THE NW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND 1902 OUR DAY Vol. XIII.-JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1894.-No. 73. NEAL DOW'S NINETIETH BIRTHDAY. There is not another man in Maine so well known the world over as General Neal Dow, the venerable Apostle of Temperance, as he is sometimes called, whose ninetieth birthday, March 20, 1894, is to be universally observed by meetings in the interest of the temperance reform. The story of General Dow's life has often been told in print but we are not aware that it has ever appeared in these pages. We believe that a brief sketch of this veteran's life and career will possess great interest to our readers, as a majority of them probably are studying more or less the same problem which Mr. Dow has given almost his entire life to solve. Neal Dow was born in Portland, March 20, 1804, and is accordingly over eighty-nine years of age. Canon Farrar, who not long ago visited him, called him the youngest man of his years he had ever met. It is doubtful if there are in Portland many men of seventy years who are as well preserved, active and strong as Mr. Dow. His vitality and retentive memory are wonderful for a man of his age. His father was Josiah Dow, who conducted a large tannery in Portland. Mr. Dow's family belonged to the society of Friends, and as they were the only people in those days who did not use intoxicating liquors, Neal Dow's early life was thus influenced by temperance principles. In 1830, at the age of twenty-six, he was married. Two or three years after his marriage occurred the event that crystal lized his hitherto awakening reformatory tendency into the one adamantine purpose of his life. The story has been told before but it always possesses an interest and fascination. There was a certain Portland citizen who occupied a government position and who was addicted to periodical intemperance. One evening his wife came to the young Neal Dow, who was even then a power in temperance circles, and told him that her husband was at a certain saloon, and that if he was absent from his duty on the morrow he would surely lose his position. Would Mr. Dow go after him and try to induce the rumseller not to sell him any more liquor? Mr. Dow found him in the saloon and said to the proprietor, "I wish you would sell no more liquor to Mr. Blank." "Why, Mr. Dow," said he, "I must supply my customers." "But," was the reply, "this gentleman has a large family to support. If he goes to his office drunk to-morrow he will lose his place. I wish you would sell him no more." The rumseller became angry at this and said that he, too, had a family to support, that he had a license to sell liquor, and he proposed to do it, and that when he wanted advice he would ask for it. So you have a license to sell liquor?" said Mr. Dow. "And you support your family by impoverishing others. With God's help, I'll change all this." He went home fully determined to devote his life to suppressing the liquor traffic. "The Maine law," says he, "originated in that rumshop." All the rest of his life he has labored in the cause of temperance, visiting the different places in the State, lecturing on his specialty, paying out of his own pocket for other lecturers and speakers, distributing tracts and stirring up matters generally. In 1851 he drew up the "Act for the Suppression of Drinking Houses and Tippling Shops," and on June 21st of the same year it was signed and became what is known the world over as the "Maine Law." All our readers are, of course, well acquainted with General Dow's subsequent leadership of the Prohibition Party. He devotes about half of each day to its cause. In summer he He breakfasts in sumhour later. The time rises at five o'clock, in winter at six. mer at 7:30 and in winter half an between his rising and breakfast hour he usually spends in reading and writing. He dines at one, has a light supper at six, and retires usually at nine o'clock. General Dow is a very temperate man both in eating and drinking, and to this and the regular hours he keeps he ascribes his wonderful health and its preservation at such an advanced age. He believes that there is intemperance in eating as well as in drinking, and he never rises from the table without feeling that he would like to eat more. The most interesting room in the Dow mansion is the library, a long, well-lighted apartment occupying the southwestern wing of the house. General Dow probably has one of the finest and largest private libraries in the State of Maine, and he may be found there almost any time in the day. The General does not care much for fiction and not many books of that class find a place in his library. He says so many works of that kind are ground out nowadays that it is impossible to keep up with them all, so he prefers to leave them severely alone. History and biography are his favorites and his library is particularly rich in them. In one bookcase are about five hundred French books which Mr. Dow reads as readily in the original as in the English language. He is a splendid French scholar and thinks the language is delightful. The time the General does not spend in his library he may generally be found in his study occupying the eastern corner of the house. Here is where the writer found him one morning, seated at an old-fashioned desk with the cheerful sun shining in upon him and writing as actively as a man of thirty, instead of being nearly three times that age. The General's study is a small room, large enough to hold the desk above mentioned, a few reference books and his invaluable collection of scrap books which he proudly displayed to the writer. These scrap books are worth more than their weight in gold, not only to their owner but to future generations, who are interested in the cause and history of the |