The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1903-09-10
Especial to Portland Express

| man.
Especial to Portland Express.
1t was sad stroke of fate which led
the managers of the resubmlsslon So
ciety of Maine to call their State con-
vention and mass meeting at this date
in Bangor, for so many OF the thirty
third degree resubmissionists have
found it convenient to take up their
! SOjourn out of town while Judge Pea
| body is holding court here. The chief
business of the court for two days now
has been the defaulting of bonds OF in
dicted thirty-third degree resubmlsslon-
| lists and that fact had cooling tenden-
| cy upon the brethren who had come to
| Bangor in response to an elabOrately
printed and widely spread poster adver
Using the affair
Twenty-Five men and boys and three
women had taken seats in the hall
| when the hour announced for opening,
| 100 had arrived and probably they
| were not all resubmissionists. A group
| of men in one corner were telling fun
ny Stories and the hilarious laughter
sounded strangely out of place in the
silence and gloom of the hall.
1t was announced that George Z.
! Thomas was to open the meeting, but
o'clock came and went and he had
made no move in that direction. The
hundred people who had by this
time come in began to show signs
of Impotence and the appearance OF
Mr. Benson led to the hope that some
| thing would soon be doing, and that
hope was intensified when ii was whis-
pered that the Bangor band had gone
to meet DR.. G. Langtry Crockett and
escort him to the hall Strains of mar
tial music soon proclaimed this true.
| When the bands arrived, it took two
of them, there was quite an influx OF
arrivals following in the wake of the
| boy orator of the Androscoggln, more
recently transferred to Knox. All told
there may have been 800 people in the
| hall when the order of exercises was
ready to be begun.
1t was 2.1O when Mr. Thomas and
Mr.. Benson made their appearance on
the platform. Mr.. Crockett followed
promptly behind them and held whis-
pered conversation with them before
Mr.. Thomas advanced to the front and
called the meeting to order. MT.
Thomas said the object of the meeting
is to form reSubmission club so that
the people of Maine shall have right
to say what they shall do with regard
to elections.
e. n. Benson of Bar Harbor, who
with the thirty-third degree resubmls
sionist, Patrick II. Men amara former
| ly a Bangor saloon keeper, conceived
the idea of forming the resubmission
clubs, and who together with his thirty
third degree friend has been travelling
about the State calling upon the thirty
third degree resubmissionists at their
saloons, and incidentally collecting
such small sums as could be secured
for the payment of necessary expenses,
was made president of the convention.
He held it to be high honor, he said,
and delivered high sounding Grafton
calling upon his thirty-third degree re-
submissionist hearers to awake ye
men of Maine to the duties you owe to
yourself, to your country and to God.
He attacked the w. c. T. U. most
venomously, declaring that its president
held the legislature In the hollow OF her
hand, and pictured the poor people on
their knees to her pleading for the ordi-
nary privilege of citizenship, which she
denies. He unwittingly. perhaps, &C
knowledged the true inwardneSs OF the
movement in which he is interested by
cautioning his hearers that they must
| uOl UldlllC CuC COulU lOl oOAuSASAAiS oiiNAAA
to Jail. His exact words were: "There-
fore l say if you have any grievances
you must not attach any blame to the
courts, but to the system that has been
gradually built up about you by cunning
politicians and honest perhaps but de-
Iuded societies existing throughout the
states"
Closing his own address Mr.. Benson
introduced Mayor Beal with the pre-
diction that he might yet go higher.
His name was literally applauded but
he was not present and did not respond
at first. Messengers were sent for him
and at last he entered, giving the boys
a second chance to cheer. Then voice
cried out, "Bangor's next mayor by
1000, and the next representative to
congress from the Fourth district.
In the course of his address OF wei
come Mayor Beal paid his compliments
to Congressman Littletield, in reply to
the latter's Old Orchard speech, de,
claring that Bangor is law abiding ana
has no desire to have the law under 1t,
but later he announced that there are
$50 places in Bangor where liquor can
be bought He said if the congressman
had no other qualifications than his
prohibitory attitude he would never
have gone to congress. The county
desires remedy for the evils which
surround the thirty-third degree re-
submissionists in the conduct OF their
business. The mayor said the prohl6l-
tory amendment should be repealed,
license law substituted and then he I'M
folded the following plan: I'm my
opinion the first thing to be done IS to
repeal the jail sentence, then pass a law
to exile every man who becomes an
habitual drunkard to some lneDreate
institution situated on some OF our
numerous islands where they can work
in some granite quarry and pay their
own way"