The Portland daily press., 1880-09-06
Interesting Reading.
Tribune Correspondent in the Standard
Off1ce-He Boards the Greenbackers in
Their Den-what He Saw and Heard
There.
IN. Y. Tribune Corr.l

| main street Of Augusta yesterday morning in
search OF the Fusion Headquarters I exam
ined in vain the fronts of the buildings and the
| signs at the stairway entrances for some indi-
| cation that would serve as guide. Finally,
seeing sign that read "E. F. Pillsbury, Law
| Office" concluded that information could be
| got there if anywhere. Across the street was
suspended large flag divided in the middle
| by the name of Harris NJ. Plaisted, the Green
back candidate for Governor by nomination
| and the Democratic candidate by adoption,
| and tailed off with the names of Hancock and
| English. Going up the stairs found little
room with bare floors and dirty walls. Four
men were sitting around long table. Two
| were evidently Greenbackers and two Demo-
Gratis.
You can usually tell a Greenback from his
| Democratic yoke-fellows in the political team
| that is pulling together in Maine. He is rath-
| er unkempt and struggling as to hair and
beard and unbrushed as to coat collar His
eyes are bright, but little wild, he is pro-
fuse talker, and his general appearance is moro
respectable than that of the average Demo
| crat. in spite of his crankness. One Of tho
| Greenbackers tried to open a locked door
across the hall, and said that room was going
to be the headquarters. Then he said the
headquarters had been in Portland. Evidently
| the resignation of their chairman, Cove, had
disorganized the committee, and had closed
| its office for time. Returning to his seat by
the table in Pillsbury's office, the GreenbackeF
remarked that he supposed the headquarters
| were as much there as anywhere.
| TALK WITH REPRESENTATIVE GREENpAcK.
| ERs.
| "Are you Greenbackers supporting Han
| cock or Weaver" asked. "I don't see any
Weaver flags out. All your banners have
seen in the State have the names Of Hancock
and English on them" "We're going to hang
out Weaver flag when he comes here"
1T seems rather late to be hoisting the
| name of your Presidential candidate for the
| first time" "Oh, as between Hancock and
| Garfield we Greenbackers are for Hancock"
| A thick get man with tobacco stained mouth
and a nose that betokened frequent infring-
ment of the Maine law calculated his approx
| al of the statement.
| ''How do you manage about your electoral
| ticket? Is it for Weaver or Hancock" eve
divide the electors with the Democrats; our
L
on the principle that it is better to have part Of
the electoral ticket Of the State than lone"
"Who manages your canvass? Do you have
| two chairmen or one? Tell me how you run
your mixed concern" "Why, we have two
chairmen-one from each party; but the affairs
| of the Fusion organization are managed by q
| joint Executive Committee" 1s ~
"Has Barnum sent you any money from New
York;" The Greenbacker avoided this ques-
| tion and began to talk about the large sums of
money the Republicans were spending and the
lack of funds for the Fusion canvass. / see no
| evidence, however, of any want of money on
| that side. They have cash enough to buy uni
| forms and torches, to hang up Hancock and
| Plaisted flags in every town, to hire calls and
| to pay lot of impecunious Greenback orators
| from other States.
| "What", asked, "are you going to do with
| Weaver? He says that the Democrats down
| in Alabama have wiped out the vote of your
| Greenback brethren by gross frauds, and have
| stolen the State from them. Yet here in
Maine you are in close alliance with the Dem
ocrats Isn't your position a little illogical?'
The man with red nose interrupted the
| conversation with vulgar comparison which,
translated into decent language, meant that
/ the stories of fraud in the South were worn
| out political lies
| you're Democrat, I presume?" "You
| bet am" replied the red-nosed man.
| 81 thought so. / am talking to these Green
hackers now. These reports Of fraud in the
| South are not old stories to them. Their own
| candidate for President says that they are true
| and that their own party vote has been wiped
| out in Alabama by the Democrats stuffing
| ballot-boxes and making false counts. Now
want to ask these Greenbackers how they can
| cooperate with party in Maine that treats
| them in this way in the Sonth."
The Greenbacker was silent and confused
| for a moment; then he said: I'VE think that
| Hancock will put stop to these things. We
believe he will give US free elections and
| fair count"
| "Ah! see You are in favor of suppressing
/ your own party in the South, go as to elect
Hancock, in the belief that he will give you
fair show in the future. Now get At the logic
1 offyour position. You are nominallytfor weaver
but really for Hancock"
WHOM THE FUsIoNIsTs HAVE ON THE STUMP.
| After some further talk of this kind asked
/ for a list of the Fusion orators now on the
| stump, which was cheerfully given. 1t in
/ cludes large number of men OF very limited
| local reputation, but there are some Democrats
| and Greenbackers from other States.
| Weaver is down for half q dozen meetings.
| New York sends Thomas c. E.. Ecclesine, Col.
| J. r. Fellows, who commanded rebel regi-
| ment during the war, and General E. M. Leo
| and Major e. f. Purdy, with whose military
records am not familiar General Sam
| Cary is here from Ohio. He always turns mp
| where demagognism can be made to pay. Col.
i A. j. Grover, Col. =. +. Norton and Gen. j. +.
Farnsworth are on the list from Illinois, and
ex-senator Doolittle from Wisconsin: Mas
sachusetts contributes Thomas j. Mcintre
and Moses Hull, the Spiritualist lecturer. H.
| c. Baldwin, the Greenback candidate for Gov
| ernor of Vermont two years ago, Is also mere,
| and there are, curiously enough, two Canadi-
| ans, S. s. Brooks and A. NJ. Wright, the lat.
| ter amember of Parliament, who have crossed
the frontier to tell the people OF Maine how
thew ought to vote at o State election. Plaisteo
is on the stump, but is said to lmake speech
| that always leaves him at the end with only
/ half The audience he had at the beginning
| Pillsbury Is also stumping, and is audaciousiy
| defending the infamous attempt to steal the
| State Government last year.
| Before leaving the room asked for an esti-
mate of the result OF the approaching election:
| At first they all began to claim the success CT
| Plaisted as sure thing. See here" said,
that sort of talk is well enough ON the stump,
| but want to get at your real opinions NOW
laying aside the Dragging which IS a part OF the
| trade of politics, how do you think the nsnt IL
| coming on?"
| After a little hesitation, one man said,
"Well, it's going to be close. Yes said
another, ''it's mighty close" The other two
| re-echoed this opinion. As left the room,
| one of the Democrats, a tall, good-humored
| man, with ruddy countenance. followed me
| out into the hall 'and said: I'm Hancock
| man. We know we'll enough that there's
| nothing left of the Greenback party outside OF
Maine. 1t has all fallen to pieces. But we
are keeping it up pretty well here, and we
l think we'll be able to start it again two years
| hence by raising the bank question. Look out
for big fight against the banks at our State
i election of 1882"
| DEMOCRATIC EDITOR DEFENDS THE STEAL.
Back of the Fusion headquarters room is the
office of the Standard, Democratic weekly
paper. 1 found the editor, Mr.. Waterhouse, In
| his sanctum, and asked him what be thought
1 of the prospects of the election. He said
| there were seven thousand Democrats in the
/ State who did not vote last year, but who
1 would come out and vote the Fusion ticket
| this year because of their interest in the Ma
| touai contest aud of the Importance OF giving
| Hancock start by victory in Maine. As
:he total vote last year was the largest ever
| cast in the State at any election, these seven
thousand stay-at-home Democrats are prob
ably about as real as Falstaff's men in buck
ram. The Fusionists are all placing great re-
lance upon them however Mr. Water