MEN OF MAINE 



liquor. Once at Lewiston, when the State fair 

 was in session, the car filled up with men going 

 home from the fair, of whom quite one half had 

 evidently been drinking too much. A chatty old 

 man of the party who took a seat beside me told 

 me that on the fair grounds there were not less 

 than twenty booths in which liquor was openly 

 sold. " That 's our Depity Sheriff," he said, with 

 a smile, pointing to a big fellow with flushed 

 face and bloodshot eyes, who seemed to be mak- 

 ing for the platform. " Sit down, Jim," he 

 yelled. " Do ye want yer neck broke ? " As 

 Jim sat down, the old man turned to me confid- 

 ingly and whispered, " About Monday Jim '11 

 snake in some fellow up our way for sellin' 

 liq'r." 



An investigating committee at Lewiston re- 

 ported that there were not less than fifty places 

 in that city where liquor was being openly sold, 

 and of these fifty the names of not less than 

 thirty-nine of them appeared on the court dockets 

 under indictments in the year 1899, against whom 

 182 complaints had been made, out of which 

 sixty-nine convictions, followed by fines, were 

 had, only one dealer having been sent to prison. 

 The fines averaged I324, and the committee 



39 



