The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-09-28

There is tide in the affairs of cities, as
well as of men, which, taken at the flood, leads
on to fortune 1t doesn't do at all to let the
suspicious moment go by. Many natural
seaport phrase which jealous neighbors
have attempted to make merry over and turn
into ridicule, but which we are glad to adopt
as belonging to Portland par erceHence-has
learned this lesson too late, and become a
mere Norfolk or Charleston.
Citizens of Portland, are you fully alive to
this fact-do you realize that now is the pre-
else moment when the tide of fortune is at
the flood, and that you are this very year to
determine whether your city shall remain
mere provincial locality, known to few sum.
mer tourists and distinguished only by re-
spectacle West India trade and Maine an out
lying province of Massachusetts,, or whether
the Que shall be an Independent and flourish
ing commercial centre, widely known for its
wealth and commercial Importance, and the
other leading State in the Union whose
two Senators in Congress shall not be sneered
at as representing an inconsiderable constitu-
ency by peripatetic orators? The whole mat
ter is decided when you decide wheth the
Portland, White Mountains and Ogdensburg
Railroad shall be built, and whether it shall be
pushed forward with all the energy and
pluck" that have characte you in rebuild
ing the city after the confagration and in car
rying forward other enterprises that have al
ready given Portland an enviable reputati on
for these qualities all over the country.
Let every citizen who feels an interest in the
cOmmon 0ood and who pOsSnsSes viaws vida
enough to comprehend that his own prosperi-
ty is bound up in that of his city and State
attend the meeting at City Hall tonight. The
exact condition of the affairs OF the projected
railroad will there be explained by gentlemen
who have had the matter in charge These
gentlemen have spared no effort to push on
the good work and to keep the public fully
alive to its Importance. Let them be vigorous
ly supported. Let not Vermont appeal in
vain to her sister State in behalf of an under
taking that will rebound to the. advantage of
both. Let it not appear that our neighbors
understand our interests more fully than we
do ourselves. Go to City Hall! Inspire those
who are laboring in your behalf by your pres
ence, if nothing more. The project in view is
not wild Utopian scheme-a South Sea bub-
BILE which will burst without any fulfilment
of its gorgeous promises. 1t is not an affair of
dreamland, but of hard cash results, of in
creased imports and exports, of mammoth
warehouses, of immense Western trade, of in
crease of wealth and population, of business
activity, of employment for laboring men, of
direct communication with Europe and of all
the blessings which follow from an improve
ment of the unequalled natural advantages
which nature has given us. Far more expen-
sive and difficult schemes have been carried
out under circumstances much less promising
and by people of far less means. Now is the
time for Portland to take her predestined
place among the cities of America and the
first thing in order is the meeting at City
Hall! aus tE f