Charles R. Bell, of Aspen, State President Patriotic Order Sons of America, presented the President with an address. In the afternoon President Harrison and Mr. Wanamaker attended union services and children's mass-meeting at Durand's Hall. Rev. H. M. Law presided, but Mayor Hodges introduced the President, who said:
Mr. Mayor, Fellow-citizens and Children—Our stop at Glenwood Springs was, as you all know, intended to be for rest; and yet I have not felt that I could deny myself to this large body of friends assembled from the homes of this city, and, perhaps, to an even larger body of friends who have come from some of the neighboring towns to pay their respects and testify their good-will. The trip we have been making has been a prolonged one, and it has been a continued experience of speech-making and hand-shaking. The physical labor has been very great, and I think if one had been called upon to do the same amount of work without the stimulus and inspiration which have come from the happy faces and kind hearts of the people who have greeted us, almost any man would have given out. Certainly I would had I not been borne up and helped by the wonderful kindness of our people.
I have been intensely interested in what I have seen. It has testified to me of the unity of the people East and West. Out here you take on some peculiarities as we do in Indiana, but underneath these peculiarities there is the same true American grit and spirit. [Applause.] It is not wonderful that this should be so. It is not a mere likeness between different people, because you are precisely the same people that I have known in the Central and Eastern States. Everywhere I have gone I have seen Hoosiers; everywhere Mr. Wanamaker has gone he has seen Pennsylvanians; everywhere General Rusk has gone Wisconsin hands have been reached up to him. These new States have been filled up by the enterprising and pushing young men of the older States. They have set out to find here greater advantages, more rapid pathways to wealth and competence. Many of them have found it, many of them are still perhaps in the hard struggle of life; but to you all, to every man, whether he is mine-owner or handles the pick, I bring you my warmest sympathy and my most sincere thanks for your friendly greeting. [Applause.]
Our Government was instituted by wise men—men of broad views. It was based upon the idea of the equal rights of men. It absolutely rejects the idea of class distinction and insists that men should be judged by their behavior. That is a good rule; those who are law-abiding and well-disposed, those who pursue their vocations lawfully and with due respect to the rights of others, are the true American citizens. I am glad to know that the love of our institutions is so deeply imbedded in your hearts. It has been a most delightful and cheering thing to see that the starry banner, the same old flag that some of you carried amid the smoke of battle, the rattle of musketry, booming of cannon, and the dying of men, is in the hands of such children. [Applause.] Some of the prettiest as well as some of the most hopeful sights we have looked upon have been these companies of children gathered on the streets or hill-sides waving this banner.
The American institutions deserve our watchful care. All our communities should be careful in the beginning to establish law and maintain it. It is very difficult when lawlessness once obtains the upper hand to put it down. It is very easy to keep it out of any community if the well-disposed, true-hearted people will sink all their differences, religious and political, and stand together as citizens for the good of their municipalities. [Applause.]
I want to thank the children who have gathered for this Sabbath-day's observance. I have had a life that has been full of labor. From my early manhood until this hour my time has had many demands upon it. I have been under the pressure of the practice of my profession. I have been under the pressure of political campaigns and of public office, and yet in all these pursuits, and under all these conditions, I have found, simply as a physical question, without reference to its religious aspects at all, that I could do more by working six days than seven.
I think you will all find it so, and that as a civil institution rest on the Sabbath day is good for man. It is not only good, but it is the right of the workingman. Men should have one free day in which to think of their families, of themselves, of things that are not material, but are spiritual. [Applause.]
I desire to express from a sincere and earnest heart my thanks to you all for all your kindness, giving you in return simply the pledge that I will in all things keep in mind what seems to me to be the true interests of our people. I have no thought of sections, I have no thought upon any of the great public questions that does not embrace the rights and interests of all our people and all our States. I believe we shall find a common interest and safe ground upon all the great questions, and by moderating our own views and making reasonable and just concessions we shall find them all settled wisely and in the true interest of the people. [Applause.]