The Portland daily press., 1891-09-07
INVOKED BLESSINGS ON FANATICS.
Senator Frve's temperance Speech
to His Fellow Townsmen.
Ne Wants Neal Dow to Keep His
Knife Well Sharpened.
A Lesson From scotIand-Workme
Eight DAYS Soldering Off.

LEWISTON, September 6. - The largest
crowd that ever gathered at a temperance
meeting In Androseoggin county heard Sena-
tor Frye at the Pine street Congregational
church this afternoon. Hundreds of people
were turned away. The meeting took meas
ures to organize county temperance league
for the enforcement of the prohibitory law.
Congressman Dingley presided. In brief
Introductory address. he outlined the subject
Of the mass meeting, and the need OF apublic
reawakening In regard to temperance. Sena.
tor Frye spoke for an hour and ten minutes.
In opening, he pleaded ignorance of the fact
that he was expected to speak, and said he
had told the committee that waited upon him
that 1t would be impossible for him to ad-
dress the meeting September 9th, because of
his absence at Rangeley Lakes at that time.
the newspapers and had come without a set
address. He objected to threshing over old
straw, but was willing, In obedience to the
tremendous public interest in the enforce
ment of prohibition, to make a journey to
Lewiston and add what he could to the i'm
petus of the movement. After an introduc-
tory discussion of the general evil of intem-
perance. and denial Of the oft-quoted creed
of many, that 1t Is the duty of each man to
look after himself, and that we are not our
. .
mo one In this audience will differ with
me relative to the evils of this Moloch, this
monster Of intemperance, unless, perhaps, 1t
be the rumseller. and ask: Is he entitled to
an opinion? Is bis opinion worth anything?
My deliberate judgment Is, and l measure
my words. that there Is no worse man to be
found than the runseller. So far from his
opinion being worth anything In this ques-
tien as to whether liquor shall be sold freely
over bar to whosoever wishes to purchase,
/ If mi mi caIlar In tho nrtr
in jail today, the country would be ten thou
sand times better off than it now is"
In pleading the cause of the devo-
tees of temperance, the Senator COM
of Neal Dow: ''No man in America has tor
mented me, politically, more than he. He is
always making thrusts at the Republican
party, morning. noon and night, but l say,
II he will keep on sticking the knife into the
fIumselier at the same % time. ne may keep on
say, thank God for the fanatics. Neal Dow
started this law 1t Is the best law In the
world; the only enemy Of the rumseller, and
a law that has made Maine pre-eminent in
the suppression of liquor selling, not only In
America, but throughout the wide world"
Senator Frye claimed that law was the on
ly remedy for the evil of intemperance, and
denied that the habits of Europe tended to
temperance, because of the prevalence of
light wines and beers. he asserted that
slnthe drinking, Italy by cheap and strong
liquors, and Germany by brandy. He held
that the German Emperor was alarmed by
the increase of intemperance, and was issu-
Ing edicts tending toward reduction in the
growing consumption of spirits. License
Is no remedy" said the Senator. Liquors
sold under license intoxicate as quickly as
when sold illegally under prohibition. Glas-
cow, In Scotland, licenses, but when 10 Scot
land was prevented from seeing the great
iron shipbuilding plants In operation be-
cause OF fair held but one day in that city.
For this fair the workmen saved so much
and drank so hard that the great shipbuild-
ing plants, employing 5000 men, had to shut
down eight days until the men got sober. Ii
you license rum drinking to make men sober.
why not license thieving to make them hon.
est, and prostitution to make them virtu-
Ous?
Senator Frye related conversation he had
with the late Hon. Alexander III. Stephens
Of Georgia, in which the distinguished vice
president of the Southern Confoderacy, told
of the county of Liberty, Georgia. (which
had the first iron clad temperance law ever
passed in America, over 70 years ago. "This
county, said Mr.. Stephens, twas the hap
piest, richest and best educated and most
orderly county of Georgia. The year lived
there was the only year of my life remem-
Der. in which was perfectly we'll" In
closing, Senator Frye called on the mayor
and the county executive officers to enforce
the law and ended with a powerful exhorta-
tlon to the people to stand by the laws.