The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-05-13
Gables porttolto.
Public Filth.

We give a portion OF the 1OllOWlng account VI
A QUEER SUNDAY MIG HI MEETING:
.sThere was not an inch of room to spare,
either sitting room or standing ROOM, IN
Chickering Hall at s o'clock Sunday even
ing, when Elizur Wright, of Boston, sat
down in a big armchair on the stage. The
meeting was a gathering OF sympathlzers
with D. M. Bennett, editor of a publication
called the Truth Seeker, who has just been
released from the Albany Penltentlary,
where he was imprisoned tor one year tor
sending through the mails an indecent
pamphlet entitled ''Cupid's Yokes." There
Elizur Wright, and ID NJ. Bennett, and
Haywood, the author of the pamphlet, a
number of members of and sympathlzers
with an association called the Liberal
League, and others, among them being
Stephen P. Andrews, Moses Hull, Amelia
Colby, Mrs. D. M. Bennett, and Eugene
MaDonald. The meeting lasted for more
than three hours, and during that time the
speakers exhausted the deepest corners of
the unabridged Dictionary in throwing
epithets at the Creator, the ministry, and
thor. of the pamphlet called "Cupid's
Yokes," said that be was lately out of Ded-
ham jail, and proved his title to a full con
Wet suit by making as dirty a speech as
ever a fIthy-minded man was allowed to do
before an audience Of New York women.
Elizur Wright having been introduced, a
long list of ice-Presidents was read, among
the names being those of Charles Brad.
Zaugh, James Parton, Parker PtNsbury, and
the tune Of John Browns Body" and Mr..
Wright stepped to the front and said
We meet in the name of common sense
and common humanity. We meet as the
friends of law, to protest against the law s
perversion, and to express sympathy with a
man, and to advocate free thought and
free speech. What is law worth without
liberty? What is religion worth which ex-
let's faith by a penalty? What is enforced
cisiOn there has been nothing so dlsgraceful
20 the United States as the prosecutions of
Mr.. Haywood and Mr.. Bennett.
Letters of regret were then read from
Cortland Palmer, Charles Bradlaugh, and
James Parton, and the quartet sang another
song. Thaddeus B. Wakeman, was then
introduced. 1.-The danger" he said, ~'arises
from Calvinism-an attempt of a few who
imagine themselves elect to manage the
morals of the many. =
Stephen Pearl Andrews was the next
speaker. He pointed out Mr.. Haywood on
the platform, asked him to rise, which he
did, and said that Haywood had been con-
victed, iii Massachusetts and sentenced to
" years Imprisonment, but that President
Hayes had pardoned him after he had
served seven months.
kilograms of congratulatiOn from all over
me country, were read. One from Charles
Ton, S. c., graciously urged that we should
public !" A dispatch from a person named
Jameson, in Chicago, said that as Bennett
mad worked at shOe-making, 'let us hope
hat he will pound the bottom out of the
Orthodox Church. Let man be true,
though every God be a liar"
Amelia Colby, the next speaker, began
Ter address, Mr.. Bennett, MIR; Chairman,
women, and men," IF should wind up
once" Mrs. Colby said, 'it would take me
God into the constitution" she concluded,
you put every American citizen out and
It this startling proposition the audience
capped it's hands for nearly five minutes.
James Mcclellan, who, was next introduced,
characterized Comstock as 1.-The moral leper
Of our country. Cheers. A man who
will find no hell too hot, no pit too Deep"
a voice, 1--WE want a word from that terri
Die fellow, Bob Ingersoll. ;" Lucy Coleman
tion," she said, ''of being a very daring wo-
nan. / Know nothing of law, and very lit
tie of logic, but | know something of com
mon sense. [ want to ask the mothers in
this audience what kind of a feeling would
come over them were you the mother of
Anthony Comstock! !" Cheers and APP
~.piause.
Haywood, the author of the pamphlet
that sent Bennett to prison, was then intro
duoed. His address abounded in filth and
blasphemy, and a large part Of it is entirely
unfit for publication. He began with indie
cent references to the woman who produced
BENEFITS letters, and went on to say that
the Republican party came into power
through the ruin of a United States Law
that they had trampled under foot. "a
woman said to me-" he continued, IF We
haven't a hell for anything else, we ough,
.tohave one large enough to hold the YOUNG
Mems Christian Association" [Laughtel
and applause. He then repeated some in