Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-05-27
NINE DOORS TO
THIS BAR-RO0M.
A Well Fortified Saloon In Prohibition
Bangor Raided at Last.

J
A Bangor (Me.) letter to the New
lork Sun says: County Attorney Ber
tram L Smith has just made new re
corp in his efforts to enforce the law
against liquor selling here. This week
bis officers succeeded in getting into &
place known as the Maze. which for
years had delied them.
The Maze was conducted by Charles
Tremblay, Canadian Frenchman, and
was ingeniousy arranged so much SO
that Tremblay used to say: 1.-The man
who fms his way in done place an
catch man lax me was tam smart man. :"
The place was laid out by an archi
| tect who knew his business. The bar
room was in the rear of vacant store,
with peep hole, giving view of the
street door.
When customer entered the door
an electric bell dingled in the bar room
and the bartender looked out at the
peep hole to inspect the person who had
entered. Ii satisfied that all was safe
he pulled wire that slid II bolt in an
oaken door leader into a corridor at
one side, and the customer entered
there, proceeding through that passage,
brilliantly lighted, to another door, and
another, to a second passage, also light
ed.
Presently, after passing through some
more ordinary doors, the customer
anne to vestibule with two doors, 50
arranged that one could not be opened
until the other had been shut. Then
came the last door-the ninth i'll the |
series-leading into the barroom.
This latter apartment was furnished |
simply with one armchair for the pro-
prietor, and a sink. Water was al |
ways Running in the sink, chloride of |
lime was there to kill the smell of Ii
quors that might be spilled, and big
bottle of whisky stood in the sink near
the spout.
When the customers became drunk
or noisy they were thrown out at a side
door into an alley, and this door was
made of oaken planks, banded and
riveted with steel.
To enter the Maze bar-rO0m req uired
time. even ii the person
were entirely welcome. BY
the time sheriff could get in the
stock would be washed down the sink
and Proprietor TremDlay would be sit
5ing in his armchair, looking innocent
and happy and reading about the war
in the East.
He would look UP and smile at the
sheriff, who would say hard words and
90 out at the side door. Then busi-
less would be resumed, with a new
bottle of whiskey. Bnt the other day
/ deputy sheriff penetrated the Maze
IN an unlooked-for way.
When the Maze was constructed an
unused door was nailed up and sheath
ed over, being left unguarded by bells
or bars. Three nights the deputy spent
IN cutting out the panels of this door
and the sheathing within and at last
he made hole large enough to crawl
This let him into the second corridor.
He started for the bar, but met man
coming through the passage. who rec
ognized him. The man made race
for the peep hole, while the deputy
dashed for the bar. The deputy won
The race, and grabbed Tremblay just
as the latter was about to spill gallon
Of whiskey down the sink spout.
That was the end of the Maze. The
nine oaken doors and all the lights AND
bells and bars were taken out and car
ried to the jail, while Tremblay was
ordered to appear in court On Thurs.
day. He did not appear and is said to
have left town. The county attorney
will proceed against the owners of the
building if any more MAJ ss are opened !
there.