The Portland daily press., 1895-02-18

~HAS ~
P.Willis found inspiration in her woods
ard streams; we have right of equity
in Hawthorne and clear title deed to
genial "Artemus Ward" Upon the
wave-washed peninsula of Harpswell,
among its lovely bays and rocky reaches,
the genius of Harriet Beecher Stowe
gave birth to sweet Mara Lincoln, The
Pearl of Orr's Island" and hard by in
the peaceful town OF Brunswick, under
the shadow of Bowdoin College, she
wrote the greatest story that the world
has known since the parallels OF the
Nazareth carpenters son, story-whleh,
translated into eighteen different Ian
guages, has had greater civillzlng In
huence upon this country than any other
nook except the family Bible "Uncle
Toms Cabin"
Is there a well reared American child
OF the past or present generation that
does not know of the "Doty Dimple"
stories. and "Flaxie Frizzle," and the
Little Prudy" books Of Sophie May,
and tell me if you can of a lottier mis-
sion in literature than ministering to
the healthy mental happiness of those of
whom it was said "Of such is the king
dom of heaven?" In art the statues of
Simmons have traced his name in endur-
Ing bronze in almost, every State In the
U Mon.
In law Maine has furnished to the
bench of the United State courts Cliff
ord, Putnam, Webb. Among host
of eminent practitioners we hail Sargent
S. Prentiss, and Illinois adopted son, the
friend and colleague of Abraham Lin
coin, your late lamented Leonard SWEET:
and none of as forgets the vacant chair
caused by the absence from your family
circle of the present distinguished Chief
Justice of the United States.
In music, three generations of the
world have not heard contralto voice
to equal the magnificent organ of our
own true hlue American girl. Annie
Louise Gary, and as she abdicates in
the zenith of her triumphs, crowned with
the love and respect of two hemispheres,
the same audience rises to it's feet to
greet her soprano sisters, Emma Eames
and Madam Nordica, all three of them
State of Maine girls. Of truth we may
worship our Maine girls without break
ing the first commandment, for there is
nothing like them in heaven above or
earth beneath or waters under the earth.
Turning from the rriumphs of peace to
those OF war. we discern in the last great
commander of the army of the United
| States, the Philip Sidney of our civil
war, the Henry Havelock of the Union
army, Oliver o. Howard, with Berry and
Burnham, and Chamberlain and Fessen-
den and Common, all sealing their devo-
blOu Will lllS vi lliUD, anu III tulS con-
nection | am reminded that seated
among the officers of your society tonight
| see modest soldier, who fresh from
his alma mater, led a regiment of Maine
boys up the shot-swept slopes of Fred
erickshurg, into the wheat field Of Get
tysburg. through the jungles and thickets
of the Wilderness, the bloody angle of
Spottsylvania, the fiery furnace of Cold
Harbor and the bloody campaign OF
Dat hIIro till xuhan his raoo ad ramnopf
stacked final hostile arms upon the field
of Appomattox, shut cartridge boxes and
| opened haversacks to their defeated fell
| low countrymen, they stood in battle
losses thirty-ffth on the roll of more
than two thousand infantry regiments,
which composed the Union army.
| OF the two hundred and sixty -four
cavalry regiments which rode with
Sheridan ana Fitzpatrick and Merritt and
Custer and Wilson. our First Maine
| Cavalry heads the list in the number of
| it's killed and wounded and in the heavy
artillery branch Maine regiment holds
| the same distinguished position.
| A poet laureate of England has en-
| balmed in immortal verse The Charge of
| the Light Brigade at Balakava, where
six hundred and seventy three gallant
| BIitons, while
| Cannon to right of them,
l SduuOu W lClb vi buclus
Cannon in front Of.them
| Volleyed and Numbered"
rode into the valley of the shadow of
death, from whence two hundred and
| forty-seven, thirty-six per cent OF. their
number. never returned; but to regi-
menJ from our own State, Maine lum-
| bermen and farmers boys. belongs the
distinguished honor of losing in a sin
| gle, mortal combat, the greatest per
cenrage of fighting heroes recorded in the
annals of war. In, the last desperate as
sault which closed the bloody spring cam
paign of 1864 the First Maine Heavy Ar
tilery, acting as infantry. charged upon
the most stupendous specimens of the
defensive enginery of modern war at
Petersburgn, nor paused nor--stayed, till
| six hundred and four of their comrades,
more than siXty-siX per cent. of theil
mum Der, lay lifeless and bleeding within
the Golgotha of its bloody slopes and
| trenches in less than ten immortal min
utes; and of the men who went into that
| charge not one for moment believed
that human tortitude or mortal valor,
could accomplish the errand, for which
| they no less readily went cheering tc
their graves Open the volume of Ameri-
| can craftsmanship and on it's memorial
| pages what names shed brighter lustel
than those of William Pitt Fessenden,
| Hannibal Hamlln ana James U. Blaine.
Turn to the leaf of the present and tel
me if you please the name of him who is
| today the brainiest, broadcast minded
| biggest hearted and most thoroughly all
round. competent citizen of this country
for President of the United Statesi
Don't think for moment that l am Sc
far forgetting the proprieties as to talk
politics, for l am not doing anything OF
| the kind. The obscure and humble path
| hi oh oil foot how -
trodden, has been as widely divergent
from the highway of our distinguished
fellow citizen as you can well imagine.
But this is a family party and I am
speaking of an absent brother. I was
born within stones throw of his birth
place, was Portland schoolboy under
his tuition. know his character to be
unstained by any trace of double dealing
or sharp practice; his record unspotted
| Inv a single doubtful transaction What.