The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-07
SPICY RAILROAD MEETING
On the Proposed Electric Road
from Harrison to Windham.
A TURNOUT OF FARMERS THAT
PACKED TOWN HOUSE YARD.

IT'S Best of Town Meetings windham
Ever Held-Lively Parliamentary Dis
cussions-Heavy Volume of Oratory-
Meeting Adjourned to This Morning
Without Action.
The citizens of the town of Windham,
who were called together Saturday af-
ternoon, to decide whether the town
should loan it's credit to assist in the con :
struction of the proposed electric railroad
from Westbrook to Harrison, spent four
hours in wordy conflict and listening to
debate, without arriving at vote on the
original proposition. After the meeting
was over wide difference of opinion as
to the merits was noted in the comments
of the farmers as they unhitched their
horses and made preparations for hasty
flight homeward.
IT call it a disgraceful meeting,'' said
one.
/ cts blot on the good name of Wind
ham" was the declaration of another.
"We could have beaten them two to
one, if we had only been allowed to vote -
said one of the sympathizers with the rail
road project.
"We were too many for them,'' sug-
gested one of the representatives of the
opposition.
sit beat anything Windham ever saw
before in the shape of town meeting,
and we have had some very warm ones"
was the town clerk summing up of the
affair.
Quite a number Of Portland and West
brook people went out to attend the meet
ing. and they were well rewarded for the
trip. 1t was not SO much what the
meeting did, as what it failed to do,
that made it an occasion to be long re-
membered.
When reporter for the PRESS arrived
on the scene, it looked very much as if
all the voters of northern Cumberland
county had congregated there. For 40
rods in any direction of the townhouse
lines of horses and vehicles were hitched
to fences, trees and buildings, while the
yard in front of the town house was
solidly packed with men, all engaged in
a lively discussion of the electric aues-
ton. At 2 O'Clock the
QUAINT LITTLE TOWN HOUSE
was so densely thronged that when once
a man got inside the narrow entrance it
was next to impossible for him to extri-
cate himself. The free high school has
lately been holding its sessions in the town
house and the walls were decorated with
geometrical charts and the blackboards
with Latin declensions and algebraic
problems. The school seats had been
taken up for this occasion and piled in
double rows from floor to ceiling at the
north end of the room, occupying space
that was badly needed for voting purposes
The leaders of both factions were hold
ing whispered consultations, and chuck
ling together over their prospects of vic
tory when the town clerk called the meet.
ing to order and read the warrant. The
first article in the warrant related to
the choice of moderator. Here was
where the first show of strength was ex-
pected to develop, each faction having a
candidate for that responsible position.
But owing to the crowded condition of
the hall, less than half the voters present
took the trouble to participate in that
ballot
When the ballots were counted Peter
Stuart, a representative of the opposition
to the railroad project, was found to be
the choice OF the meeting, he having
received 107 votes to SO for Thomas Var
ney, his opponent. A wild shout went up
from the anti-railroad faction when the
FeSul6 OF Gne vote was announced and
Moderator Stuart elbowed his way up to
the desk His election was great sur
prise to the leaders of the other side, who
had counted on easily winning in the
preliminary contest.
The suggestion that it would be impos-
slble to conduct the town meeting in such
a crowded hall, called out motion that
the voters forsake the town house and
continue their session In the open air.
The motion was carried, and out they
poured into the yard, Moderator Stuart
taking his stand on the front side of the
town house. The townsmen assembled
as near their chairman as the steep in
cline of the town house would admit, and
there for three full hours they stood and
listened to arguments for and against the
trolley railway question.
Article second of the town warrant was
another tester of strength. Its purport
was to see if the voters were in favor of
the building of an electric railway
10 &c., A |. /"