The Portland daily press., 1893-01-28

! tloning. elected the somewhat famous
answer of 'Mel'' Weston. George NJ.
| Weston, of Bangor, was a prominent
| landowner, politician and editor of those
| days, and was badly mixed up in the
Peck muddle. He had been signing
notes which Peck had endorsed individ-
ually and also as State treasurer. The
banks, under the Supposition that the
State treasury was held for the payment
of the notes, advanced the money to
Weston and Peck. In the course OF the
investigation Mr. Drummond wished to
| get at the number and amount of the
notes that had thus been put out. Wes-
ton could tell nothing about it, did not
remember and had kept no books. s'Do-
you mean to say,'' said Mr.. Blaine, who
was astounded as such method of do
| ing business, that you have been pus-
ting out your notes without keeping any
| record of their number or amounts?"
Why not?" replied Weston, 81 could
risk the notes if the banks could risk the
money" 1t is needless to say that Mr..
Blaine enjoyed this reply heartily.
! General John j. Perry was veteran
in politics when MI. Blaine came upon
! the stage. General Perry has letter
hch he receiv d when he was editing
the Oxford Democrat. 1t was from
| Blaine, then young man recently come
to Augusta, and in it he expressed
desire to write letters from Augusta to
| the Democrat at moderate price. Cen
| eral Perry's recollection is that he did
write several letters which were pub
lished. ''It was in the Fremont cam
paign," says General Perry, "that first
heard Mr.. Blaine on the stump. | was
then member of Congress from the
second district, and before coming home
from Washington, I arranged for two
| monster mass meetings in the district,
one at Paris and the other at Farming
| ton. Anson Burlingame spoke at one of
| them and think at both. Each meet
| ing was monster. There were at Far
mington besides myself. as I recollect,
| Hannibal Hamlin, Israel Washburn Jr.
and Mr.. Blaine, then known slightly as
the editor of the Kennebec Journal. He
had no reputation as apolitical speaker
at that time, as lie had not been in the
State long. But his speech that day at
once made his reputation in Franklin
Country He was splendid looking, full
of animation and vigor, and had that
wonderful power which he brought to
| it's full maturity in later days, the power
of swaying with his oratory large bodies
of people. think that speech was as
good one as l ever heard him make,
and have heard many later ones. I
have never forgotten one story that he
| LOlU, dlGLOuSu L ICCtell Iilc dpDl1-
cation which he made of it. 1t was the
story, now familiar, of the deacon who
went out with his pastor on a preaching
tour. At the morning service the pas
| tor took for his text, 'sand Simon's
wife's mother lay sick of a fever.n At
the afternoon service the deacon was
surprised to hear the same text an
nounced. Finally, when the evening SER
vice began the deacon was astounded to
hear the same text announced again. 1t
was too much and he groaned aloud,
| s'Good Lord, isn't tnat old lady dead
yet?'
City Treasurer George Walker was
| living in the eastern part of the state in
those early days. II shall never forget
| the time l saw Mr. Blaine,'' said Mr..
| Walker to the PRESS reporter yesterday.
'It was in the early fifties, / think, at
Democratic convention at Augusta. l
was delegate from the East. During
the convention a speech was made
by L. d. M. Sweat, of Portland. During
that speech my attention was attracted
to young fellow who sat at a table near
where Sweat was speaking and who oc-
casionally interrupted him good natured-
| ly. / think that he was the handsomest
boy whom | ever saw, unless possibly an
exception may be made of the late Bion
Bradbury, who was remarkably nne
looking in his youth. This young man
had skin as white and smooth as a
baby's, black hair and such big black
eyes as never had seen before. His re-
markable beauty struck me at once, and
| asked some one near me who that
young man was. The reply was that he
was young fellow named Blaine, who
had lately come to Augusta and was re-
porting for the Kennebec Journal"
Ex- Governor Sidney Perham recalls
that when he was Speaker of the Maine
House of Representatives in 1866 there
were two reporters for Augusta papers
who had desks in the area before the
desks of the Speaker and clerk. One of
| these reporters was James G. Blaine for
the kennebec journal, and the other
Melville w. Fuller, for the Augusta Age.
A few years ago the three men met in
| Washington to talk over old times. Mr..
Blaine was then Secretary of State and
| Mr.. Fuller had been for some time Chief
Justice of the United States.
| General Mark F. Wentworth has known
Mr.. Blaine throughout his long and
eventful political career. 1T was in
| 1856" says General Wentworth, 'sthat L
/ first became acquainted with Mr.. Blaine.
! The Republican party had been formed
not long before, and we were looking for
ward to the state campaign of 1856 with
no little solicitude. Samuel Wells, Of
! Portland, a Democrat, was governor,
having been elected in the legislature by
a combination of Democrats and straight
| Wings, over Anson P. Morrill,, the candi-
| date of the Republicans and Maine-law-
men. There had been no election by the
people in 1866, so the approach of the
campaign of 1856 found the Republicans
| very anxious as to the result. We felt
that If we could have Mr.. Hamlin, who
was then in the United States Senate,
for our candidate for governor, we could
win. But Mr.. Hamlin was reluctant to
resign from the Senate. Great pressure
was brought to bear on him however,
and finally a meeting of his friends was
held at Augusta. Twas there, and if 1
remember rightly there were also S. S.
Marble, Captain McGilvery of Searsport,
Llewellyn Powers of Aroostook, General
Hersey of Bangor, Samuel E. Spring of
Portland, William II. Smith OF Portland,
Leander Valentine of Westbrook,