The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-07
Bootlegging Thrives Along
Eastern and Midwest
ern Border.
TRIPS MADE NIGHTLY
Smugglers Estimate on 13
Safe Journeys to One
COnfiScatiOn.
USE HIGH POWERED CARS
Slight Public Sympathy for
Enforcement Officers
Along Border.
USE HIGH POWERED CARS

Special Despatch to THE New YORK Hraatp.
out the sovereign State Of Maine
there Is scarcely q sign yet Of the
coming of winter. Various theories
are advanced in explanation of this,
one of which, not without Its plaus-
iblity, Is to the effect that there is so
much contraband liquor cached in the
soil that the frost is finding difficulty
in boring it's way into the ground.
In State where the enterprise OF
beating the liquor ban has been a
habit and something of a religion
for upward Of fifty years there are
citizens aplenty who take a strong
pride in the fact that Maine Is amply
provided against winter; that every
householder with any sense of re-
sponsibillty to his family or hospitality
to his friends has a supply In his cell
lar and an auxiliary store of 1t in
his backyard. and that for the improv-
ident or those without fluid cash
there is a vast treasure in the hands
of known Samaritans, who demand
fairly stiff price for it, but have
gallons and gallons and gallons of 1t
in carrot pits and under hay stacks
and in untenanted dwellings and in
caves in the woods and old barns.
The Price Is SI2 the Case Quart.
Bootleg liquor just now--all any
human being can desire Of it or pay
for--is selling all over Maine at s12 the
"case" Cor five to the gallon) quart.
II Is assumed that the price will go
higher as the cold weather comes
down. Also that the quality will
dwindle. and that whose drinks the
last dregs of Names stored liquor by
next spring will do wise thing in
making definite arrangements with his
favorite undertaken beforehand For
the province of Quebec in Canada,
where nearly all of Names liquor is
coming from, has been so put to 1t to
meet the strain upon its whiskey re-
sources that wholesalers there--taking
their cue, they say, from the American
sending out all sorts and conditions of
fluid to which they have given the
name OF whiskey. However, there
seems any amount of market for 1t,
Maine appearing to share with the rest
cf 4 stricken land that form OF mania
which makes 1t willing to pay any
thing for liquor good or bad.
e.
came cold and bitter fact the veteran
rumsellers of Maine put on their think
ing caps and began to devise ways and
means Ultimately most OF them de-
cided to retire either upon their COM
petencies or upon their relatives or into
some tranquil kind OF a trade. They
recognized that to stay In the rum busi-
ness required qualities which they did
not possess. that liquor IL It was to be
brought to Maine must come from
Canada in the teeth of the law. A new
order has set in and the liquor trade is
now almost wholly in the hands Of young
men, mostly Of foreign blood. and con-
spicuous for their cold daring. their hard
commercial acumen and the sartorlal
effects which render them salient In their
hours of ease.
Nobody knows exactly how many OF
these adventurers are running rum into
Maine and other States across the
Canadian border. but at night every road
leading over the line has It's quota of
them. and they conduct their business
upon principles OF efficiency and mathe-
matics which would bring them SUGGEST
In almost any domain of human en-
deayor. Statisticians among them or
serving them have figured out the likeli-
hood Of whiskey car being caught at
one chance In fourteen, or that upon ono
out OF every fourteen trips over the limo
each car may expect to be stopped ana
confiscated and It's driver fined. There
"a also good legal talent In their emploJ
ard this has evolved much strategy In
the way of confusing responsibility and
car ownership on court days.
High Powered Touring Cars.
The runners have long ago discarded
the automobile truck, finding Il too slow
and conspicuous and built to carry more
liouor than. IN the best Judgment of
these business men. should be permitted
70 fall into the hands OF authority In
single seizure. To-day all the cars used
iu rum running are OF the ordinary tour
ing type new and costly and high pow
cred. and each time one starts from
home on a Canadian journey II Is care
fully overhauod and fitted with a new
set OF tires OF the best quality money
can buy From Bangor adjacent 90
which lie certain rendezvous conceded to
be the principal distributing centres for
The state, the distance TO the border
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|yn.fintcd on EfOhtecufh Pane