The Portland daily press., 1878-01-22
"Gath's'' Gossip.
Frye OF Maiae-GOssip about Blaine The
"Western Yankee state."

asked Col. Frye, Congressman Of Maine,
and the best of that state, 1 think, on the floor,
what the solution was to be. He said:
Il think the sooner we open general debate
on the state of the Union, the better it will be.
This policy promoted by President Hayes is
conscientious on his part, but a delusion.
think. 1t Is based on his belief that his course
toward the South will give US Republican
victory there iu seven eight states at the next
Presidential election. Everybody else can see
that the results Of the policy will be Just the
contrary"
asked Mr.. Frye If he thought that Blaine
and Conkling were well matched.
blaine is the better man for this floor (FIye
was sitting in his seat in the nearly empty
hall), and Conkling is stronger over there in the
Senate"
Frye seemed to think that the men in the
Senate best qualified to debate the state of the
Nation were Conkling, Edmunds and Hamlin.
Said ]: "Does Hamlin ever speak?" ''Not Of
ten; but he can speak, and'speak very well and
give the best judgment. He represents the cur
rent of Republican feeling and is thought in
Maine about the best of any We have"
The havoc public life, ambition and anxiety
make in young man are well exemplifsd In
Mr.. Blaine He is only fOrty-seveu wears old
ne mas made his whole career and fortune since
1858, the year he went to Maine-a brief twep-
ty-tour years. For five or six years he edited
local political newspapers at the state capital
thus Initiating Simon Cameron, Solon Boriand
Ihurlow Weed, John Patterson and others.
I linen rour or hye years were spent in the Legis-
lature, swinging the gavel as Speaker two years
there, For sixteen years he has been in Wash
lngton, and, in all, in public life since his TWEEN
ty-eighth year. His wife was Miss Harriet
Stanwood. Her father, Jacob Stanwood, NOV
ed to Maine from Ipswich, Mass, in 1922 and
was wool-buyer. He dropped dead in bank
at Augusta in 1916. A few years after that
time, while teaching school in Kentucky, Har-
ret StanWood met young Blaine, also teaching
ened his roots there
Maine presents, at the present time, q re-
markable difference in political feeling from
her parent, Massachusetts. The two ablest
OF states not original members of the Federal
Union, Maine and Vermont, Edmunds and
Morrlll OF Vermont, Henry Wilson once indi-
Gated to me as the ablest Senatorial delegation
| OF all Their names are on the statutes more
and IN the archives of the government" said
| Wilson. Vermont is also represented in WASH
| lngton by Kellogg and George III. Sheridan OF
Lou1sana-one against Hayes, the other for
him-and by Stilson Hutchins, who publishes
| the Post, the Democratic organ. Maine is rem
resented by Packard, by Chamberlain's wife.
by the Washburn family, by Hamlin, Blaine,
Hale, Frye and Justice Clifford, the only New
Englander on the Supreme Bench. Maine is
represented by the poet Longfellow and by
Gen. Howard. Maine produced the first
American Baronet, who died in 1894, Sir Wm
Phipps, the ship-builder, who was one of
twenty-six children, twenty-one of them sons.
h Her exports" says cynlc; "are wives, lum-
Der and ice." This state, whose shield Of arms
bears the moose and the pine tree, and the
proud motto of Dirigo, 81 direct" was only in
dependent of Massachusetts, in 1919. The state
capitol building was not finished till 1892 The
same year the capitol at Washington was done.
Inc MAINE members are now all cramRing on
the LIE OF her hrst Governor, VIM. King, who
| is buried at Frye's town of Bath, and whose
| statue by Simmons has been sent to Washing
| ton, to be followed, they say, by Governor
Kent. The people here expected Fessenden as
tne second choice. William King" said Mr..
Frye, was the brother of Rufus King the first
| Senator from the state of New York. Two of
those eminent brothers were well educats ed by
| their parents William was apparently slight
| ed He also took different political course
| from his brothers, who were Federalists, ana
he became Democrat. Hence, Maine entered
the Union as Democratic state and in order
to get her in King had to give his representa-
ton IN Congress pro rata. He kept this agree
ment, and the Federalists for years had more
represe1tation than tney were entitled to, Gov
| ernor King keeping his word houorably. He
| established the business Of shipbuilding aceu-
INFLATED large fortune, and is regarded as the
creator OF the state. "Maine," added Frye,
"was not established like Massachusetts, OF
Connecticut or Rhode Island, for religious pur-
| yoses, but only for commerce. Il came not here
to worship God said one Of our early settles,
but to purchase furs and peltries.'" Mr.. FRYE
| added that Wisconsin was the Western coun-
| terpart OF Maine, yet hardly more Western,
and that the difference between that state aud
| Southern Indiana, where he had stumped, was
/ the difference between day aud night,