AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



would drive visitors elsewhere, and this Maine 

 will not do. Such hotels are not raided as long 

 as the proprietors confine their ministrations to 

 the guests of the hotel and do not sell liquor to 

 the natives. 



Packages may come, by freight or express, to 

 summer visitors, and though billed as wine or 

 liquor, with even the name of the beverage 

 stamped in bold letters on the box or barrel, the 

 sheriff never sees them. The native has to be 

 more careful, and either has his box consigned to 

 a stranger, or he has an innocent barrel of flour 

 sent to him with a demijohn concealed in the 

 centre. Once this liquor is in the hands of the 

 owner it is promptly consumed, even though 

 the effort reduces him to a state of stupefaction. 

 Beer and other light drinks take up too much 

 room, so that those who crave stimulants of any 

 kind are forced to obtain them in a highly con- 

 centrated form, and whiskey and rum, of a poor 

 quality, are the ordinary beverages. The diffi- 

 culty and delay in getting the liquor, and the 

 danger in keeping it, are such that once in hand 

 it is promptly consumed with the effect of making 

 drunkards of the very men the law was framed 

 to protect. The temptation of the open saloon, 



42 



