e great absence of crime."

In many parts of England and Scotland there is local prohibition, and
the uniform testimony as to the absence of pauperism and crime is as
unequivocal as that given above.

THE MAINE LAW--ITS COMPLETE VINDICATION.

But it is to the State of Maine, where a prohibitory law has existed for
over a quarter of a century, and where prohibition has been put to the
severest tests, that we must look for the more decisive proofs of
success or failure.

On the evidence which Maine furnishes, the advocates of legal
suppression are content to rest their case. In order to get a brief, but
thoroughly accurate and reliable history of the Maine law, we addressed
a letter to Hon. Neal Dow, of Portland, Maine, asking him to furnish us,
for this volume, with the facts and evidence by which our readers could
for themselves judge whether the law were a dead letter, as some
asserted, or effective and salutory. In reply, Mr. Dow has kindly
furnished us with the following deeply interesting and important
communication:

TESTIMONY OF HON. NEAL DOW.

PORTLAND, October 12th, 1877.

T.S. ARTHUR, ESQ.:

_Dear Sir_--I will gladly furnish you with a brief history of the
Maine Law, and a statement of its operation and effects in Maine,
in the hope that the wide circulation of the work you have in
preparation may serve to correct the mistaken notion that prevails,
to the effect that the law has failed of any useful result, and
that the liquor traffic is carried on as extensively in Maine as
ever it had been, with all its baleful effects upon the moral and
material interests of the State.

In the old time the people of Maine were as much addicted to the
use of strong drinks as those of any other part of the country; and
the effects of this shocking habit were seen everywhere in shabby
buildings, neglected farms and in wide-spread poverty. There were,
in this State, magnificent forests of the best pine timber in the
world. The manufacture of this timber into "lumber" of various
descriptions, and the sale of it, were the leading industries of
Maine. The products of our vast forests were sent chiefly to the
West India Islands, and the returns were mostly in rum and in
molasses, to be converted into rum by our own distilleries, of
which there were many among us, in various parts of the
State--seven of them in thi