The Portland daily press., 1896-09-05
YORK BEACH RALLY.
A Gala Day Indeed for Southwestern
Maine.
THOUSANDS LISTEN TO ELOQUENT
WORDS OF SPEAKER REED.

VINO was Followed by Gen. Bussey in an
Able Address-A Magnificent Parade
and Clambake Preoede the speaking.
York Beach. September 4.-Six
shousand admirers Of Thomas B.
Heed and ardent supporters Of Republi-
can principles assembled In beautiful
grove at York; Beach yesterday afternoon
to listen to the speeches of Mr.. Reed and
Gen. Cyrus Bussey. It was a gala day
for York. EARLY in the morning the
crowds began to gather from all over the
western parts Of the county. Every train
brought load and people came from the
surrounding country in all kinds of
vehicles. Campaign companies in bright
uniforms assembled from York village,
North and South Berwick and all Of the
surrounding towns and even Saoo sent
It's delegation of finely uniformed young
men to add to the glory of the occasion.
Al noon there was parade Of oompan-
les along the shore from York Harbor to
York Beach and a long line of gaily deo.
GRATED teams, barges and bicycles took
part. Then there was clam bake at
which undreds from all the western
part of Maine and from many towns OF
New Ham pshire sat down and amply
satisfisd their hunger.
MI. Reed together with Gen. Bussey
and many prominent gentlemen from
York county were entertained at the
Marshall house by Mr.. Edward S.
Marshall the proprietor to whose efforts
and those Of N. J. =. Davidson and
other gentlemen of York village and
beach the great success of the mass meet
ing Is due.
Afssr dinner at the Marshall house Mr..
Reed and Gen. Bussey were escorted to
Moody's grove where crowd Of 5000
peopl had Assem- bIed about a large plat
form especially erected for the speakers,
The procession which escorted the speak
ers TO the grove was large and brilliant
one. Mr.. Reed was greeted with tre-
mendous enthusiasm all along the line of
march. Many of the cottages and dwell
,ings along the line of march were mag
nificently decorated. One bore the motto
s"I am a Democrat but not this year, I"
and another had this legend posted in
front of the doorway, "I am Democrat
but not repudiator. -
The scene at the grove where the mass
meeting was held has seldom il ever been
equalled at York Beach. The ampitheatre
rooted by the leafy branches of the oak
trees was packed solid full of men and
women.
Mr.. John NJ. Burleigh of South Ber-
wick the chairman of the county COM
mittee called the vast meeting to order
Mr.. j. T. Davidson of York in a
characteristic eloquent speech introduced
MI. Reed who was greeted with loud
cheering long continued.
MIR. Reed said in substance:
have only one fault to find with this
audience and that is that it Is too large.
(Laughter.) had expected to come
down here and have quiet talk with
you about the issues of the day but in
stead o: a quiet talk may be obliged to
talk much louder than want to. While
your chairman was addressing you and
talking about the pa1my days of Athens
and Greece and Of the philosophers ad-
dressing the multitudes in the Athenian
groves I could not help thinking how far
the world had progressed in the days of
those philosophers and how far it had
progressed since. At that time Athens
was q very small state indeed, and the
world was not SO very big either.
wonder what the Athenian philosophers
or Populists, (laughter) would have
thought of nation of rs, 600, 600 strong.
COVER ning themselves and united in firm
bonds Of statehood? 1t would. be as great
a marvel to them as the Parthenon or
Aoropolis would have been to the savage
tribes of 10U0 years before that time. The
progress Of the human race has been
steady since those days. 1t has taken a
long time to reach the point 1t has
reached and it it's far yet from its goal
1t requires thousands of people to
assem- BILE every year in this country in
order to make progress, and in time the
progress that these assemblages reach is
realized.
The tribes of old knew nothing of the
question which we are here to discuss,
ana would marvel as much at it as they
would at this vast nation of $4,000, 900
people. The old tribes had an easy time
IN exchanging their commodities and in
living. II q mans neighbor had any
thing that the man wanted he would
simply exchange something for it of an
equal value. They never thought OF 60
ing beyond their own village for any
thing which their village did not produce;
they would content themselves without
1t. Now when the luxuries of every olime
are every day necessities to every person
things are different. It is necessary to
have commercial union with all nations
today and for all time. You can readily
understand how anyone mighJ become
perfectly familiar with our Indian village
and Its necessities but that same person
would bo completely mystified by
nation of rs, 600, 600 of people. In order
TO accomplish anything now it Is neces-
sary TO have conoensus of opinion, and
Tor that purpose the people OF this
country meet in sections all over the
county once every four years and talk
over what new issues may be before the
country for discussion.
l thank heaven that new matters are
continually coming up for discussion by
the people OF this country. Unless we
had new ideas to discuss occasionally all
attempt at progress would be useless.
It Is remarkable fact that the great
saving force of the world is to be found
IN the conservatives who are disposed to
look before they lean wbo know what