The Portland daily press., 1896-10-09

Speaker Reed received ths hearties
and loudest welcome last night in Music
hall that has ever been accorded te
him in Boston. This town has always
turned out to hear him since he be-
came famous, and last evening thou
sands were disappointed because they
arrived too late.
(Boston Post.)
Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed. the
big and brainy statesman, Republican
leader and Congressman from Maine,
was accorded reception at Musio hall
last night that will go on record as the
greatest ever accorded public man in
Massachusetts,. No man in party lead
ership in this state has more of a hold
upon an audience than Senator Lodge,
but while his reception was an ovation,
enthusiastically enthusiastic, it was
mild i'll comparison with the great
welcome accorded the Maine statesman
Twice during the progress OF the
great nesting in Music hall the audience
VIII ich crowded every available space
rose en- masse and cheored, appIeuded,
shouted and yelled, waved flags and in
many ways demonstrated that they
knew Tom Reed.
(Boston Adveitiser.)
Music hall was the scene of an un-
paralleled demonstration last night.
There have been great political gather
1ngs there before, when it seemed as
though the enthusiasm could never be
surpassed, but the memory OF those
affairs is wiped out now. The greeting
which was given Hon. Il. B. Reed
upon the first occasion he has shown
himself 20 the Massachusetts, public
since her delegates to the Republican
national convention fought SO vaIiantly
to put the party standard in bis hands
was something that must be cheris be d
ny him as an event in his life. Not
merely the size of it, through that WINS
tremendous, but the manner, the volume,
the color and warmth of it, collapsed
anything ever seen in Boston.
he spontaneity and tho genuineness
and patriotism with which the audi
ence, as K possessed of one mighty
heart that furnishes blood to 5000 pairs
of lungs, burst all bounds and broke
down all barriers of partisanship and
made Itself picturesque by waving it's
myriad OF flags, presented scene as
Significant as 1t was unequalled.
The big man from Maine was the
magnet which attracted tho crowd, but
the crowd proved to be almost as
much of the show as the magnet. 1t
W as tremendous. Mechanics hall would
have held only fraction of it. Hamil-
ton place began to fill up by o'clock,
three hours before the meeting was ad-
vertlsed to begin, and two houls before
the doors were to have been opened.
But $50 the jam was SO great that
women began to faint. Tie officers had
to open the doors, in order to garry in
two ladies who had swooned in the
pressure about the entrance, and the
thousands who had been waiting for
some wedge to make an opening, did
not fail to seize the opportunity thus
al orded. They could not have helped
being forced in, had they wanted to stay
out, and they didn't want to do that.
The police were powerless to keep the
mass Of humanity which surged into the
into any kind of shape. There
was no disorder, but there was no re-
gard for any regulation that had been
laid down, with reference to the reser-
vation of seats. There was no restriction
placed upon floor seats, but all of the
second balcony had been reserved for
ladies' with escorts, and mum bered tick
ITS for these seats had been given ont.
A rope had been stretched across the COR
'idor to prevent, the hoi polloi, not nos
sessed of tickets, from usurpine tbe
reserved sections. The crowd did not
essay to treat this arrangement with
contempt. Those in the front rank
we're just pressed against the rome bv
hose behind and it snapped like bit
u Irvine. Then everybody piled in helter