Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-20
CLERKS AND ELECTIONS.
FLOPPING MORE FREQUENT
THAN EVER BEFORE.

able WOrriment.
SDeciqt Correspondence or the Aoraing Ksaos.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Oct. 1.-THE
clerks have chopped" more frequently
during the past few days than the famous
Mrs. Jerry Cruncher ever did in the like
space of time. In fact, they have been
" fiopping'' all the time. l need not tell
you that nowhere in the United States is
so much interest taken in an important
election as among the department clerks
here in Washington. You may take a
general interest in an election because
great principles are involved, or as an intel
ligent observer of all passing events, but
the department clerk, and, for that mat
ter, all others in the govern
ment service, high and low,
has selfish personal interest in an cleo
tion which is ten times as intense as
yours. The government clerk is a great
reader of political news ia the neWspa-
pers; he Is a great politician in his small
way. He talks politics in his office and
at his house and along the street, and as
the election approaches he works gradu-
ally up to a state of excitement bordering
on fever heat. On electiOnnight he makes
a tour of the places where information is
to be had-campaign committee rooms,
newspaper offices and telegraph offices.
The abundance of tree news has the same.
effect upon these hungry men as an
abundance of free lunch has on a tramp.
They make several tours. About O'Clock
in the evening you see them gathering
and at O'Clock in the morning, having,
perhaps, refreshed their thirsty souls with
other things than election news, they are
still travelling round talking a vast deal
Of anpGpIpGc Oahhln ob0IIf tho aOr1
of returns or the ratio of increase in
counties yet unheard from, and about
which they know absolutely nothing. The
Office Of Gen. Henry V. BoyntOn, the cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Commercial
Gazette, a collection of little rooms, with
low ceilings, on Fourteenth street, one of
the few survivors of the line of offices
which gave that portion of Fourteenth
street the name of ''newpaper row." has
been the rendezvous of the seekers after
truth on election night for many years.
The General, fiery as he is when he is
fighting humbug like Kelfer, is gentle,
hOspitable, easy to be entreated
by any honest man, and the town i'm
poses upon him. Early in the evening his
little rooms begin to fill, and by midnight
they are so closely crowded that they be-
come impossible. This year the General,
like all the other reputable newspaper
correspondents in Washington, with one
or two exceptions, is mugWump who re-
fuses to say anything for Blaine in his
correspondence, and deyOtes most of his
time to working against Blaine outside
his correspondence. The General is as
frank as he is honest. He always speaks
right out what he thinks, and he does not
hesitate at all because the man with
whom he is talking does not agree with
him. He has done a great deal to en-
tighten the Republican officials who spend
so much time in his office. Nevertheless,
they all come around just as usual on
election night. Judges Harlan and
Matthews and Woods, of the United
States Supreme Court, Postmaster
General HattOn, Secretary Gresham
and any number of less well-known pub
lie men were there. Chief Justice Carter,
of the District Supreme Court, occupied
the arm chair in the Generals ''private"
office, which is always as public as
hotel corridor, and Associate Justice An
drew Wylie, of the same court, sat in the
broad armed rocking chair. The greater
lOwer-nghts grouped themselves around
on chairs and shelves and tables and
boxes and in all sorts of stained glass at
titudes. The Ohio returns astonished
them all. The misty claims of big major
tiles greatly elated the Republicans. The
General and the few mugwumps who were
present were not depressed, however. This
may be called flop number one for the
department clerks. Many of them had
been exceedingly apprehensive that the
Democrats would carry Ohio, and had
been speaking very respectfully of Cleve-
land and reform through Tuesday. You
see the early dispatches from Ohio were
favorable to Democratic hopes. So for
while the Republicans of the departments
were on the verge of conversion to
Democracy. Flop number two came in
the evening in BoyntOn's Office and else
where when the Republicans began to
claim Ohio by 10000 majority and more.
Suddenly the waverers wavered no more.
They were and always had been solid for
Blaine and protection. This mood was
intensified by the extrayagant claims
of the next morning when the Republican
majority was run up to 10000 by
some irresponsible cipherers. The
enthusiasm for Blaine and Lo-
gan became so oYermastering that
many of the clerks who had been saving
up the amount Of their assessment with
view to voluntary contribution to the
Cleveland campaign fund, in case discre-
ton might seem to be the better part of
valOr, hurried around to the rooms of the
Republican squeezing committee on
New York avenue, near the Treasury
Department, gaZed lovingly at the por-
trait of Senator Blair, of New Hamp-
shire, through whom Shepherd drew
DldluC lubO LIS SudBO bCuGllIGs
which, oddly enough, does duty
for Blaine's, and handed their money
to Chief Squeezer Clapp, who
graciously acknowledged it with "better
late than never" All went well until
next day. when the true returns were re-
ceived. Then the departmental barOme-
ters tumbled as rapidly as the Republican
majority, and soon departmental hearts
were in departmental boots. Another
flop was in order. The bibulously in
clined who had celebrated the victory the
day before and the night before under the
inspiring assurance of Commissioner
Dudley that Cleveland would not carry a
single Northern State were the first to
turn. They were pretty good Democrats
by dinner time. Contributions to
Clapp's committee became less fire.
had caught bad cold. But the Republi-
can leaders stifened them up the next
day by the assurance that it was ''vic-
tOry'' whether the majority was 10000 or
500, and now they may be said to have
fopped again. At present they are Re-
publicans.
THE PRESIDENTS SON IS TROUBLING
THE PRESIDENT.
Allan (accent on the second syllable) is
not, regret to say, slave to duty, He
knows that his father, and his aunts, not
W SPEAK VI SOOu ITeSlueub mcOUSu,
popularity known as ''Jimmy," desire his
presence at the College of New Jersey,
Princeton, n. j. Yet he is CONSPICUOUS
by his absence. The fall term of the
College of New Jersey is now seven
weeks old, yet Mr.. Sophomore allan
Arthur has not appeared on the classic
scene. at least he had not on Wednesday,
when l heard from old Nassau. On the |
contrary, he has been pressing his atten-
tions on his fance, so-called, whom
neither her mother nor his father desires
him to marry. Last week her mother
took her to New York on the plea that they
were to sail for Europe on oct. Is. Allan
promptly followed them to New York.
Thence the fiance's mother took her to
visit friends in the country. Allan quietly
sat down in New York and waited for
them. [ have no doubt he was on hand
with big big bouquet on Wednesday
when they boarded the outgoing Gu.
harder. Perhaps he quietly went with
them-as stowaway, let US say.
FRIEND OF NINE
who was over to Switzerland this fall and
was back almost before he was missed
brings back a great many good stories
about the experiences of tourists in the
cholera quarantine stations. The best is
about a friend of his, well-known En-
glish naturalist, who spent three months
of last summer industriouslY grubhin0
for rare specimens. He had a fine coIIecs
tiop when he reached a quarantine sta
tiOn, but the authorities made him dunn
the whole of it in a neighboripg river
after which they gave him time to sweat
in a castiron box, which fitted him closely