The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1906-11-22

I
a little out OF focus. Is it not possible
that Maine may be wrong on this liquor
question? When the whole civilized
world has either some kind of a law re-
stricting the sale of liquor, or no law at
all regarding it, and we have double
and twisted, triple expansion prohlbl..
tory law, it looks to me like the case of
eleven obstinate jurors who wouldn't
agree with the twelfth one. Would itnot
be more manly, would it not be more
honest, for our legislature to pass some
restrictive law that the people believe
in regarding the sale of liquor, than to
enact a code of laws that it knows can
not be enforced, and then call recess
of thirty minutes while the members
90 out and buy 1920 post office order
and send away to Kentucky for four
full quarts Of rye whiskey, with two
small glasses and patent corkscreW
thrown in as a premium. Maine is a
temperance State by choice and would
be under any kind of a liquor law. Her
people don't have to be kept sober by
law. If it were SO, the first thing a
Maine man would do when he got out
of the State would be to get drunk,
when. as a matter of fact, the first
thing the drinking men generally do is
to get sober. A little liquor seems an
absolute necessity at times. l was
reading the history of the good old
church where | received my early rel-
gious training, and OF which l have the
honor of being clerk, and l learned that
when the frame Of the church was
raised the parish committee furnished
a barrel of punch, and Judging from the
class of men who have been on that
committee in my day III venture the
remark that it was good punch. AND
did it hoodo the church, that punch:
Not a bit of it, for today it has a bank
account sufficient to pay half It's run
ming expenses from requests made by
some of the descendants of those who
furnished that barrel of punch. But
we are overburdened with laws, all
kinds of laws. and {. good many OF them
are so antiquated that they ought to be
among the curiosities in the Smithson-
ian Institute. They are like a Belfast
man who was coming from New York
on a Fall River steamer. He was In
the act of striking a match to light, as
he thought, the gas in his stateroom.
when darkey saloon boy seeing him
stepped into the room, reached over
his shoulder and turned on the electric
light, slapped him on the back and
said, "Boss, you're more'n forty years
behind de time" and was lost among
the passengers before the man realized
that tallow candles had no, been listed
on the exchange for good many years.
What we need is a marked down sale
of about half of our laws, and then put
few up to date ones on the books; and
one of the first, in my opinion, should
be law to prevent roOsterS from crow
| ing between the hours of sunset and
sunrise. 1t is not on my own ac-
| count that | advocate such law, but
| it is in the interest of the American hen.
/ | plead the cause of the emblem OF
Thanksgiving and the breakfast ONE
let The hen and egg industry is one
, of the largest in the country. The hen
has to supply the eggs,-We couldn't do
| it even were we SO inclined. After d
strenuous days work, the len retires
! to bed to rest and recuperate her vast
/ ed energies. About the time she is
doing off and dreaming OF 40 cent
eggs, a great lazy Plymouth Rock roos
ter, occupying the middle of the rooat,
! who never did an hours work IN his
I life, possessing one OF those long as
! lance voices, starts up and crows twice
minute till morning, and there is no
/ more Steep i'll llfdt uoih Iol ISh, Wv,
or any living thing Just imagine what
would have happened if Brigham
i Young in the good old days OF Nor
| monism had sat up III bed and croWed
all night, while his forty wives were
trying to catch few winks of sleep be-
tween crows. If he had attempted
such a performance it would have end
ed polygamy more effectually than all
legislation has accomplished since.
When Maine people get together,
they like to talk about the old state as
much as young man does about his
best girl, and there is much we can say
about her-I mean the State,-lf she
is sweet and lovable,-I mean the girl
noW,-but we all agree that Maine has
the coolest and clearest ice, the hand
soonest women, the best granite, the
loveliest scenery, the finest apples and
potatoes; and her devices for evadlng
the liquor laws challenge the admlra-
ton of the world. And her corpora
ton laws are only equalled by those OF
New Jersey. Why, with paid in
capital of ten dollars, you can organize
company with million capital stock,
! and 90 into another State and unload
it on the unsuspecting, and make
clear profit of the whole million, less
the ten dollars paid in, and Still there
are people who say you cannot make
money in Maine.
A man who had left the State for his
own, or the States, good, he didn't tell
me which, said there were two classes
in Maine: one. "the smart and the
other, ''the not smart" The smart, he
said, could get living in the State,
but the not smart were obliged to go
elsewhere. | turned this statement
over in my mind, and wondered what
would have happened to the rest OF us
if such men as John Peirce, Charles
. Morse, and some others had remained
at home! Look at any OF the big
buildings in our large cities and you
will see the initials -. p, contractor"
cut in the corner stone. Stand on the
shore anywhere between Savannah and
st. John and every steamship and
steamboat that goes by will have the
name ''Chas. W. Morse, owner" on the
stern. He, however, commenced to
s'cut ice'' before he left the State, and
notwithstanding he was in the business
for many years, l never heard him &C
cused of having ''cold feet. - Elk Gov
ernor Black and Rev. Minot j. Savage,
two former Maine men, are SO we'll
known that when either of them regis
ter at hotel the clerk always gives
them room with window in it, two
clean towels. and cake of ivory soap,