The Portland daily press., 1879-07-28
A FEEBLE BOOM.
Elliot King, Daniel Mclaughlin and T. j.
McIntire in Market Square.

1t was eminently fitting that that sun-burned
and horny-handed toiler, Elliot King, should
preside over an assemblage like that which
gathered in Market Square Saturday night,
composed, as it was, almost entirely of labor
ing men, Strange to say, however, Mr.. King
was not recognized by his fellow laborers when
he first mounted the platform and there was a
good deal OF inquiry in the crowd as to who he
was. The reason for his non-recognition prob
ably lay in the fact that he had taken off his
working clothes. When Mr.. King got fairly
mounted on the table he requested small boy
to hold his hat, cautioning him to guard it
safely and not run off with it. He seemed to
fear that he was to be mobbed for he appealed
several times to the audience to keep quiet and
to treat him courteously. To still further pro-
tect his person he assured his audience that he
didn't intend to make speech Nevertheless
he did make one-a little one for a cent. For
the most part it was weak echo of Scion
Chase's at City Hall Thursday evening He
wanted to know if the clothes he wore in 1865,
and the food he ate and tn e house he lived in
were not as good as those he now enjoyed, and
ii they were he wanted to know how we had
bettered our condition by resumption. The
obvious answer is that We get these things
cheaper now than then. The audience proba-
bly, thought of it, but had too much compassion
for Mr.. King to suggest it. AS for Mr.. King
himSelf-the answer was too truthful and too
full of common sense to occur to a Greenback
orator. Mr. King closed by introducing Mr..
Young of Ohio who sang a song. Hon. David
Mclaughlin of Illinois was then presented as
the first speaker.
Mr.. Mclaughlin said some wise and good
many foolish things. He cautioned his hear
ers that it was no time to inaugurate eight
hour movements; that it was their duty to go
to work and help relieve the country of its
burdens This was sensible thing to say.
He warned his hearers also to beware of men
who were willing to support almo st any doc
trine for the sake of office, thus unconsciously
striking Mr. Elliot King stunning blow right
between the eyes, Among the foolish things
was his plan of paying the national debt
which, though little misty, seemed to be to
use the coin reserve as far as it would go in
taking up the bonds and then issue non-inter-
est bearing notes payable in sixteen years for
a
condition of the laboring man, and mentioned
three states in each of which he said he had
seen 100000 idle laborers. This proportion
carried out through the whole Union would
exceed the 100000 which the Greeback ora
tors have agreed to represent as the number of
people idle. However, Mr.. Mclaughlin did
the square thing by cautioning the audience
against accepting any of his statements with
out investigation. He asked his hearers if
they were willing to be taxed to support the
bondholders in idleness. There was a general
murmur in the negative, but the loudest no
came from one member of the crowd who that
very evening had been voluntarily paying tri-
butte to the bondholder by filling himself full
OF whiskey and had apparently enjoyed it
too.
After Mr.. Mclaughlin got through Mr..
Young sang another song and Mr.. King an
nounced that the books containing Mr. Young s
songs, could be obtained at the stand for 10
cents each. 81 thought remarked an indi-
vidual in the audience, ''they wasn't doing all
this blowing for nothing" but they did do it
for nothing nevertheless, for with Mr.. Nc
Laughlin's gloomy picture of the condition of
the laboring men fir esh in their minds nobody
in the audience felt like wasting his money in
Greenback song books.
L. j. McIn tire of Massachusetts was next
introduced. Mr.. McIntire referred to the vast
multitude before him the vast multitude con-
sisted of about 200 peope] and complimented
them for their courage in assembling At this
the audience began to look around to see what
danger they had been facing, but as they could
see nothing on the earth more frightful than a
horse car they concluded that he referred to
the clouds which were threatening rain.
Mr.. McIntire talked some about the revolu-
tionary fathers, said the old parties were
stepped in rottenness and corruption, and
warned his audience that eternal vigilance was
the price of liberty But awakening no en-
thusiasm with these things he called attention
to the fact that he had been a soldier in the
late war. That did excite applause.
After he closed Mr.. King made another ap-
peal to the audience to buy some of Mr..
Young's song books "to get Mr.. Young some
tobacco to put in his pipe, adding as a con-
vincing reason for purchasing that every time
he filled his pipe he paid two cents duty to the
government and one cent duty for the match
He then thanked the ''sea of upturned faces
for their attention and dismissed the meeting