The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-02-22
THE REFORM HALL LAST NIGHT.

\ TREMENDOUS TURN-oUT -TELLIEG
SPEECHES by SEXTON AND SCOTT, AND 4
GOOD TIME GENERALLY.
As we predicted would be the case, the
meeting in Reform hail. last night, was the
largest held in Cairo since the inaugural
gatherings fifteen months ago, Every seat
was filed and nearly all the standing room
was occupied.
When we arrived Mr. II. Clay Sexton
had been introduced and was well warmed
up Mr.. 5. is natural orator He does
not make a scholarly speech; but for earn
cstncss and animation we have never heard
his equal. He has a good, strong voice, is
clear-headed, and maniiestIy has his whole
soul enlisted in the cause IN which he is
laboring. lie said he had been admonish-
ed that, at the head Of fire department of
a great city as he was, his advocacy of
Temperance wonId render him unpopular,
and might cost him his official head.
The proposition he denied, the suggestion
he thought improbable. Ask the most big
Gifted rumselier or the most degraded rum
drinkcr of ST. Louis which he would rather
have to look after the safety ofthc property
and the lives Of the people, Clay Sexton
drunk or Clay Sexton sober and the an
swcr will be, quick and decisive, give US
Sexton sober. And 50 in all the business
relations in life. in our banks and stores
and shops the sober man is
trusted, the drinking man suspected;
and if his love of the temperance cause,
that had snatchcd 50 many good men from
pcrdition, so many deserving wives and
loving mothers from want and misery, and
50 many helpless children from rags and
hungcr-if to advocate such cause i'm
pcrlcd his official head, nil he had to say,
and he appealed to Gcd TO witness his
honesty, let the head 90, lie was welded
to the cause. and would do battle
for it, CONG what may. lie didn't
believe in pruhibition--men can't
be forced into sobrieW; they
can't be lcgislated into total abstinence.
He fought his battles with the weapons of
moral suasion, and the man who could not
be redeemed through such means was lost.
The women were great and valuable CO.
workers in the cause. God knows they have
suffered enough to impcl them TO an earnest
cooperation, and everywhere they were
lending it; buthchad observed, witIsurprsc
| the lukcwarmncsS OF the churches In -.
Louis ministers would preach with great
| tcryOr against the sins of the world, but
none Of their anathcmaS were hurled
against the damnable liquor traffic; Broth.
cr so.and-so was liqdor dealer, he was
! liberal contributor to the support of the
ministry and ought not to be offended To
the temperance cause.-the cause Of all
causes the cause Of God and humanity
not one Of them devoted one sermon in u
dozen. And, concluding hs address,
which occupied about forty minutes, Mr.
sexton said that the love of temperance
was interviewer with his whole being. lie
loved it because it was the cause Of God
and man; it was the cause OF children; it
was the cause that lifted the poor dcbauch.
ed and degraded human being from under
iootup to the estate Of respected manhood 1T
brought sunshine where there were shadows
and darkness; plenty where there was
want and happiness where there was misery.
The gentleman was frequently applaudcd,
as he deserved to be, for his speech was
sensible practical and earnest even to fcrvid.
ness.
Mr.. Bob Scott followed Mr. sexton. lie
is evidently gentleman Of more culture
than Mr.. Sexton, but with less animation.
If Sexton is II natural orator Scott is II
natural wit. His sentences are well turned
and his points well put he com.
mcnccd by saying thot he owed
u debt OF gratitude to the grand
State of Illinois tina, he never could repay.
lie had owed it for thirteen year sOndnevcr
had expected that he or his children could
cancel it. II was in Illinois he learned ihc
lesson to "bc good to himself Friends
had told him that he had hartcrcd away his
libcrti's. Perhaps he had lie had sur