ide for the wants of all classes of people in
this way, that they may live contented and happy, and have every thing
that is necessary for the health and recreation of their families.
[Applause.]

I cannot, of course, at this late hour, delay you with arguments. You
have had sufficient already. That, as I understand it, is not the chief
object of our meeting here. The arguments are at present before the
authorities in this excellent Report of the Commissioners.

We meet here to encourage them to go forward, to speak out in such a
positive manner, that they can hesitate no longer. It is our duty to
cheer them and encourage them in their work, and we hardly realize what
an influence this meeting will have in encouraging them to the great and
arduous work which they have undertaken to accomplish. Why, it reminds
me of a little incident that happened in New York not long ago, when one
of those great buildings was on fire,--those nine-story tenement-houses.
When the great crowd gathered there in the night, and they were surging
there, the police were trying to keep order, and the firemen were
working, and the hot flames shot up toward the sky, and the black smoke
rolled forth, and all was din and confusion; and, in the noise and
tumult of that dark and threatening night, there was one voice heard. It
was a mother's voice above the noise; and she cried, "Save my child!
Will no one save my child?" And they would hush her; but still she
cried, "Oh, save my child!" And there was one of the brave firemen, when
he learned that a little child was in the fourth story of that building,
who thought of his little ones at home; and he said he would risk his
life, he would dare any thing, rather than that child should be lost.
And they brought the great ladders, and they spliced them together, and
they swung them up against the burning building; and he commenced to
ascend. And, when he was halfway up, he looked at the hot flames and the
dense smoke rolling forth, and his heart trembled with fear: it seemed
to be instant death. But some one in the crowd below, who knew the
springs that govern the human heart, cried, "Cheer him!" "Cheer him!"
And there went up from that great crowd the wild hurrah, and it cheered
his heart like an electric thrill; and he rushed on, and disappeared in
the smoke. All was suspense; they waited with breathless anxiety: and at
last he returned with the child, and placed it in its mother's arms.
[Tremendous app