The Portland daily press., 1872-08-16
The Greeley Demonstration,


The visit of Horace Greeley to Portland for
the purpose of telling his supporters in Maine
what he knows about office-seeking, was at
tended by some very amusing incidents. I'm
partially viewed its success was moderate, moth
ing more, and the attempts of those who have
been following in Mr. Greeleys train to mag
nifty its Importance or enthusiasm is simply a
waste of energy. One enthusiastic reporter
heard ga hundred guns saw and stflags and
banners waving everywhere along the route and
the sidewalks surging with masses of human
ity as the procession moved along, and from
the windows and doors of the residences on
either side futtered handlserchefs and bright
colors in honor of the distinguished party;'' and
we are also told that flour thousand people
were present in City Hall. Now this is all
bombast. The crowd inside the depot was but
little larger than ordinarily collects on the ar
rival of train, and one had no difficulty in
passing through to the room which was made
memorable by the presence of the distinguish
ed guest The crowd outside was quite large,
but quiet and orderly; more like curosity-seek-
ers than partizans of a political candidate And
the 'surging masses" numbered about as many
people as Howe's London Circus attracted out
of doors by its splendid paraphernalia
The mixed party are divided in their opinion
of its success Some of the prominent singh
toned Democrats were completely omitted in
the distribution of the elements" and swore
eloquently because they Were not limited to
full communion on the Cincinnati platform.
'Who's managing this thing?" asked one of
the old-fashioned, SITS wrong, all wrong, and
perfect betch!' and the ferule of his cane
ratified lively on the sidewalk as he went off
The young Liberals were disappointed. In
their zeal they telegraphed for bands of music
and had three from abroad on their hands,
with no earthly place to put them all One
headed the procession, of half dozen car
riages, the second was stationed in front of
City Hall to drum up the crowd, and the third
was lying around loose, with no part to play.
The startling event." which was to end in an
instantaneous revolution fell short of its antic-
ipated success The advertisements that had
been sent out failed to bring in crowd from
the outlying country. Three bands to ainuse
the citizens of Portland at Greeley demon
stration! 1t was evident that somebody had
Numbered, and nobody was willing to father
S'AS i''iSoeieo oOceiils anu u scene.
The managers said that two of the bands came
without orders. They denied it and rehearsed
the contents of the kilograms. Then the Com
mittee insisted that the telegraph company
was entirely to blame. But the band couldn't
stop to discuss the question They were not
going home without the money and after a
good deal of hagglng their demands were sat
isfed. One paid the other must be, and the
Liberal exchequer was depleted about $500 in
consequence of an error of judgment. The
''oldheads" laughed in their sleeves and enjoy
ed the discontinue of the new managers of
the "party." s1..e,s5 81 ,-t.T tsifr
And yesterday brought another disappont-
ment. Posters and advertisements announced
great Greeley mass meeting at Augusta, with
railroad excursion tickets for one dollar the
round trip. Orders were given to be sure and
have cars enough for the crowd. Sixty-seven
people bought excursion ticks by the morning
train The special train, with Horace on
board, which followed two hours later, and was
free to the leaders" contained about seventy
five passengers. When the first train arrived
at Brunswick, filled with excursionists and reg
ular passengers a vote was taken and resulted:
Greeley, 1863; Grant, 152; which is discourage
ing