Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-11

| dSdlIlSI lile pGOIlG vi Ills NOdiitS
The prohibitory law is enforced here
| today as well, or better than ever be-
| fore, but still it costs the average male
| citizen more for rum than it does for
bread
1t is true that liquor cannot be bought
| to any extent at the hotels and drug
stores and a stranger might so dry all
| day in one of our villages and not find a
drop, but it gets here just the same. Oh
| express is still in the business and the
| Canadian pocket peddlers are still on
deck Large quantities of cider is now
stored in the Aroostook cellars.
When the Rev. Mr.. Berry and his right
and left bowers We're up here they did
not see any obscene post cards, slot ma
chimes, hooche koochee dances or rum
bottles and went away thinking Aroos-
took was a suburb of Heaven. Had they
| gone around sheds and stables. or into
the back stores and cellars they might
have seen barrels, and boxes filled with
empty rum bottles, or if they had their
glasses on they might have seen those
dead ducks strewn along the road sides
in all directions; and many of their lis
tenerS in the audience had a comfortable
supply of the forbidden juice inside of
them, while they listened looking as in
noeent as lambs.
1t is true that Aroostook voted for pro-
hibition at the last election and probably
would again if there were an election
tomorrow, but | still believe a majority
Then why didn't they vote against it?
you ask. There We're several reasons
Many of the farmers who would have
voted yes We're over confident and
stayed at home to harvest their pota-
toes In the border towns there are well
regulated saloons on the line and the
voters did not care how the cat jumped .
they can get all the rum they want any
way.
We should like to hear from some
of the representative citizens of
Aroostook on this question. We do
not understand what chat Parkhurst
man. means by the average male
citizen" Does he take his own con-
fessed experience in procuring joy
water to be that of the average"
Aroostook man. Are We to understand
that the average" male citizen of that
county is a boozer to the extent of
more than his flour bill? We have a
suspicion that Mr.. Ashby has mislaid
his figures and recklessly stated
things with a party coloring.
But we are pleased with one ad-
mission of Mr.. Ashby. who has
preached rum as persistently in re-
cent months as though he had been
promised life supply from the rum
trust if he could help the Pat
tangail- Plaisted ring turn the State
over to the dragon. He says "a
stranger might go dry all day in one
of our villages" and that lit cannot
be bought to any extent at the hotels
"a n ;, .,ISn thara.
no obscene post cards. slot machines,
etc.
Thank God for that much, Our
old potato-raising county is a pretty
good place in which to raise boys and
girls, in spite of its Ashby rum trust
advertisers and its foreign pocket
peddlers, and express business in vio-
lation of Maine law.
If there are no saloons openly i'll
girl white slaves, if there are no
nasty pictures and literature handed
about, and no active or attractive
bids for patronage of the rum trusts
hell-traps. Aroostook county is a
pretty good place in which to live.
1t is about as far above the average
saloon town as is Heaven above
Hades.
If the Illicit rum traffic is confined
hardened and confessed boozers who
know the secret signs and are known
to the contrabandists, then it is not
defiantly hunting for the sons and
daughters of the people. We accept
Mr.. Ashby's knowledge, as to where
dead ducks" are strewn. but dead
ducks are not so dangerous to the
rising generation as are the live ones
i'll the hands OF those who have been
given legal permission to ply their
hellish calling
According to Mr.. Ashbys testimony,
then, in Aroostook county boy has
to hunt for the devil. whereas in
license county the devil eternally
hunts for the boy.
Apparently Mr.. Ashby has no boys
and neither love nor respect for the
boys and girls of his neighbors. We
hope it is not so; that it is only a
natural perversity cropping out. But
we should like to hear from an I'M
biased man or woman as to the truth
of Mr.. Ashby's claim that the aver
age" Aroostook male citizen is spend
ing as much for contraband rum as
for necessary bread.