hardship and suffering; and the second was my desire to expose the
unprincipled measures which were employed by the liquor party in
order to render the Dunkin Act non-effective, and thus bring it
into disrepute.

What I have written has been taken from personal experience and
observation; and as I have resided in three counties where the Act
was in force, and have since visited several others, the data,
which served as a foundation for what follows, was not gleaned
from any particular locality.

The picture I herein present of the plottings of the liquor party,
and the cruel treachery to which they resorted in order to bring
their conspiracy to defeat the law to a successful issue, is not
overdrawn; and, let me ask, can there be any doubt but there are
in existence at the present time plots similar to the one laid
bare in this book, which have for their object the obstruction of
the Scott Act in the counties where it has been or may be carried,
thus if possible to bring it into such contempt among the
unthoughtful, who will not examine back of the effect for the
cause, as to finally secure its repeal. Of one thing we may be
certain, if an unscrupulous use of money and the resorting to
"ways that are dark" will accomplish their purpose, these
conspirators will not fail of success.

It has been my aim in this book to help educate public sentiment,
so that if the same tactics are resorted to as were in the places
where the Dunkin Act was in force, my readers will not aid the
violators of the law by joining in the senseless cry, "the Scott
Act is a failure," but that they will, to the extent of their