Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-21
Dawes Dudge0n.

Senator Dave Hill of New York.
worked himself into quite state over the
personal liberty" exercised by people
wishing to petition Congress for suppress
sion of the liquor traffic What excited
David's choler especially were petitions
for the suppression Of the sale of liquors
at Ellis and Bedloe's islands, New York
City, whore immigrants get their first
impressions of the country as being an
annex to rum shop. Sending IN such
petitions he characterized rs showing the
crusading spirit, paternalism, etc. The
personal liberty" Of petition he wonld
have suppressed or amended out of serious
existence.
1t is within the memory of all that Mr.
Hill got terribly excited not long since
over personal liberty at five cents a
glass" He then was in IL frame of mind
such that he would gladly listen to the
petition of scared, swollen tongue for
its dram of Sunday morning. He became
terribly indignant because Mr.. Roosevelt
found that the law, which Hill had made,
prescribed for closing the saloons on Sun
day and proceeded to close them. In all his
life the ear of David b. Hill has bet n
held low in patient subserviencc and deli
cately attuned to hear the husky whisper
OF the rumseller and rum drinker Their
petitions never have fallen upon deaf
ears, never have failed to touch such por-
ton Of his anatomy as is termed heart In
other individuals, never have failed to en-
list his sympathies and his efforts. But
now he complains that there is mania
for petitions on temperance subjects. He
is irritated beyond the point of forbear-
ance. Has he not done everything he
could in the way of satisfying the crav-
ings Of the drunken husband, father or
brother? And should he now be expected
to waste his valuable time listening to the
petitions of the abused wife, daughter or
sister? Why, the idea seems to him pre-
posterous, an infringement upon his sena
torial dignity and he proposes after the
manner of Love in high dudgeon, to con-
sign these misguided" people, as he calls
them, to outer darkness.
| Perhaps this isn't SO strange when we
consider how valuable the time of the
senior senator from the great state OF
New York must be- We had an example
of it the day previous to his philippe
against temperance petitions. He was
very busy putting into execution one OF
those peanut political tricks for which he
still shows fondness. There was bill
deals Of the administration. some of the
senators and more of the people would
like to know why President Cleveland
and Secretary Carlisle should have sole
bonds to Mr.. Morgan for l04. 40 when they
We're worth in open competition about
lis. There was bill providing for suct
an Investigation. Now the cunning
David saw that all necessary for him Il
do, to get that bill down at the foot OF TIN
calendar and postpone consideration o
it for several weeks, was to consume thu
morning hour in talking against it o.
about it. This he did. The great idei
with him that previous morning was how
to kill an hours time. The great sourc,
of irritation the next morning was tn,
awful waste of time in the matter of peti
tions; that there should be such wantor
waste of the valuable time of the supel
serviceable Senate with petitions abou
selling rum. And yet, who knows bu
that when David B. Hill shall find hi
Wanting ambition oircumscribcd by thu
environments of private life, the peopl
who send men to Congress will still re
tain the privilege of petition?
Croker Honors an Enemy.