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You can see below, first, an image of the whole article, and then, further below, I've cut the article up into five segments to make everything bigger and more legible.
The whole articleImage #1 of six for this newspaper articleScroll up for the audio reading.Scroll down for the transcript.
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I dithered over whether to include this article - so long, and with so little that was specifically about Papa Charles - but it's a fun article, and I like to imagine Papa Charles having dinner with his wife and five children - ages 8 to 18 - and then going out on a fall night to participate in a public meeting.
If you just want to read the part about Papa Charles, I've put it in the notes section below the transcript. But the whole article is, as I said, a fun article.
If you just want to read the part about Papa Charles, I've put it in the notes section below the transcript. But the whole article is, as I said, a fun article.
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DELICACY.
A Whole Lot of It Displayed by Cassidy.
At the Meeting Called Solely to Endorse Him.
The Prohibitionists Get Into a Tumult With Other People.
John Ashenhurst and John Danner Declare That There Should be no Compromise With Satan – Bob is Endorsed by a Heavy Vote – A Law and Order Committee Appointed.
Robert said that he felt delicate. So did every body else. That was a delicate meeting and there were some delicate subjects touched upon. There were some other delicate people in the audience besides Robert, and when somebody touched the delicate spots the correspondents at once tore up the introductions they had written at the early stage of the proceedings and decided that it wasn’t exactly a joint meeting of the preachers and their congregations to talk about things that are heard from the pulpit every Sunday. The call for the citizens meeting said that it was for the purpose of assisting to “close the dens of vice from which emanate streams of pollution that effect the whole city and turn our youth to destruction.” Nobody got very deep into that stream and there wasn’t a boiled shirt or a starched collar that got a besmirch of the pollution. Frank McMurray made a mistake. He had gone there with the intention of plunging into that stream and just showing the assembled people where they are at, but when he got started and got down into that coal cellar through a trap door and then came up again and told how he had talked with the fallen woman and how she wanted to live a respectable life, they didn’t want to hear about it. When he started to tell about Jennie Hoyt, a young woman who was later brought to repentance through the agency of McMurray himself, that gentleman was hooted down. He was on the wrong tack. To give the thing flavor it had been given out that it was a meeting for the purpose of discussing what was best to be done, but McMurray kept too close to the letter of the call and got called himself. McMurray had a good speech. He has written the balance of it out and sent it to this office and lack of space alone prevents its publication. The fact of the matter is that McMurray didn’t extol the virtues of Cassidy. If he had been telling what a great and good man was Cassidy he could have been talking yet, so far as any interference is concerned.
The meeting was well attended. There were about 900 persons present and there were many Christian people who had gone there for the purpose of taking part in the proceedings and using some means to suppress the evils that the call for the meeting confidently asserted were in existence. But they soon found that wasn’t what the meeting was for. It was called to jolly the mayor. There was another purpose or two in it, but it didn’t crop out except at the close and then it was a poor crop.
In the first place the meeting had no head. It had a tail, but that occurred later. At 7:30 o’clock the audience had assembled. At 7:55 it was still assembled. At 8 o’clock it had assembled but that is all it had. At 8:10 o’clock it was decided that something must be done so A. Kitt, a prominent and worthy citizen, ascended to the stage and called the meeting to order. Rev. J. N. Field was introduced as chairman of the evening. Dr. Field then called upon all of the other ministers to come forward. They came. There was now nobody on the stage but preachers. Everybody knew what side the preachers were on so their presence had little or no weight. They are rightly opposed to sin and Satan, and say so in their pulpits, hence what they said last night was not particularly new nor was it anything for the most part that they would not say in their pulpits, so we will save space in that direction.
Before Rev. Bauslin led in prayer the chairman, having gotten about all the preachers on the platform, said that he wanted “all the leading reputable citizens, men who have the moral courage to stand up for their convictions” to come up to the platform. John Danner, Geo. Webb and Frank McMurray went up. It is evident that there’s only a few of us “leading reputable” citizens in town. Imperius Martin called out from the rear and wanted to know if there was plenty of room on the stage for the citizens mentioned and the chairman allowed there was. There were seventeen chairs on the platform.
After D. Edmonds, Rev. Ferguson and Frank McMurray had talked, a committee of five was appointed to draft resolutions. The committee comprised A. Kitt, Herman Blum, H. H. Whiting, Dr. Fraunfelter and George Harvey.
Mrs. Rebecca Johnson, of East Eight Street, went to the platform and made the best speech of the evening. It was full of tenderness, pathos and Christian charity. She wanted to stand right up and fight sin from the shoulder. “Of what use is the death of Christ,” said she “if we stand by and see our husbands and sons led away.”
Dr. Bauslin and Rev. Boyer talked and then J. J. Ashenhurst went forward by invitation. John made a bully temperance speech and wasn’t in favor of giving an inch for fear somebody would take a mile.
Then the great man who was elected to do something and has to call a mass meeting of some of the fellows that voted for him, to endorse him for making a stagger at doing what they elected him to do, was called upon. The chairman jollied him up a bit by way of introduction and then as that eloquential eulogy cleared away there stood revealed the chief magistrate of all the breathing, panting people in the whole town. Encouraged by the cheers of 120 men and 182 women, who can’t vote, the mayor took a short draft of second term out of the pitcher, and went to work. He said he felt a delicacy about appearing there. He knew that the meeting had been called for the sole purpose of endorsing him for another term. Most any body else would have had delicacy enough to stay away under similar circumstances but Robert enjoyed the flattery and blinked profusely every time any thing nice was said about him. He stated that there are only a few saloon keepers in town who cause any trouble and the others should not be censured for what a few do. Then he said he was speaking in his official capacity and not voicing his personal sentiments. He then said some mean things about the council, in his official capacity, of course. Finally acknowledging that he hadn’t done anything to boast about, he sat down. He had talked for thirty minutes about himself and what a great man he was for sending Mike Quigley over to jail for six months.
The resolutions which endorsed Rober were then read. There was a tail and clause to the resolutions that caused a rumpus. It called for an ordinance closing the saloons at a “seasonable” hour. Somebody moved that the resolutions be adopted and then John Ashenhurst got up. He moved to amend that the saloons be closed, “every day in the week, every week in the year and every year in the century” and so on, ad infinitum. John Danner seconded it quicker’n scat.
Chairman Field called a halt. He didn’t want any thing of that kind. He said it was all right but it wouldn’t do.
Danner then said that the council had the power to close them and he wanted them closed.
A Kitt said that while he would like to see them all closed he thought the reformers ought to take what they can get.
Then an old fellow named E. Jones, who talks through his whiskers, got up and everlastingly lammed it to the prohibitionists, the saloonists and John Danner and everybody else but himself. The chairman finally got him headed off.
Then came the sensation of the evening. Prof. Stokey said that he didn’t want to turn the meeting into a farce by passing any such amendment as the one proposed. He believed it was the right thing, he wanted the saloons closed all the time, he was certain that it would be the correct thing to do, but he couldn’t vote for it. He pleaded with Ashenhurst to withdraw it, but John isn’t constructed on that plan. He was up in an instant. He pushed his fist out into the atmosphere and the air came together again with an awful noise. If there had been anybody there when that fist got to the end of its string, that fellow would have been going yet. John shouted “I’ll not withdraw it. I favor it because it is right, because it –” but that’s as far as the prohibition orator got, when his voice was lost in the general tumult. The amendment was finally put to a vote and was lost by the score of 84 to 211. Then the original resolutions were put and 304 people voted for them. The negative was not put, so Cassidy’s vindication when the last goal was kicked was 304 to 0, with 596 people in the audience to hear from.
The following committee was then appointed by the chairman, to form a law and order league: Dr. Fraunfelter, A. Kitt, Herman Blum, James Sterling, H. H. Whiting.
After the ball was over Chairman Field, noticing that in the disturbance Cassidy had been lost sight of, said: “Before you go I want to ask one favor of you. Please, please, wherever you go, say a kind word for Mayor Cassidy.”
The meeting ended with a benediction.
There is much good that might be done in this city. There are many reforms needed, but they will hardly materialize from a meeting such as was held last night. The resolutions state specifically that the town has grown worse quite recently. Cassidy was mayor all the time it was getting worse. If it will assist the cause any to endorse a mayor for letting the town grow worse under his administration, the benefits to be derived by the citizens from such endorsement are not apparent at this distance.
A Whole Lot of It Displayed by Cassidy.
At the Meeting Called Solely to Endorse Him.
The Prohibitionists Get Into a Tumult With Other People.
John Ashenhurst and John Danner Declare That There Should be no Compromise With Satan – Bob is Endorsed by a Heavy Vote – A Law and Order Committee Appointed.
Robert said that he felt delicate. So did every body else. That was a delicate meeting and there were some delicate subjects touched upon. There were some other delicate people in the audience besides Robert, and when somebody touched the delicate spots the correspondents at once tore up the introductions they had written at the early stage of the proceedings and decided that it wasn’t exactly a joint meeting of the preachers and their congregations to talk about things that are heard from the pulpit every Sunday. The call for the citizens meeting said that it was for the purpose of assisting to “close the dens of vice from which emanate streams of pollution that effect the whole city and turn our youth to destruction.” Nobody got very deep into that stream and there wasn’t a boiled shirt or a starched collar that got a besmirch of the pollution. Frank McMurray made a mistake. He had gone there with the intention of plunging into that stream and just showing the assembled people where they are at, but when he got started and got down into that coal cellar through a trap door and then came up again and told how he had talked with the fallen woman and how she wanted to live a respectable life, they didn’t want to hear about it. When he started to tell about Jennie Hoyt, a young woman who was later brought to repentance through the agency of McMurray himself, that gentleman was hooted down. He was on the wrong tack. To give the thing flavor it had been given out that it was a meeting for the purpose of discussing what was best to be done, but McMurray kept too close to the letter of the call and got called himself. McMurray had a good speech. He has written the balance of it out and sent it to this office and lack of space alone prevents its publication. The fact of the matter is that McMurray didn’t extol the virtues of Cassidy. If he had been telling what a great and good man was Cassidy he could have been talking yet, so far as any interference is concerned.
The meeting was well attended. There were about 900 persons present and there were many Christian people who had gone there for the purpose of taking part in the proceedings and using some means to suppress the evils that the call for the meeting confidently asserted were in existence. But they soon found that wasn’t what the meeting was for. It was called to jolly the mayor. There was another purpose or two in it, but it didn’t crop out except at the close and then it was a poor crop.
In the first place the meeting had no head. It had a tail, but that occurred later. At 7:30 o’clock the audience had assembled. At 7:55 it was still assembled. At 8 o’clock it had assembled but that is all it had. At 8:10 o’clock it was decided that something must be done so A. Kitt, a prominent and worthy citizen, ascended to the stage and called the meeting to order. Rev. J. N. Field was introduced as chairman of the evening. Dr. Field then called upon all of the other ministers to come forward. They came. There was now nobody on the stage but preachers. Everybody knew what side the preachers were on so their presence had little or no weight. They are rightly opposed to sin and Satan, and say so in their pulpits, hence what they said last night was not particularly new nor was it anything for the most part that they would not say in their pulpits, so we will save space in that direction.
Before Rev. Bauslin led in prayer the chairman, having gotten about all the preachers on the platform, said that he wanted “all the leading reputable citizens, men who have the moral courage to stand up for their convictions” to come up to the platform. John Danner, Geo. Webb and Frank McMurray went up. It is evident that there’s only a few of us “leading reputable” citizens in town. Imperius Martin called out from the rear and wanted to know if there was plenty of room on the stage for the citizens mentioned and the chairman allowed there was. There were seventeen chairs on the platform.
After D. Edmonds, Rev. Ferguson and Frank McMurray had talked, a committee of five was appointed to draft resolutions. The committee comprised A. Kitt, Herman Blum, H. H. Whiting, Dr. Fraunfelter and George Harvey.
Mrs. Rebecca Johnson, of East Eight Street, went to the platform and made the best speech of the evening. It was full of tenderness, pathos and Christian charity. She wanted to stand right up and fight sin from the shoulder. “Of what use is the death of Christ,” said she “if we stand by and see our husbands and sons led away.”
Dr. Bauslin and Rev. Boyer talked and then J. J. Ashenhurst went forward by invitation. John made a bully temperance speech and wasn’t in favor of giving an inch for fear somebody would take a mile.
Then the great man who was elected to do something and has to call a mass meeting of some of the fellows that voted for him, to endorse him for making a stagger at doing what they elected him to do, was called upon. The chairman jollied him up a bit by way of introduction and then as that eloquential eulogy cleared away there stood revealed the chief magistrate of all the breathing, panting people in the whole town. Encouraged by the cheers of 120 men and 182 women, who can’t vote, the mayor took a short draft of second term out of the pitcher, and went to work. He said he felt a delicacy about appearing there. He knew that the meeting had been called for the sole purpose of endorsing him for another term. Most any body else would have had delicacy enough to stay away under similar circumstances but Robert enjoyed the flattery and blinked profusely every time any thing nice was said about him. He stated that there are only a few saloon keepers in town who cause any trouble and the others should not be censured for what a few do. Then he said he was speaking in his official capacity and not voicing his personal sentiments. He then said some mean things about the council, in his official capacity, of course. Finally acknowledging that he hadn’t done anything to boast about, he sat down. He had talked for thirty minutes about himself and what a great man he was for sending Mike Quigley over to jail for six months.
The resolutions which endorsed Rober were then read. There was a tail and clause to the resolutions that caused a rumpus. It called for an ordinance closing the saloons at a “seasonable” hour. Somebody moved that the resolutions be adopted and then John Ashenhurst got up. He moved to amend that the saloons be closed, “every day in the week, every week in the year and every year in the century” and so on, ad infinitum. John Danner seconded it quicker’n scat.
Chairman Field called a halt. He didn’t want any thing of that kind. He said it was all right but it wouldn’t do.
Danner then said that the council had the power to close them and he wanted them closed.
A Kitt said that while he would like to see them all closed he thought the reformers ought to take what they can get.
Then an old fellow named E. Jones, who talks through his whiskers, got up and everlastingly lammed it to the prohibitionists, the saloonists and John Danner and everybody else but himself. The chairman finally got him headed off.
Then came the sensation of the evening. Prof. Stokey said that he didn’t want to turn the meeting into a farce by passing any such amendment as the one proposed. He believed it was the right thing, he wanted the saloons closed all the time, he was certain that it would be the correct thing to do, but he couldn’t vote for it. He pleaded with Ashenhurst to withdraw it, but John isn’t constructed on that plan. He was up in an instant. He pushed his fist out into the atmosphere and the air came together again with an awful noise. If there had been anybody there when that fist got to the end of its string, that fellow would have been going yet. John shouted “I’ll not withdraw it. I favor it because it is right, because it –” but that’s as far as the prohibition orator got, when his voice was lost in the general tumult. The amendment was finally put to a vote and was lost by the score of 84 to 211. Then the original resolutions were put and 304 people voted for them. The negative was not put, so Cassidy’s vindication when the last goal was kicked was 304 to 0, with 596 people in the audience to hear from.
The following committee was then appointed by the chairman, to form a law and order league: Dr. Fraunfelter, A. Kitt, Herman Blum, James Sterling, H. H. Whiting.
After the ball was over Chairman Field, noticing that in the disturbance Cassidy had been lost sight of, said: “Before you go I want to ask one favor of you. Please, please, wherever you go, say a kind word for Mayor Cassidy.”
The meeting ended with a benediction.
There is much good that might be done in this city. There are many reforms needed, but they will hardly materialize from a meeting such as was held last night. The resolutions state specifically that the town has grown worse quite recently. Cassidy was mayor all the time it was getting worse. If it will assist the cause any to endorse a mayor for letting the town grow worse under his administration, the benefits to be derived by the citizens from such endorsement are not apparent at this distance.
audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
This is one of a series of documents that I have uploaded about Papa Charles's involvement in politics. You can find the whole list in:
PAPA CHARLES: DOCUMENTS
2.
The reporter apparently expects the readers to already have the background. As far as I can make out, the meeting was held to support Mayor Robert Andrew Cassidy (1839-1918), who was mayor of Canton from 1893 to 1895.
3.
Here's the part about Papa Charles:
Then came the sensation of the evening. Prof. Stokey said that he didn’t want to turn the meeting into a farce by passing any such amendment as the one proposed. He believed it was the right thing, he wanted the saloons closed all the time, he was certain that it would be the correct thing to do, but he couldn’t vote for it. He pleaded with Ashenhurst to withdraw it, but John isn’t constructed on that plan.
So Papa Charles was attending a public meeting that was held in support of Mayor Cassidy, and Papa Charles was comfortable with standing up and being heard by about 600 people. When the question came up of making Canton a dry town (i.e. prohibiting the sale of alcohol), he said he was all for having the saloons be closed, but did not support a regulation forcing the closure of the saloons.
4.
When my era of the Stokey family talked and wondered about the divorce of Papa Charles and Mama Margaret, there was an assumption that the cause of Papa Charles's bad behavior must be alcohol. But what I've read does not suggest that Papa Charles had a drinking problem, and given the attitudes towards alcohol in pre-Prohibition days, I think something would have come out if there was anything to come out. And here we have Papa Charles saying he'd like the saloons to be closed. Granted, people are capable of publicly opposing the problematic behavior that they privately indulge in - but I don't think that was what Papa Charles was doing here.
This is one of a series of documents that I have uploaded about Papa Charles's involvement in politics. You can find the whole list in:
PAPA CHARLES: DOCUMENTS
2.
The reporter apparently expects the readers to already have the background. As far as I can make out, the meeting was held to support Mayor Robert Andrew Cassidy (1839-1918), who was mayor of Canton from 1893 to 1895.
3.
Here's the part about Papa Charles:
Then came the sensation of the evening. Prof. Stokey said that he didn’t want to turn the meeting into a farce by passing any such amendment as the one proposed. He believed it was the right thing, he wanted the saloons closed all the time, he was certain that it would be the correct thing to do, but he couldn’t vote for it. He pleaded with Ashenhurst to withdraw it, but John isn’t constructed on that plan.
So Papa Charles was attending a public meeting that was held in support of Mayor Cassidy, and Papa Charles was comfortable with standing up and being heard by about 600 people. When the question came up of making Canton a dry town (i.e. prohibiting the sale of alcohol), he said he was all for having the saloons be closed, but did not support a regulation forcing the closure of the saloons.
4.
When my era of the Stokey family talked and wondered about the divorce of Papa Charles and Mama Margaret, there was an assumption that the cause of Papa Charles's bad behavior must be alcohol. But what I've read does not suggest that Papa Charles had a drinking problem, and given the attitudes towards alcohol in pre-Prohibition days, I think something would have come out if there was anything to come out. And here we have Papa Charles saying he'd like the saloons to be closed. Granted, people are capable of publicly opposing the problematic behavior that they privately indulge in - but I don't think that was what Papa Charles was doing here.
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