First experiences of American freedom - The "striped pig" and "Dusty Ben" -
A country mouse - What the cars are like - Beauties of New England - The land
of apples - A Mammoth hotel - The rusty inkstand exiled - Eloquent eyes -
Alone in a crowd.
The city of Portland, with its busy streets, and crowded wharfs, and
handsome buildings, and railway depots, rising as it does on the barren
coast of the sterile State of Maine, fully bears out the first part of an
assertion which I had already heard made by Americans, "We're a great
people, the greatest nation on the face of the earth." A polite custom-
house officer asked me if I had anything contraband in my trunks, and on
my reply in the negative they were permitted to pass without even the
formality of being uncorded. "Enlightened citizens" they are truly, I
thought, and, with the pleasant consciousness of being in a perfectly free
country, where every one can do as he pleases, I entered an hotel near the
water and sat down in the ladies' parlour. I had not tasted food for
twenty-five hours, my clothes were cold and wet, a severe cut was on my
temple, and I felt thoroughly exhausted. These circumstances, I thought,
justified me in ringing the bell and asking for a glass of wine. Visions
of the agreeable refreshment which would be produced by the juice of the
grape appeared simultaneously with the waiter. I made the request, and he
brusquely replied, "You can't have it, it's contrary to law." In my
half-drowned and faint condition the refusal appeared tantamount to
positive cruelty, and I remembered that I had come in contact with the
celebrated "Maine Law." That the inhabitants of the State of Maine are
not "free" was thus placed practically before me at once. Whether they
are "enlightened" I doubted at the time, but leave the question of the
prohibition of fermented liquors to be decided by abler social economists
than myself.
I was hereafter informed that to those who go down stairs, and ask to see
the "striped pig" wine and spirits are produced; that a request to speak
with "Dusty Ben" has a like effect, and that, on asking for
"sarsaparilla" at certain stores in the town, the desired stimulant can
be obtained. Indeed it is said that the consumption of this drug is
greater in Maine than in all the other States put together. But in justice
to this highly respectable State, I must add that the drunkenness which
forced this stringent measure upon the legislature was among the thousands
of English and Irish emigrants who annually land at Portland. My only
companion here was a rosy-cheeked, simple country girl, who was going to
Kennebunk, and, never having been from home before, had not the slightest
idea what to do. Presuming on my antiquated appearance, she asked me "to
take care of her, to get her ticket for her, for she dare'nt ask those men
for it, and to let her sit by me in the car." She said she was so
frightened with something she'd seen that she didn't know how she should
go in the cars.
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