Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-12-31
manners of Elections in England.


The humors of country elections are elever'y
described by the London Telegraph;
sit is 9 very severe thing for candidate II
he is known to entertain taste Tor any partleu-
lar animal. hlr. Garth, late NJ. T., had to
undergo the most searching cross examination
about the points OF pointers, from double noses
to sterns, when he was first candidate ior
Guildford. Another member In the North,
whose hours of idleness were spent among his
hens, appeared for several occasions before his
constituents, ard to the end of his life had no
opportunity of explaining his political sentl-
ments
The weaYers marked him long before he
opened his mouth, and assailed him with
volley of questions on setting hens and pullets
and egg supplies when all their minds ought,
like the Laird of Cockpen's, to have been
'taen up wi affairs O. the state, and his views
thereon. When he did begin to speak there
was such eackiing chorus aud such growing
that he soon bowed before it and retired, leav-
ing thy little egg with the reporters, a per-
feet barn door and forest chorus no man can
stand but, perhaps, it is worse ifa tormenter
only does the donkey or crows like chanti-
cleer with cruel precision, just at the most in
s2ired passage OF discourse.
Free fights are of course very common, and
midland paper once hit off the matter in
few words After long discussion upon the
Irish Church, and its prospects, they fought
for half an hour. 1t was less general on an
other occasion, when 'dauntless Democrat
was reported as having been engaged lowing
to an inability to agree on the Irish Church
question: in single combat for several minutes
with highly espected member of the consti-
tutional cause.
"Extempore orators out Of windows do not
fare we'll at electors hands. 'Put in thy Gods
head and shoulders is generally the note Of
warning to any youth or tervid politician of
riper wears of whose principles and power OF
talk they wot not A candidate must have
nerves Of steel and heart OF good, tough oak,
if there are any passages IN his life which he
doesn't care TO be touched upon at meeting
90 the hustings, as clever crowd will always
spot him., either by pantomime or jest. He
gets stopped in the midst OF that favorlte
simile which never failed him at pinch.
''Voters will turn stupid If much pressed,
and sometimes they vii leave town, or stick IN
the house and not come out till the books are
closed. One old man who had never been
quite staunch, was once looked up by the Blues
at five O clock on the polling morning; lou
needn't come nigh me-, he said; the Yellows
were here an hour ago; aOd LII get up Tor
none of you;' and so he kept his bed all day.
We remember another who had been d0zed
through his beer, and then put away peaceful
" to bed. His shoes, coat, waistcoat and hat
were also removed from the chair, as precau-
ton, In case be did awake too soon. As good
luck would have it, he awoke about twenty
minutes to four, instantly realized the situation
and rising from bed, just as he was, IN his
trowsers, shirt and stockings, ran down stairs
and into the street, amid loud cheers, and Just
got polled off in time. His friends and the
committee had been looking for him every
where, aud thought that the other side had
taken him out Of town for the benefit of tho
air. although they had guarded all the ap-
nroaches night and day and looked into every
suspicious cab.
''In one borough bottling rose into science,
and it is among the traditions OF It's head inn
that forty men were once kept there IN bed, or
(as they put it) out, for fear that the other
party should secure and tamper with them.
That borough knew its value to q nicely. 1t
always returned one member for purity sake,
and If the second member would not pay the
regulation price per head, both parties under
stood each other views so we'll on the currency
question, through their mutual solicitors, that
a third was brought down to ruin him, and
beat him if he did not consent to pay. In some
boroughs the electors got pay from both parties.
A yell-known money lender used to tell plain
lively how he invited eighty doubtful electors
to an early breakfast, and that they found
twenty mound note under each OF their plates
Thev took the notes and enjoyed their break
faSts very much, but when they departed, after
chee,fuliy crasping his hands, it was not to the
polI. but to second breakfast at their host $
oppouents, who gave them a pony, and Sc
cured their ultimate support.
Some Quaint old fellows hang on the skirts
of elections. They seem to live tor nothing
else, and annual parliaments would be meat
and drink 10 them One ofthese was 50 staunch
to his colors, and some old common rights,
that when he was buried bunch OF yellow
gorse was thrown, like an inlnOrtette, on his
coffin. la another borough the Blues were so
proud of the liberal cause, that one desired to
be buried by the paved footpath through the
churchyard so that the voters might pass hls
grave when they went to poll In the porch. A
veteran miner sported an immense blue hat.
Under its shadow he had drunk oceans to the
health OF the cause, but once when mean can
ddate came who wouldn't even,
Give a poor fellow his beer
his feelings were so outraged that, at dead OF
night, he marshaled small procession OF sym
pathizers, dug hole, buried his hat, and ab-
iured the cause forever.
A RELIC OF OLDEN TME,-Among the
antiquities preserved by Winchester lady is
pair of Lord Fairfax's boots. The old gentle
man left them on one of his last-perhaps his
last-visit to town, at DR.. Mackay's another Of
our old-time notabes. They are riding boots,
of the fashion familiar to US IN Hogartn s
prints, solidly, though clumsily made, with
box toes of the style now in vogue again after
the lapse of century. The rude and heavy
spurs are still attached The foot Of the
owner must have been very small, though he
was tall man. Mr.. E. w. Massey, of Clarke,
has his silver and mother ot-pearl snuff box,
and we suppose there are other relics extant OF
the old Seigneur of the Northern Neck
Winchester Kd. Nears.