The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-11-30
DEMOCRATIC OUTRAGE IN ST. LOUIS
The Kind or Men Who AbhOr "R eTuFn-
Ing Boards, "a Missouri Congress
men Fairly Elected, ana Deliberate
Iy UCunteu 0II.

ST. LOUIS, November 1S.-Oas OF
the boldest political Outrages ever
known has been perpetratsd To-
day ia st. Louis by the official repre-.
sentatives Of a party just now loud in
its denunciation OF partisan action
and Of Southern "Rsturning Boards. /"
The outrage lies in the counting in Oi
Frost, as COngressman-eleet from the
Third district OF st. Louis, in place OF
Metcalfe, the Republican candidate,
known to have been legally elected.
The case can be stated in few words.
When the first counting of the votes
were made, Metcalfe was found to
have a clean majority of twenty-five.
In this city the law is that the judges
of election shall, after counting the
votes, make returns to the County
Court that the Clerks OF the Court
shall add up the returns thIS thess
returns shall be verified AMI justified
by two Justices OF the Peace, OF two
sureties of the County Court, and that
a certificate OF election be Issued ae-
cordingly. AS already stated, the
first result was to give MetcAlfe
twenty-five majority. In the returns
sent to the County Court the vote for
Frost from one precinct, the Fifty
seventh, was 1912" After these re-
turns had been sent to the couit, they
were read of, previous to the count,
to reporters, and the figurs from this
precinct were still "272." The SUPER
visor OF Election at the Fifty-seventh
precinct kept duplicate Of the re-
turns sent in, aud that duplicate
shows the figures rs 1922 The re-
turns remained in the office Of the
Clerk Of the County Court for days,
and were added up when the Clerk,
it Is stated, called upon the Justices OF
the Peace, one a Democrat and one a
Republican, to verify the totals. The
Judges of the County Court-or some
Of them, at least-Objected, said they
would do the thing themselves, and
two of them, Schultz and Finney,
proceeded to go over the returns. An
amended return was received from
one set of judges cutting down Met
calfe's majority to I19, which amend
ed return was accepted. Thsn it sud-
denly appeared that the return from
the Fifty-seventh precinct gave Frost
ft292" instead of 1912" votes An eX-
animation OF the figures disclosed the
fact that the 81" had been changed to
q 49,"
Further than this, they addition OF
twenty votes, accomplished by chan
ging the "7n to "9,n increases the
vote OF the precinct beyond the num-
Der cast The two Justices were not
to be affected by this fact. In the face
of the glaring evidence before them,
they to-day gave the election to Frost
declaring him Congressman elect by
a majority of one Public feeling is
naturally outraged, and even Demo-
Gratis of the more respectable class are
indignant. Said one Democrat, q
strong partisan, who relIgiOusly be-
lisves that members OF the Louisiana
Returning Board are fiends incarnate,
81 don't care il Hayes is elected, now!
We can't talk about corrupt counting
after this :" and his opinion is gen.
eral one.
Meteslfe will probably contest the
matter, but the HOuze has q Demo-
cratic majority.
Frost, the man who will get the
certificate without getting the elec-
tiOn, Is one with every claim upon a
Confederate majority. His father,
who conducted the campaign for him
Is the "General" Frost who held
Scamp Jackson" in this city. hoping
to carry the city into the rebellion,
and who was so easily whipped out
by Lyon and Blair and the Germans,
at the beginning Of the war. The son
has ran partly upon his fathers Con-
federate record and partly upon his
own open avowsl from the stump of
zeal as a member OF the Catholic
Church. The Third district contains
many German voters, and it was
their antipathy to Frost's views
which gave Metcalfs the majority.
The case as it now stands is one
which should attain q national no.
toriety.