, but poor politcian-reformer that he was, became chief of the anti-liquor forces in Cumberland County.
 Career of Parson Sheriff.
 The death of Neal Dow gave prohibition a decided setback in Portland, and for some years the sale of liquor there was carried on with little interference. The Portland liquor men were indiscreet, how ever, and the traffic was conducted in such a brazen and disreputable fashion that a strong public sentiment was arous- ed against it.
 The Prohibitionists nominated the Rev. Samuel F. Pearson, Baptist clergyman, for sheriff, and a quarrel among the Re- pubhcans just at that time divided the party strength and resulted in the elec- fion of Pearson-the first "parson sher- aff'' that Maine had ever known.
 He entered upon the duties of the sher- sff's office with the avowed purpose of driving the liquor traffic out of Portland. With a numerous squad of deputies he raided and searched with ceaseless energy fhe places where liquor was sold; he ar- rested and prosecuted, fined and impris- oned the liquor dealers and their assist ants. Liquor was taken from the trundle beds of infants, from outhouses, from refuse heaps, from the pockets of ped dlers and even from the persons of wc- men.
 At the same time. in the height of PearsonA crusade, the principal hotel of the city served liquors on its, tables; while mo one supposed that the members of the aristocratic Cumberland Club or of the Lincoln Club went dry. The city nauor agency, an institution to be found in al- most every place of any size in the State, did a landofice business dispensing in pints and quarts everything, from beer to champagne-for medicinal purposes and for use in mechanics and the arts, Rs prescribed by law.
 Sheriff Sickened and Died.
 In this condition Pearson left the city of Portland, when, worn out with his labors he .sickened and died. The Gov ernor appointed to fill out the unexpired term a deputy sheriff named Dunn. who continued the war with all the vigor he possessed and then, on January l. 1903 William M. Pennell, of Brunswick, the first Democratic Sheriff elected in Cum berland County in twenty years took the office.
 As to the new sherif's policy. little can be said with certainty. The public is somewhat in doubt, and the sherin himself is saying nothing. When ques- tioned on the subject he simply smiles