The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-03-01
LIQUOR | / 7 [ ! ! | | !. I {!
ACROSS '!! ] B. BORDER J ! D.: R
Northern Section Of Maine Being
y Flooded With Whisky !. +;
Il. ...: Il. From Canada. s :, f..
Il. LAWFUL, SEIZURES ARE. FEW ! T: ! .
Comes Across Line in All Forms Into
State Which Was Pioneer in "Dry"
( Laws-Many Ways of Fool
ing the sleuths. (. .'. !

: Bangor, Me.-The rate at which Ca
madam and Scotch whistles are flowing
over the northern border into Maine
proves that enforcement Of the federal
prohibition law hasn't got into its
stride as yet for never in all the his
tory Of theoretical droughts have GASES
been greener, more numerous or closer
together in this pioneer dry state than
right now, when there is more law than
ever before, twice as many "enfoxcers'
and increased penalties.
Trainmen who come down say that
whisky of all grades and oceans OF
pure grain alcohol are flowing over the
border at hundred places, and that at
four principal points the alcoholic In
,vasion amounts to flood. These four
points are Van Buren,, opposite the
New Brunswick town of st. Leonards,
on the St. John river; Fort Kent, which
has easy access to the Canadian village
Of Clare via a suspension 'footbridge.;
Fort Fairfield, which is but nine miles
distant from the New Brunswick town
OF Andover, and Houlton, which Is q
near neighbor of the provincial town Of
Woodstock. 49,. -,
Only Occasional Seizures.
Occasionally the, revenue officers
seize wagon or sled load Of whisky
coming over the international bridge
from St. Leonards or over the. Ice at
some more obscure locality, but moth
ing is said about the great number of
rt'booze" chariots that get by the gov
,ernment's lookouts and which keep the
tspeakeasies Of Aroostook or the bar
rooms of Bangor supplied: Also. the
st. John river being frozen good and
1ssoKd for its entire length, men and
teams can cross anywhere in the rivers
s1OO-mile stretch along the border, 80
that, as the revenue men themselves
jadmit, a standing army with sentinels
severy fifty feet would be required to
Gshut out the flood.
There is so much more money to be
made in bringing in "booze," even
few bottles at time, that hundreds
Of w0odsmen have quit swapping roads
and chopping trees for the rum.running
business, and ninety-nine, In 100 of
them, knowing the country thoroughly,
get by with their goods.
-, Price Of Canadian Whisky.
Canadian WHISTLES that can be bought
at So "short quart on the New
Brunswick side of the line sell In
Aroostook county at Sc and in Bangor
at So, while genuine Scotch is 81 in
New Brunswick, So in ArOOstoOk and
$12 to $15 in Bangor. Pure grain alcb-
hol, to he had in New Brunswick ut 81
quart, is "split" with water on this
side of the line, so that every quart
yields about SIG. With the addition of
little nrune Juice and burnt sugar,
this alcohol is transformed, into "Aner-
lean rye supposed to have been
brought in from Boston or New York
"before the lid went on"
Whatever the outcome Of the war on
"bOoze.Y the enforcement of the law
will be hardest in Maine. both on ac-
count of the state being cheek by jowl
with Canada and on account Of the
seventy years experience that the peo-
pie. here have hadin deviSing ways and
means of fOOlng the sleuthS.