Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-11-04


SCENES AT AND ABOUT THE poLLs-How PEOPLE
HAVE LEARNED TO ''voTE EARLy'-THE REuEP-
lIoN AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF RETURNS
Especial Correspondence OF the Commercially
New YORK, Nov. 8.
or politics and returns you will have enough
tomorrow morning without my aid. l, on the
contrary, am at the present writing rather short
Of both. Election day is the most unpolitical
day of the season. 1t is certainly occupied with
voting 'rallyng our friends to the iiils lin such
condition ae they may be found) in carriages
or foot, in loaiing around "from poll to poll"
as the hymn says, in betting, d mixing and
observer can say there s "nary pllitic" to be
heen Oh hand, save in the rare instances when,
as this morning, two crowds OF rival factions,
where there's a split III the Democratic party,
| unfortunately come into collision in the course
Of their patrol duties, and argue the political
situation with foul epithets, curses, blows and
| pistol shots. This makes politics aud police
both locally lively for while. But
generally the work is az 'bnmdrum Az
the meanest business drudgery can be.
rhe time for argument is past" us the party
| editorials for election morning have It 'The
| time for action il begun"
And 30 potential is endless newspaper itera-
tion in the run of generations in drilling an idea
into the public mind, that the population whore
| can remember once general in activity at the
| polls throughout the early part of the day, and
u terrible rush to vote in the afternoon, result
ing in the close OF the boxes on hundreds Of vot
| ers i'll line too late-now repair almost as one
man to the voting places the first thing after
breakfast, form in long queues, and wait patien-
| tly without respect of persons mot even
the fret person) from half au hour to
pensable sine qudnon OF patriotic vot-
| er's duty to svote early" Oh, what nauseous
| queues are some of these 557 that stretch from
the back rooms of grocers or butchers, or the
little offices of coal dealers &C.. &C., ont into the
| street and along the curbstones, marshalled by
policemen, in the early hours of the forenoon |!
| Well enough where the dirty birds are all Of q
feather, and the ballots fall according to the
poet rather like SCOT flakes than SNOW flakes. to
| ''execute the freeman's will" But vt many a
poll the foul and the clean meet together, and
meet deal too closely-packed like Scotch her.
rings in box, effecting an agrar1an distribution
| of scents and vermin, which no Other day in the
universe brings to 'all sorts and conditions Of
men,"
Through the afternoon, on the 'ntrary, vo-
ting is al dull and leisurely throughout the city
RI at any country school house. Thy are only
bringing in the stragglers.
| The business, again, is conducted in this city
with an elaboration of system WORTH TO be COM
pared with the machinery of the cu tom house
| or the u s. Treasury. 1t is really worth observ-
ing, with what formaty and deliberation the
process of getting vote deposited and counted
| to the candidate for whom it is designed, il here
invested and protected by law.
| First there is the registry occupying four
days, so distributed through the preceding
month, and conducted in 30 many small separate
| districts--557 in this city and 149 in brooklyn
as to make it, under the administration of the
tolerably professional police department we en-
| joy, practically perfect and circumstantial a
record of all the persons entitled in this vast city
to vote, as scould be made in any little rural
town. 1t reminds me rather of the register in the
family Bible, only it is so much more clerkly and
systematic. Six duplicate (pardon the bulD reg
listers are kept all the while, by four inspectors
and two poll clerks, in each of the 557 election
districts, and all these men have perhaps from
$50 to 400 voters at most to care for.
AS you work the last of your way up to the
barrier, behind which the inspectors aud poll
| clerks sit with their pens, each intent on his
book, and only one of the former standing, you
are confronted by row of seven grim 'ooking-
iron frames, each securely padlocked and
enclosing globe of thick glass ten inches in di-
ameter, in which the ballots lie as completely
visible as il in heaps on the open table. The
boxes are labeled with the several offices for
which they are to receive ballots. A little round
hole in the top of each is stopped with cork.
You announce yonr name and residence The
chief inspector takes from your hand your bun-
die of ballots aud repeats in a loud tone with
pauses. the street, then the number, then the
name. Each oil the other three inspectors
finds OH tho registry book before him
the page for your street, then your
number, then your name, as these are
lepbdIeu, anu hnuullIlcb luclf COuCuilchCos
Meanwhile, the chief inspector lays your ballots,
each on the top of the box in which it belongs,
and finally announces that you 'vote all, or all
but so-and-so, as the case may be. The other
three inspectors have checked of yon' name on
the registry, and have written ''yes" II, certain
column at the right headed "Voted." The two
poll clerks have recorded your name aud resi-.
dence in duplicate in two official books printed
and ruled for the purpose, have placed "v
streak under the description of every office fol
which you have given vote, and have written
s'no' under each for which you have not voted.
Not until all this solemn recording ia done, does
the inspector draw the cork of the first ballot
box, deposit your vote, replace the cork and
proceed in like manner with tho seven aftei
which he is ready for the next man.
The checks and safeguards OF the counting are
still more elaborate but SEQ that You will not
have room for me to be so minute in the de-
scripton of them. First the votes are all sealed
and the b xes set aside. The whole board and
two assistants sit down and compare the Six reg
listers and two poll lists, name by name until the
eight books are exact copies of each othor and
the exact number of votes for each Office IL as
certained. / should like to describe the inge
nious pains taken next to make the count of
ballots match the lists, and TO make the count
for each candidate infaliably correct ly passing
by tens through the counting of the four III
spectors in turn (; besides all the separate re-
turn blanks that must be filled for the press, fol
the police precinct, for the police head quarters
for the Election Bureau, and for the county
CLERK. ANA yet Unls would nOD Dc nhlI tlle nebhl
! of the instructions which our election inspectors
must observe fer the security and purity of the
ballot in New York city.
Not until evening does the real excitement ol
the day begin. All the leading newspaper Offices
set out illuminated transparencies, ruled and
l printed in mammoth proportions for full RETURN
OF the election, and are early surrounded by
eager. crowds which gather and grow until all il
! known, and keep it up until long past midnight
The great political headquarters do the sam,
thing inside their halls, where the sympathiseri
gather and hold permanent session, entertained
with speeches, songs jokes, and musi'
in the intervals of the announcement OF favora
able returns and of the tremendous racke
with which such are greeted. The halls Of the
successful party become scenes of roof-rendint
/ hiarity and joy that beggars description, ant
i there is no room to pursue it. All is good hu
) NOR, however, or at least the i'll humor Of th'
defeated hides itself in dropping dulluess snt
courses not loud though deep" quite obscure(
by the predominant excitement of the othe
side. 1t is very, very late hour before til,
) streets are cleared and quiet tonight
4 DELAWARE.