New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-22
I STRIP CANDIDATE.

I'm "A san Francisco newspaper, some weeks
since. appeared the advertisement of one ID.
G.. Harmon, announcing himself as an indie
pendent candidate for Congress. Who IL
Harmon ~ was the general inerrogatOry,
and it will be seen that many thirsty souls re-
ceived balmy satisfaction upon that point be-
fore Mr.. Harmon retired from the contest,
which he did in a short time through the me-
dunn of another advertisement. TIE secret of
this curious canvass will be presently unfolded,
for Harmon upon appealing to his fellow-cit-
liens conjectured that the readiest and most
certain way of going point blank to their
hearts was through their stOmachs-a discOv-
cry which it required no great anatomical
knowledge to make, and one which had been
made and acted upon before. Recognizing
this recondite relation between the ballot and
Bacchus, Harmon hired a room in the restau-
rant establishment of j. Bickerstafi. In this
apartment Harmon took seat and received
visitors" to whom he offered cigars without
restriction and wine at discretion, or indiscre-
ton, as the case might be. 1t was during the
trial of a suit brought by the proprietor Of
this refectOry against Harmon for the expenses
of the canvass, that the candidate gave his
testimony. 1t turns out that his running for
Congress was what slangy men call, we be-
lieve put up job. He said that he was
brought out as a candidate by Messrs. Petit,
Kirwin, and Bickerstatf. 1t was agreed that
he should have q suite of rooms; that he
should sit there and "look grave and say as
"litte as possible There was another
man named Piper running for the same
office, and the object of starring Harmon was
to make Piper pay roundly to get him out of
the way. SO the headquarters were CstaO-
lishcd, the corks were drawn, and fountain
of free whisky established; cigars were dis
pensed without cost to all who loved the
weed, and the electoral revelIies commenced
When any men of intelligence called" testi-
fled HarmOI,>-,"I looked wise, and said as
little as possible" Mostly however, accord
ing to HarmOn's evidence, no one called ex-
cept boats and loafers, who congratulated
him on coming OUT drank all the
whisky they could get, and vowed to
sustain their generous host through thick
and thin. Harmon acknowledged that he
was drunk most of the tine and said that
when he got sober he determined 10 back out,
for he Couldn't stand it any longer" The
conspirators against tthe pocket of Piper be-
sought their lay-fgure of a candidate :" to hold
"on for just five days more" He resGuteiy
refused. mot another day" he declared;
and they took him out of the field. t9he whole
thing, 80 far as it was a design upon Pipers
pocket. was a lamentable failure, or appears
20 have been 30. Possibly matters might have
gone more satisfactorily if the straw candi-
date had not got very drunk to begin with,
and kept himself in an elevated state of Bac-
chus to the end He does not seem
to have made much out of the speculation.
lie had little money of his own when he
went into it, and this he spent freely; when
e was gone he proceeded on credit, and con-
sequently found himself a defendant in court,
while Petit, Kirwin. and Bickerstaif meanly
went back ON him and refused to come down