Daily American telegraph., 1852-02-21
Editors Correspt, ndence.
From New York Core spondent.l


if they were working by the job
Last evening, at Irpler Hall, there was a long
and loud Earehd for the Maine Liquor law.
1t was the great festival of the National Tenn
perance League, called By the malignants " The
Holy Alliance of Temperance"
The tickets to the banquet, in the main body OF
the hall, were $50 for each person, but 90 cents
apiece for those who were content to partake only
Of /" the feast of reason and the flow of SOUL" as
auditors in the gallery.
Having distaste for public supper-tables, ] re-
paired with some friends to the dress circle, as
it is denominated, to distinguish it from another
gallery above.
Were you ever in Tripler Hall NOW called
Metropolitan when illuminated to the full of its
capacity? 1t beats the world, not only in capa-
cousness and elegant ornament but for its amount
of gas-lght Every jet Of gas was now in full
blaze.
The ample platform at the upper end of the
room, which Jenny Goldschmidt and her phalanx
of musicians occupied at the Lind advent, was
now covered wi til tables and seats for the orators
who were not to discourse eloquent music, " but
eloquent arguments for the cause temperance
| Below six or seven tables extended the entire
length of the hall, afording seats for about 800
people A fur proportion of these were ladies,
and few children. Among these, though evident
ly of the mddling class, (Which | regard as the
best,) quite number were dressed fashionably,
and even gayly.
The "Alleghanians, musical corps, had a
place ON the platform, and a number of ladies.
The presence of the fair relieved the supperscene
from the pggish aspect common at gander par
ties
At the right of the little man who presided sat
| the tall and rather corpulent form, General Sam
Houston, whose white hair, and head partly bald,
| made him look to be about 65. He was dressed
with exquisite propriety for his age and figure !;
and many, l suspect, before they discovered his
identity, took him to be some good old sober sided
Quaker. During his speech, subsequently, the
venerable man affirmed that he was exactly
| what he seemed" but could not help thinking
of his many mad pranks in younger days.
To the right of General H. were Hon. Neil
Dow, Mayor of Portland and author of the ia
nous Maine liquor law; Rev. S. L. Cuyler, of
Trenton, N. j.; Rev. Mr.. Cheever, the author
of 'Deacon Giles's Distllery;" and sundry
other distinguished gentlemen unknown to me.
At the presidents left sat the Hon. Horace Mann,
whose fame, obtained in the secretaryship of the
board of education in Massachusetts,, and SUBJ
sequently furnished by his bitter assaults upon
Daniel Webster, has a fair prospect of recovering
its former brightness by his fearless and efficient
encounters with the demon of intemperance.
The Hon. Senator is tall, slim man, with long
gray hair, but not bald, though he is sixty years
DID, or more, and has lost some of his front teeth
which impairs his utterance. He has a long, mar
row head, rather full in the frontal region; and
he often wears spectacles To his left was the
great Barnum, hanked on one side by huge
orthodox clergyman, named Howe, (who, in vir
| tue of his stentorian voice, was toast-master,)
and on the other by his. /" ghosty adviser" the
dark commissioned round faced and round bellied
Mr. Chaplin, the Samson Agonistes of the Univer-
salists, jolly good fellow, and one of the best
orators Of modern times. Then there was Mr.
John Chambers, of Philadelphia, formerly from
the north of Ireland and sundry other men ac-
customed to battle strongly for the good cause.
didn't see Greeley or Cough; but Father
Taylor" the Methodist minister and " sailors
preacher" from Boston, came in during the
evening.
| 1t was las good as play" to see the knife
and fork game which these eight hundred or one
thousand people began, simultaneously, as soon
us Mr.. Howe had asked an appropriate blessing.
OF course, the large and discriminating audience
in the gallery were attentive spectators of this
part of the performance, and their critiques were
none the less caustic because, being hungry, they
were sharp-set. Certainly, the Americans can
eat faster than any nation under the sun, the
Hungarians not excepted.
The gentlemen who most distinguished them
! selves in the knife-and-fork movement Il speak
! as an impartial critic) were Gen. Sam Houston,
Rev. Mr.. Chaplin, and Rev. Mr.. Howe Henry
Ward Beecher had not arrived. For small
man, the author of Deacon CHESS Distillery y
did great execution. Our friend Horace Mann
played little with a cup of coffee and around
the edges of slice of ham, but Though death
on the liquors) did not prove any great shakes in
Furnishing the solids 1t was sort of an Indian
camp meal, with the General on his right; and
the two Senators soon became playful over. the
notices extracted from the cookies.
Whether the Generals flow Of ideas was OBJ
structed by his hasty but substantial meal, l can
not say, but his opening speech was by no means
: brilliant.
! He intimated that in his own person he had
never used liquor to excess. o, Sam! 0, General!
! q In vino Ueritas;" and there should be truth in
: cold water, too Or, havnt you drank enough
from the well during the past ten years to come
to the truth which is said to be al the bottom?