Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-07-19
The stratton Mountain Mass Meeting of

1s4p.
Editor Of The Phoenix
Dear sir:-Sixty-seven years ago, July
7, 1910, the people of Brattleboro were up,
out, around and astir uncommonly early.
The "Godlike" Daniel Webster had spent
the night of the 9Th there and the Tip
peCanoe d Tyler Too club, of which
young Mr.. Frederick Holbrook, now our
venerable ex-governor, was president, and
some one hundred others, were to escort
him to Stratton, where he was that day
to address an outdoor mass Wing con-
vention on the issues of the campaign.
Many errors about this convention have
appeared in print. A Vermont Historical
reader" says: webster was there and
ate his dinner from a single like the
others, there being no plates" Twenty
thousand persons dining off twenty thou
sand shingles! A newspaper account of
Mr.. Webster's dinner says: president
Holbrook passed Mr.. Webster a good
sized plateful of baked beans and pork"
Again the same Historical reader:
when all was ready he (Webster),
mounted a stump and delivered his
speech" He was then in his 59th year
and portly. The president Of the conven-
ton, Waitstil r. Ranney, and Hlland
Hall mounted the stump with Mr.
Webster and made short addresses. Some
fifteen or twenty others, also, probably
including President Holbrook, had seats
thereon.
The site of the stump or of the
webster Grandstand" was a natural
amphitheatre in a rough pasture, a little
north of a good stage road and three
miles east Of the top of the Green noun
tains and three-fourths Of a mile east Of
Whites saw mill, now CIRCUITS, so-called
on Deerfield river. The mill and pasture
were owned by Phineas White of Put
ney. Mr.. Webster spoke Saturday, July
a. 1s4O in Barre, Mass, came to Brattle-
boro Monday, the 9Th, to Stratton the
7tn, and spoke in Bellows Falls the Sth
Brattleboro's "prancing cavalcade Of
horsemen" didn't prance through her
streets in honor of Daniel Webster July g.
1910, as in print, for that day was Sun
day. More likely they were singing
Aud Lang Syne" and the "Doxology."
Nobody knows where in Brattleboro Mr.
Webster spent the night, July 6, or
where he dined at the Stratton conven-
ton. Maybe it was at Luther Torrey' s,
next house east of the grounds where he
stopped on his way to address the con-
vention and where he spent the night
after the rally. Maybe he dined on the
stand he was to speak on-there was
plenty of room-and maybe in "a large
tent" but that tent wasn't pitched on
the summit of the mountain" That sum-
NIT was an unbroken forest then as now
and always except by the road and three
miles distant. Maybe and more likely he
dined with his new-made political friends
in the log cabin, 100 feet long, from north
to south and 90 feet wide, cut in two
width wise by a drive for teams The
Democrats celebrated this log cabin in a
song beginning thusly:
Dad and I went up to Stratton early
Tuesday morning
Ar4I haV II
as bees a-swarming.
A great log cabin there was built all
filled with hard cider
AS long as uncle's barn and shed, l guess
1t must been wider"
1t is in print that Mr.. Webster spent
the night after the rally in West Wards
boro at the private house of a stranger.
Guess not And that that stranger set
fire to his only cigar and after putting
at the weed some little time" handed the
residue to Mr. Webster who finished II
approaching the luxury" He did not
He had such an offer on the steps
OF the hotel a West Wardsboro, where he
stopped on his way to the convention,
but declined with thanks. In cor years
the story grew to the improbable and
nauseating dimensions as above Mr..
Webster was remote from his teens. He
had Travelled from Brattleboro to the
winding OF streams or over mountain
spurs; had been lionized all the way; had
addressed a multitude of fifteen or twenty
thousand, and had loaned his ears there
and everywhere from dawn in Brattle-
boro TO dark in Sratton to Hip, hip.
hurrahs." He didn't travel back seven
miles to West Wardsboro. In the early
darkness after the rally he, with another,
entered the southwest corner room of
Luther Torreys, near the rally grounds,
the candles were soon put out and he
there pillowed his big weary head in
tired natures sweet restorer, balmy
sleep till the coming dawn. August l6.
1901, there were assembled as per a
newspaper report, on the Webster con-
vention grounds 1000 people, mostly from
the East As they passed the site Of
Luther Torrey's they saw posted, Where
Webster stayed" Those who posted the
notice knew and know the stubborn fact.
E. NJ. TORREY.
East Dorset, Vt, July II.