The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-11-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.

uesudy electiOH COllle DIS more az.
founding surprise than to the residents
of Washington and the District. Al
ways the one great index to popular
feeling in this chanee-loving city, is
the .'odds" the gamblers offer; and up
10 the very night of the election day
tie odds were two to one and three to
two ON Cleveland,
All day Tuesday the excitement in
the departments was suppressed for
fear of the ''bounce' that was sure to
follow any exhibition of republicanism
but at night it found vent. Pennsyl-
vania Avenue from the capitol to the
treasury building was filled with an
xious throngs Of people watching the
innumerable stereopticon displays of
election returns. Until half past ten
o'clock everything was Cleveland, and
no republican dared show his head but
from that on it changed. As soon as
the heavy republican gains were re-
ported from the interior counties of
New York, the men versed in the pol
itics of that State, whether democrats
Or republicans. knew that the end had
come to this canting hypocritical adj.
ministratior.
And the surprise that fell upon the
city was Unreasonable. Grover Cleve-
land beaten. The man of destiny,
whose peerless luck had carried him
from the lowest depths of obscurity to
height that kings might envy, de-
feated, miserably defeated:
Every thing had been arranged 80
differently. The President and Mrs.
Cleveland with Private Secretary
'Dan,' and Mrs. Lamont, and several
others among the chosen ones of this
administration, with their respective
wives, had gath cred at the White
House to hear the news of the democrat
ic triumph, never doubling but what
there would be one. An elegant sup
per had been prepared and all things
arranged to do honor to the reelected
president without the loss of any time,
But happily not yet in this country
can national elections be predeter-
mined like democratic conventions
and after hearing the first cheering
news. the company were surprised and
chagrined beyond measure to learn
that the democratic triumph was no
being carried out on exactly the scale
that had been fixed upon. And late r
yet the gentlemen of this interesting
party left the ladies and adjourned to
the little telegraph office where with
increasing chagrin they listened to the
verdict of disapproval that the country
was passing upon them. Then before
midnight they parted their sumptious
repast untouched save by servants,
whose appetites were better able to
stand the the discomfortipg intelli-
gence. But democracy dies hard, and
even the next morning the only ex-
preston of opinion on:the election that
could be gotten from the President
was that it seemed unfavorable ;nand
as late as Wednesday night some score
or more of the 'unterrified' assembled
in their headquarters on the Avenue
and cheered by the lying kilograms of
Cal. Brice, shouted themselves hoarse
for an hour and half.
Brice, by the way, has proven him.
self almost as big liar as Chairman
Galloway. The only friends be has
here now are the republicans who re-
gard him with much favor; but his
sometime allies in the democratic
party are speaking very harsh truths
of the man whose sagacitya short week
ago they were extolling to the skies.
What caused it? Well many things
caused it. There was not a pension
veto, with its cowardly attack on some
mans honor or on some woman's viz
tue, that did not help to send the pres
ident back to the obscurity from which
ne ought never have come; Lord Sack
vile, of course had his influence; the
rebel flag incident had its; but to the
tariff fight which the president in
trucking obedience to the south, forced
upon his party, more than to any
other cause, this country owes its re-
demptIon from the most blatant, the
most Hypocritical and the most in
competent administration it has ever
had.
Arrangements are now being made
for a wonderful ratification meeting
next Wednesday evening and it is sup
posed by that time that even the presi-
dent will come to realizing sense of
the fact that he has not been reelected.
Speculation is rife as to the effect
that the election will have on the pop-
ulation of this city. In the matter of |
livelihood the position of the people
here is an anomalous one. 1t is NOT
whether man or woman is competent
and whether the work that falls to
their lot is well done or otherwise, ev.
erything depends on btlesomething
they call influence. Do you see |
man holding responsible minor posi-
ton in some of the departments whose
name not infrequently appears in the |
columns of the police reports, perhaps |
in connection with one or more abap-
doned women? Never fear for a mo-
ment he Will lose his situation. His