Show THE OVERFLOW An Enthusiastic Gathering Reminiscent Remin-iscent of the Mining Crimps The overflow meeting was the sort of a ratification that might have been held in Roaring Camp and would I therefore require a Bret Harte to describe de-scribe it adequately I I was a merry rollicking and at j times roaringly enthusiastic affair I entirely characteristic of the men who I i had it in charge and conducted it in I genuine miner fashion The miners float which was created to typify the mining interests of the state in the processions during the i midsummer carnival served a the speakers platform and lent an air of the mining camp to the scene I was stationed in front of the theatre on First South street between flaring jets of natural gas and was occupied by miners who know how to hammer a 1 drill with the best of them headed by i Dr Faust who officiated as chief cook I and bottle washer and Matt Gisborn who told their men to cut loose and I I make things lively and they did it 1 a only miners know how From the I I peak of the miniature mountain atone at-one end of the float to the top of the cabin at the other was stretched a I streamer bearing the mottos No I Crown of Thorns and No Cross of i Gold which were very much in keep j ing with the sentiments expressed by I the speakers and which were echoed by the big crowd that congregated 1 about Between the speeches a lone fiddler would strike up The Arkansas Tray 1 eler keeping the crowd in a great good humor and during the time occupied by all the speakers responses I which indicated the temper of the them i listeners came from among whenever cae a strong point was made Now youre talking Good boy and the like punctuated the remarks and always came in a way wnicn seu the crowd yelling with enthusiasm CAPTAIN MIDDLEMAS commenced alter the The programme commencd theater had been filled to its capacity Dr Faust introducing Captain Middle He announced the first speaker man as frst nounced ma that he was not a Democrat that he had once been a Republican but that now he was for silver The declaration met with hearty approval by the crowd and he then proceeded to urge the people to get together on the silver issue obliterate party lines and work together for the common good of the cause W H KING Judge W H King who followed set the crowd wild with an address which caught the popular favor of the miners from his first sehtence He was fiery and eloquent and received round after round of enthusiastic applause Judge King began by saying that all citizens of the United Sates are equal save where one distinguishes himself by especial merit and continuing he said A crisis has arrived in the history of this nation Past party affiliations There are no must be swept away ae nO Democrats no Populists nO Republicans cans The issue is now between the rich man and the poor man and everyone every-one must cast his vote for one or the other In the past century of our national na-tional history we have departed from many tonal of the fundamental principles laid down by the builders of the republic re-public Whenever there is a departure from the constitution whenever wealth rises a an oppressor of the working manGo man-Go raises up a deliverer from among the common people The constitution declared that both gold and silver were the money of the people and that doctrine doc-trine is a sacred a any other provision provis-ion in the constitution We should not be cowed by he utterance of the gold bug press we should not be deceived by the machinations of themoney owners own-ers of the United States They declare that the people of the west and the i south who believe in the rehabilitation of silver are traitors to the country The real traitors in the United States are those who would debase silver when the constitution expressly declares I de-clares that i is equal with gold as money This is the doctrine of Thomas I Jefferson it is the doctrine of Alexan deT Hamilton whom the Republicans are pleased to look upon as their patron pat-ron tIn t-In the emergency which now confronts I con-fronts us we must bridge the chasm which separates the national parties and come together to do battle against the oppressors of the people The women wo-men of the country are our natural financiers They must stand shoulder to shoulder with us in this fight When Mr Bryan shall have been elected the toiler will have achieved a I victory over the money changers and the hoarders of gold in the United States 0 W POWERS Judge O W Powers responded to long calls for the chairman of the delegation dele-gation to Chicago His reception was much the same as that with which he was greeted in the theater to which he smiled a grateful recognition and then proceeded to gratify the crowds desire to hear his voice His remarks were in the same strain as those delivered in the theater his reference to the threatened threat-ened address of Mr Dooly to the Republicans Re-publicans of the state creating the same amusement and his strong points being be-ing in like manner enthusiastically applauded J 11 DENNY Following Judge Powers James M Denny was introduced He was proud that he could endorse the sentiments of th Democratic party Two years ago I the party had promised free silver but by the events of the last year he had come to doubt that the promise would ever b kept and so he had awaited the action of the convention atChicago to know whether or not he could longer be a Democrat Henoiv knew he could l and so he was glad he could renew his affiliation to the party 11 I was not the cause of the Democrats alone he said that the people had come together t declare their allegiance alleg-iance to but the cause of the people I however It was the Democratic platform plat-form that they had gathered to endorse en-dorse and consequently those who vot e1 for silver would have to be Democrats Demo-crats this time He declared that whatever the Republican Re-publican party had done in the past it was not now the party of the people but the party of Lombard street and told his hearers that I they were satisfied satis-fied to let their families starve and go ragged to vote for McKinley for that was the kind of protection they would get If they were not satisfied with that he told them to vote for Bryan and the people I Referring to the statements of some of the opposition that the Democratic candidate was too young for the presidency presi-dency he asked of the old men present if they could pound a drill now better than they could when they were Bry ans age and then asserted that young brains were as much to be desired in the great struggle now before the American Amer-ican people as young muscle was in the work of hammering a drill He closed by saying to the crowd that although there was not room for them in the I theater there was in the Democratic party F B STEVENS After a song by a juvenile quartette which was a parody on GoodBye My Lover GoodBye worded to suit the i silver sentiment and bid farewell to I i McKinley Frank B Stevens was In 1 traduced as the playmate of the candidate can-didate whose nomination was being 1 ratified Mr Stevens remarks which embodied the same sentiments as those which he expressed to the assemblage in the theatre were rapturonsly received re-ceived MRS ELLEN B FERGUSON At the conclusion of Mr Stevens address ad-dress Mrs Ellen B Ferguson was introduced in-troduced as the only woman who ever sat in a national convention or any other laconically added the master of ceremonies Dr Ferguson like the others who had spoken before the big audience in the theatre showed fatigue as she faced the crowd of rugged miners and she was compelled to speak in low tones which would not have been audible au-dible had not the utmost silence been maintained She also followed the I same line of argument she had adopted for the benefit of her previous listeners listen-ers That she could have done no better bet-ter was evidenced by the fact that it was her address which was most liberally liber-ally punctuated by ejaculations of approval from the crowd A N CHERRY A N Cherry appeared just long enough to tell a story He began by asking if there was a McKinley man within the sound of his voice the echo of his own voice being the only reply he received He continued by saying that he anticipated an-ticipated as much and that it was his opinion that not many McKinley men would be found in these regions this year The old parties have divided up he said on financial lines the goldibugs taking the worst element of i both parties and the silver men the I best As good men were in the majority ma-jority in this world he thought the silver men had considerably the best j of it The sally tickled the sensibilities sensibili-ties of the crowd and he was furiously applauded He closed by telling the parrot story of how the owner of a parrot tried to break it of a bad habit of swearing The owner of the bird had been told that if he threw a bucket of cold water wa-ter on polly when he caught her swearing and then gave her a vigorous bouncing about she would swear no more He decided to try the experiment experi-ment and did so following instructions instruc-tions with a will as to the bouncing After it was over the bird looked up and said Where the h were you when the cyclone struck Mr Cherry thought the Republicans would wonder won-der where the h they were at when the cyclone struck this fall BOB SLOAN Cries for Bob Sloan brought that gentleman to the platform when Mn Cherry had finished He said that although al-though he had not expected to speak i there were one or two things which had I impressed themselves on his mind which he believed were of sufficient importance to deserve to be impressed on the minds of others and he was accordingly ac-cordingly glad of the opportunity All through the financial agitation he said there had been a trick resorted resort-ed to by the gold men It was in the nature of an appeal to the honor of the people by raising a hue and cry for sound money He pronounced it a fallacy and asked the crowd of miners in Cront of him if it was with gold silver or their labor that they paid their debts A voice from the crowd said We dont pay them If you dont Its because you have not got the money and cant get the work to earn it He held thai it was the days labor that represented money to the workingman working-man and said that it was the sound money policy that reduced the value of the dollar the laborer got for his days work to half a dollar that was responsible for the laborer not being able to pay his debts He likened money to a scales or a yardstick only intended as a medium of measuring the value cf labor and said that if there was but one pair of scales or one yard stick in the world the owners of it would make the man who had to work pay his price for the privileges of using it He referred to the claims of gold that a crisis was approaching that I would precipitate a great panic if silver sil-ver were successful and said the present pres-ent issue had always been an issue I i which begun when man first refused I to work and wanted to live off from I 1 someone else If a crisis was coming its result would be in favor of the pea pie The speaker closed by asserting j that he was a Bryan man not because be-cause he was a Democrat but because t I cause this partys choice happened to j be the embodiment of all that the pee I pie had got to have G E BLAIR G E Blair spoke briefly urging the people to get together and saying I that this was a campaign in which I the sheep were being separated from the goats and that the other fellows were the goats DAVID EVANS David Evans one of the delegation to Chicago was the last speaker He was warmly welcomed as he appeared on the float In his brief remarks he said that Grover Cleveland had gone I fishing that the people were in the saddle and propqsed to ride on to victory vic-tory A great shout of approval went up when he said that McKinley was already on the Elbe marshaling his hosts and preparing to ride to his Waterloo The people he said repudiated a Democratic administration because it was unAmerican A platform had been adopted at Chicago which was distinctly American and the people proposed to take advantage of it He abjured the Democrats not ti boast that It was their party that had given the people an opportunity to vote for silver for It was not solely a Democratic Demo-cratic victory or would not be if it was won for it would require the combined strength of the Republicans the Populists and the Democrats who were loyal to silver to secure that victory vic-tory He urged his hearers to shake hands and make It a common cause for by so doing they would triumph At the close of the remarks of each speaker Dr Faust prqposed three cheers which were given with a will in every instance |