Distilled in Maine: a History of Libations, Temperance & Craft Spirits by Kate McCarty

Author:Kate McCarty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A cache of liquor being unloaded from a ship at Grand Wharf in Portland, 1920. Collections of Maine Historical Society, courtesy of www.MaineMemory.com item #15416.

Frost’s designs helped rumrunners evade the authorities on the water, but the process of getting liquor across the border into Maine was much easier. Much of the liquor in Maine came from Canada, procured simply by people who drove their cars across the border to buy some. The U.S./Canadian border wasn’t monitored very thoroughly; there were neither resources nor reason to do so. The customhouse was a few miles over the border, and enforcement was lax because, according to a 1920 New York Times article, “most customs officials on either side of the line do not like the idea of having to carry out the duties of whiskey plotters.”88

While the customs agents might not have bothered with an enterprising tourist looking to return to Maine with a case of hooch in the trunk of his car, those attempting to smuggle alcohol by train back to Maine had to get creative. The train was higher profile and in transit longer, providing a long period of time for law enforcement to notice anything out of the ordinary. A 1919 Washington Post article detailing the evolution of Prohibition politics in Maine provides some amusing anecdotes of would-be smugglers caught on the northbound trains from Boston.

One staid clergyman headed to Bangor, dressed in traditional clerical clothes and carrying a bundle of books, received extra attention after the policeman noticed the man’s face was “more fitted for the prize ring than the pulpit.”89 After some questioning about the contents of his books, the policemen asked to see the minister’s Bible, unwrapped his parcel and found two quarts of whiskey instead. A young woman, cradling her particularly quiet infant, was slow to answer questions about the child’s age and sex, so the officers looked closer. The “child” let out an unusual gurgle and when its blanket was pulled back was revealed to be a half-gallon of whiskey.

Another woman walked slowly down the train platform and attracted notice, as her bulky clothes and body size didn’t match her slender face. The matron of the station took her into the office, asked her to remove her outer garments and found that the woman was wearing a tin blouse filled with a gallon of liquor and had many bottles hidden in her skirts. The Washington Post reported “that upon being denuded of her outer raiment the young woman resembled in some degree the statue of Diana of Ephesus—the incarnation of maternity—save that the sustenance she bore was for adults rather than for infants.”90

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