Temperance Movement: "Intemperance is the Curse of the World" postal cover

Postal cover advocating the prohibition of intoxicating beverages, c. 1855. Unused. Wm. C. Hale, Fountain Office, Hartford, Connecticut. Features elaborate woodcut illustration of the "Execution, Operation & Effects of the Maine Law." To left, men break barrels of rum as a woman enters a pawnbroker and men fight in the street before a liquor store. Above, men wheel borrow bottles to a ditch. At right, a man and wife stand before a fountain, the man shown again wearing sash reading, "Love, Purity, & Fidelity." Space for stamp and address below.