Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-12-10
Politics in Greenville Centre.

like Fourth of July, only it last long
cr, and happens only at night.
| have been n Cleveland man.
Most all the boys are Blaine men,
and so is my sister, but l supported
Cleveland because he has been min
corruptible governor all his life. while
Blaine went and wrote q history. /
know what history is, for / have to
study it in school, and any man who
is mean enough to write history can't
be supported by me.
When you support man you walk
in a procession and yell. Sometimes
you carry transparency, which is a
box made out of white cloth, with
pictures of candidates outside and a
candle inside.
/ had a Cleveland transparency,
and Mr.. Thompson, who lives next
door to me, made no end of fun of it,
/ didn't care much about that, but |
was surprised when he said that he
was going to support Blaine with a
Blaine transparency. One night
when there was going to be a Blaine
procession Mr.. Thompson brought out
his transparency, and left it on his
piazza. The procession was to walk
past his house, and he expected to
join it and support Blaine all the
evening.
While Mr.. Thompson was in the
house, l took his transparency away
and put mine in its place. You
couldn't tell the difference between
them when the candles were not lit,
and felt little angry at Mr.. Thomp-
son because he had made fun of my
transparency and my torch and the
rest of my political principles. OF
course if 1 had known what was 60
ing to happen, 1 would not have done
it, for / didn't want to have my trans
parency spoiled.
Well, the procession came along
about eight o'clock, and Mr.. Thomp-
son came out in great hurry, seized
the transparency, and lit the candle,
and rushed out to join the procession.
In about two minutes there was a
tremendous row. AS soon as the
Blaine men saw Mr.. Thompson carry
ing transparency in their procession,
with a picture of Cleveland on one
side and of Hendricks on the other
side, they made things lively. One
man snatched the transparency and
smashed it over Mr.. Thompson's head,
so that it hung around his neck with
the handle in front like pig-yokc.
Then most all the procession got hold
of him and rolled him around in the
mud, and after n while they threw
him over the fence into his front yard
and marched off.
He was all broke up when his folks
and picked him up and helped him
into the house. 1t took about an
hour to get the mud scraped off him
so that he could talk.
am glad to say that he wasn't
hurt much, only his clothes. AS soon
as l found that out, and he began to
ask what in the world was the reason
those abominable wretches had treat
ed him SO, l went home. After
while he found out what was the mat
ter, but he didn't seem to be ut all
angry with me. He was awfully an
cry with the Blaine men, however,
and said that he was convinced that
Mr.. Blaine's conduct had been bad,
and that he should not support him
any more. Father didn't say much
to me about it, for he is Democrat,
which is kind of Cleveland man,
only he wouldn't support Cleveland
because he said he was too old to
march through the streets, and that
all he would do would be to vote for
Cleveland. However, father did say
that it was nonsense for that boy to be
marching all over town and getting
his clothes covered with grease. There
was little grease on my clothes, ]
admit, for it will drop off the torches.
And that reminds me that torches
are nothing but kerosene lamps, and
all those pictures that pretend to re-
present savages in Central Africa and
other places carrying torches made Of
wood are all wrong. A torch must
be made of tin and filled with kero-
sene oil and fastened OIL the end Of
stick, and how fellow can help
getting grease on his coat I'd like to
know.
AS l was saying, father objected to
my supporting anybody, and told me
to give my transparency away, and
spend my evenings at home. We had
politics in our town almost every night
after that but couldn't support
Cleveland any more. I think father
might have let me support Blaine u
few times with the rest of the boys.
However, father knows best, for two
of the boys got awful colds supporting
Blaine one cold night, and have been