Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1883 — Prohibition in Maine. [ARTICLE]

Prohibition in Maine.

From Portland, Me., comes the information, published in the New York Sun, that an examination of the books of the Collector of Internal Revenue at Portland shows that the number of licenses to engage in the wholesale and retail liquor business granted by the United States authorities to the citizens of Maine during the year beginning May 1, 1883, is as follows:

£■ ' f Towns and Cities, p Towns and Cities. 3 a Augusta... 22 Houlton 18 Bath 31 Lewiston 62 Belfast 21 Oldtown. 18 Biddeford 68 Old Orchard 12 Bangor 154 Portland 212 Brunswick 11 Rockland 53 Eden 11 Richmond 11 Ellsworth 10 Saco 10 Gardner * 16 Skowhegan 10 Hallowell 10 Waterville 20

The examination further discloses the fact that “the towns and cities in which the number of licenses varies from one to nine swell the total number of licenses in the 172 towns and cities included in the examination to 1,162. Allowing two men in each instance, we have a grand total of 2,332 men engaged in the licensed liquor business in Maine. No absolutely correct estimate can be made of the number of persons engaged in the business, to a greater or less degree, without a license, but good judges, put their number as high as 200 in Portland alone, and at about 1,000 in the State at large.” In view of such facts and figures, what must be thought of Maine as a prohibition State ?