The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-08-24
Says Local Option Means B

suit lot client OF uiut. vi COuTSc,
l had heard much about the prohibi-
ton Of Maine, and l said to the clerk
at the hotel the evening l landed
there, "Is there any place around
here that could get a drink OF
course, l didn't want drink, you all
understand that, l was merely in
Quiring so that / might see what they
were doing. Well he said, If you
will go up the street two blocks you
will find a grocery store on the cor
per and at the back of the store you
will find a lot of boxes piled up; you
walk back of them and you will find
a stairway down into the cellar, and
you'll find there what you want And
I went down: well, there as nothing
there to show that there was any
liquor for sale, but it seemed to me
it was the best lighted cellar l had
ever seen if they lighted all the gas
jets in sight. From one you could
get whisky, and from another would
come brandy, and from another keg
beer, and another ale, and the thing
was so fixed on the roof that the
liquids could be all emptied into the
eve troughs before an officer could
get up there to determine what was
in the barrel. That was my first per-
sonal experience and investigation of
the prohibition question in the state
of Maine. Now, what it is today is
somewhat different. 1 am not going
to quote from personal experience
now, but am going to read you an
article cut from the Chicago Evening
Journal of March 6, 1909, about
Portland, Maine Recorded Wilbur
c. Wells, of the municipal court, be-
lieves that the county of Cumberland
should establish farms for drunk
ards and quit sending them to jail.
There are at least 400 men and wo-
uIcH WHO COulc DClOiC tulS NouA ehhiS
and again; l suggest that these con-
firmed drunkards be treated in some
other way. A good farm could be pur-
chased by the county and l believe in
handling them in that way their
number could be reduced rapidly
That is in Portland, Maine. In 81
years of continuous prohibition in
the city of Portland, Maine, and in
speaking only of the confirmed
drunkards that come periodically into
court, that are time after time sent
up as drunkards. Bangor, Maine, is
the queen city of that state from the
prohibitionist's standpoint. The New
York World of March Z, 1909. says:
If Dow, who is the father Of prohi-
bition, could come back to earth and
drop into the queen city of the east,
he would be deeply shocked to see
what mockery is made of his pet
law, in the ghetto of Hancock street,
along Broad, Main, Central, Ex-
change, Harlow streets; everywhere
the saloon doors are again open; no
longer the secret service spy and bot
tie holder, no more the near-beer,
and no lodging for anybody; not
only are the saloons, hotels, bars,
kitchen bars and dives of every sort
running from dawn to dark and after.
but from all of them you can get 1t,
ale, lager and hard stuff, all Of them
and all run on an all-night schedule;
five half-barrels of ale were run off
within a stones throw of the sheriff's
Office, and yet since the new year
came in not single liquor case has
been brought before the municipal
court. That is in the city of Ban
gor, Maine, now and after 81 years