nothing to drink, I should say, in such orderly houses as that I
selected. "People do drink some in the town, they say," said my
hostess to me, "and liquor is to be got. But I never venture to
sell any. An ill-natured person might turn on me; and where should
I be then?" I did not press her, and she was good enough to put a
bottle of porter at my right hand at dinner, for which I observed
she made no charge. "But they advertise beer in the shop windows,"
I said to a man who was driving me--"Scotch ale and bitter beer. A
man can get drunk on them." "Waal, yes. If he goes to work hard,
and drinks a bucketful," said the driver, "perhaps he may." From
which and other things I gathered that the men of Maine drank
pottle deep before Mr. Neal Dow brought his exertions to a
successful termination.

The Maine liquor law still stands in Maine, and is the law of the
land throughout New England; but it is not actually put in force in
the other States. By this law no man may retail wine, spirits, or,
in truth, beer, except with a special license, which is given only
to those who are presumed to sell them as medicines. A man may
have what he likes in his own cellar for his own use--such, at
least, is the actual working of the law--but may not obtain it at
hotels and public houses. This law, like all sumptuary laws, must
fail. And it is fast failing even in Maine. But it did appear to
me, from such information as I could collect, that the passing of
it had done much to hinder and repress a habit of hard drinking
which was becoming terribly common, not only in the towns of Maine,
but among the farmers and hired laborers in the country.

But, if the men and women of Portland may not drink, they may eat;
and it is a place, I should say, in which good living on that side