The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-11-23


IN, paid them S25 apiece cash, and they
voted his ticket. Away from the polls
t~rafficking in votes was going on like
market day bargaining. This house of
i'll fame was sold by its mistress to a
candidate for a certain sum-; that lab
oring mems lodging house fetched so
much per head. The basest men and
women in the community became
prominent as vote brokers. They were
the busiest of election day workers,
carrying to the polls in carriages their
acquaintance among l~oafers. negross,
tramps, b%arlots, pimps, Mexicans, cut
threats, gamblers, half breeds and SOL
diers. No challenging of voters was
attempted at the polls, as each party
was afraid to begin it. The scenes en-.
acted at the election of 1882 In Chey-
enne were but a repetition of those
which have occurred at the general
elections held every Two a since
Wyoming was organized. The in
creased population of the city has
gradually put the frauds on a larger
scale and made them more obvious, but
they have sprung from the same con-
ditions at every election
1t may be assumed that In Wyoming
campaign funds are large, and no man
calculates on his chances for obtaining
a prominent office without reckoning
upon the disbursement of a sum Tar In
excess OF that necessary for Legitimate
campaign expenses" 1t cannot be
urged. with even a show of FEASIBILITY,
that Cheyenne, as a new frontier city,
is as yet in that chaotic state which
in time will give way to order. Girls
and boys born in Cheyenne in its early
days are now approaching manhood
and womanhood. Cheyenne's nearest
neighboring town is Greeley, COL,
younger by several years. Yet it is as
we'll regulated as any New England
village. And so are dozens of towns in
Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, the
sites of which were unsettled tracts on
the broad plains when Cheyenne had
thousands of inhabitants.
"Wbat effect, in your opinion, has
woman suffrage had upon the social
and political condition of Cheyenne
and Wyoming?" have put this uues-
ton to men and women of all classes
among my acquaintance, which is
almost coextensive with the popu-
lation of Cheyenne. A working man
replied: "When 1 lived in Colorado
l would have scorned an offer of
a few dollars for my vote on election
day. Here in Wyoming, when 1 am Of
fered $50 for the votes of my family
myself, wife, and three daughters-I
find that scorn gives way to a caIcula-
tion that $50 is equal to what l earn in
five weeks work. 1t don't matter to
me who holds office. l live all the
same" A leading citiz an of the terri
tory said: ave vote our women rela-
tiyes to counterbalance the votes of the
degraded classes, - a pregnant sentence,
indeed, and most significant In its hrst
five words. A distinguished member
Of the bar answered: None, except
ing to make our politics a source Of
greater corruption and immortality than
ever.n A man who had actedfo wears
as police officer, sheriff, and city mar
shall, said: 1.-THE bad women are all
for sale on election day, and the good
ones knife a candidate who don't at
tend Sunday school," The replies of
women we're mostly that they were glad
OF a chance to vote against bad men or
for good men. Some said they never
had voted, excepting once or twice to
enjoy the novelty. A few avowed that
they had no taste for politics and never
voted.
A classification of the voters In Wyo-
ming shows this: Solid democrats;
solid republicans; the basser classes,
who sell their votes; poor men and
women, with the example before them
OF their vote-selling neighbors, tempt.
ed; office seekers, ready to manipulate
any other class or log roll among them
selves; good women, chiefly engrossed
with the duties of home and society,
among whom there exists an impreo.
sion that their political duties are full
filled when they "knife" a saloon keep.
er who wants to be coroner, or send TO
congress a pleasant and inoffensive gen.
tleman, regardless of his school in poll
tics; lastly, men who ''vote their female
relative" Here are political elements
which can be bought, bullied, manipu-
lated, or inflamed. They have not
counterbalanced one another, but they
have paralyzed the better elements. A
sound and healthy public sentiment,
ready to be enlisted in the cause of re-
form and prone to frown upon public
immortality, is smothered by incontrol-
liable and conflicting forces. BY the en-
reimbursement of woman, corruption,
trickery, fraud, vice, as political forces
slready existing, have been reinforced
by weakness. indifference, ignorance,
c~owardice, and imbecility. AS a SON
sequence, public morals are laid low
and practicable plans for reform lack
intelligent support.
There are two aspects of the woman
suffrage question in Wyoming upon
which | have not touched. In western
Wyoming there are a number of NOR
mon settlements. 1t has been observed
that the mormons vote in a body,
women included, on all questions.