Up sprang a W. C. T. U. leader; then another person; then a hundred from Maine; yea, a thousand more until over seven thousand, from all parts of the world, stood on their feet.
“Remain standing, I ask you! Let not one of you act the coward! There are others here today, who came in, as I did, to visit. Stand up! Show your colors! If you remain seated you will be classed with the enemy. The time to honor your cause is at hand. I ask you seventy thousand church-members present to choose this day whom you will serve.”
Mr. Venerable, who was an experienced man in these uprisings, whispered to an excited saloon-keeper: “Let them proceed. A house divided against itself can not stand.”
“I demand order,” shouted a high-license advocate who owned a brewery, but the agitated fellow was soon calmed by these personal words from the venerable chairman: “_Let these people go. They will soon get into factional contention and thereby break the point of their steel more effectually than we could do it._”
“Remain standing, ye noble band of men and women!” shouted the Kansas man with increasing earnestness. “You, who are too cowardly or indifferent to rise from your seats, are throwing your influence this day on the side of the enemy, thereby casting a reflection on the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and—”
This was more than a certain minister could bear. So, before the Kansas man had finished his last sentence, he sprang excitedly to his feet and shook his fist defiantly: “I want it distinctly understood that I am just as good as the man from Kansas, and just as much of a temperance man, but I don’t believe in this way of showing my colors. I would not be standing now had I not been insulted more by that crank of one idea, standing there, than by Mr. Wine Expert who so contemptibly perverted Scripture.”
Mr. Wine Expert sprang to the edge of the stage to defend his position, but Mr. Venerable was instantly at his side. “_Come, come, don’t spoil that fight; suffer rather than have them combine against you,_” were the quiet words of logic that brought him to his seat without uttering a word.
Then up jumped a few prominent church-members to express their indignation at the adverse criticism of the Kansas man.
“Those are exactly my sentiments, and I here offer my protest against this manner of procedure,” said one as he looked approvingly at the minister.
“And so do I.” “I am most emphatically of the same opinion.” “I stand here, a true temperance man, to express my indignation at that Kansas prodigy,” were some of the expressions which came from temperance men who were not willing to be classed with the seven thousand.