Evening journal., 1912-03-20
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
A Story of the Plain
People
BY Holland.


yesterday told the story, as it was
sometimes narrated by the late Col
onel LeGrand b Cannon, of the found
ing OF the Union League Club of New
York. Mr. Cannon was himself a char
ter member of the club. He was also
very prominent member of the
Chamber OF Commerce of New York
q man of great wealth, much of which
he gave away in public benefactions,
and, furthermore. he was one of the
citizens of New York who undertook
to give patriotic and instant response
10 the call made by President Lincoln
in April, 1861, for 10000 volunteers
Immediately after President Lin
coins proclamation calling for $4,000
volunteers was issued said Colonel
Cannon, "a handful of gentlemen, in
cluding William NJ Evarts and my
self met at the house of friend for
the purpose of organizing very i'm
pressive demonstration I'm New York
city in response to President Lincoln's
appeal. A committee was appointed to
visit some of the more prominent citi-
zens so that their support. financial
and personal, could be secured for
the demonstration. That committee
was to report within "a hours.
THE next day we met the commit
tee at ,he appointed hour. The mem
bers were greatly discouraged They
said there was no patriotism among
the rich merchants of New York. and
that the bankes we're timid or indif-
ferent They reported that they had
met with a cool reception from Sam
uel J. Tilden. from S. L. M. Barlow
and from many other gentlemen upon
whose support they had counted
Among those present at this meet
ing was Simeon Draper who after
wards became collector of the port Of
New York. He was greatly chagrined
and very indignant at the attitude Of
representative merchants and bankers
of New York. Suddenly he jumped to
his feet and said:
's'Oh d--the swallowtails! Let us
go to the ground here. The plain peo-
pie are with US
well, all Of MS felt exactly as Mr.
Draper did. Within an hour we decid-
ed TO invite workingmen. stevedores
upon the docks. laborers who worked
upon the streets. plain people every
Where-to meet ms at a point in the
lower part Of the city And we let il
be known when we issued the invi-
tation that they should have hags to
wave and drum and fife corps to
lead them.
We'll, now, do you know that in re-
sponse 10 that invitation there ap-
peared at the spot named a great com
rany of workingmen? They cheered
the flag. They marched ITO the rhythm
of drum and fife They waved flags en-
Enthusiastically AT the corner of Wall
street quite a number of bankers were
gathered there to sec what was going
on. They caught the spirit of tho de-
monstrauon and fell i'm line behind
those plain workingmcn
There were two or three newspaper
offices in New York whose proprietors
would not hang out the American flag
The procession visited those offices
and demanded that the bag be thrust
TO the breeze from their windows. And
so. on and on the procession marched
until when half way up Broadway. il
was numbered by thousands. and flags
. Wv tN AAnlAhf w Alt every MIHUUM. ltN
the time Union Square was reached
the whole city seemed to be filled with
enthusiasm and excitement from the
demonstration
Yes, Draper was right We ignor.
cd the swallowtails and we turned tc
tho workingmon of New York with
confidence. and It was they. and they
alone. who made H. possible for that
magnificent message to he sent tc
/ President Lincoln whereby he was i'm
formed that New York was wild with
enthusiasm over his war policy aud
that the flag was floating everywhere
/ Copyright, 1912. by T.. y. Edwards
All rights rescrvcd)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will toll OF
"A Chat With Captain Tarragut."