The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-01-04
RESULTS OF BRIBERY.

Numerous comments have appeared in
the journals of the old parties since cleo
ton, each ~censuring the others party with
disgraeeful fraud and bribery in its en-
deayors to elect its candidates. Few peo-
pie, perhaps, consider where this bride
money goes TO, and who is directly bene-
flied by its free use at the polls. The fol-
lowing appeared in tue MataudH Journal,
and is simply one instance out of many
thousands:
"A colored man come sober to the polls
on election day to vote. He was paid five
dollars. The man who paid it claims to
be a respectable citizen of the community
and processes to admire the genius of our
government. The men who make up the
corruption fund, as Office holders or Office
seekers have, or want TO have. the title
honorable" affixed before their names,
and know that the purity of the elective
franchise is the only reliable source for the
stability Of our form of government. But
ambition led those men to retpond TO the
the demand, "We want money and we
want it Immediately, though they knew
it was to be used for the purchase Of the
ballot in the hands of those claiming and
exercising the right OF American citizen
ship. Their apology for the act was, the
other party does it and therefore we have
to. The corruption fund thus raised went
TO the township, distributed according to
the proportion of purchasable voters in
each. Ia the hands of those who handle
it at the polls, FIVE dollars went into the
hand of the colored man of whom we have
made mention. He had it changed and
took nearly four dollars of it to his little
slanty in the outskirts of the town and
gave it to his invalid wife, to buy food for
herself and four children. He was sober
then. Btt he had reserved over a dollar
of the money for himself, and with it in his
pocket, he went to a drinking saloon out
side Of the mile limit from the polls and
bought drink. Before his money was gone
he was SO enslayed by the power of the ae-
cursed appetite that the temporary regard
! s0A SAN A gnu AitbAC kLAA01EA a AOAA0H-
ten. and he went to the house and demand
ed the money he had given her for food.
She plead with him., for the sake of the
children. to let her keep it; but the brain
was crazed by drink and he cared for moth
ing bnt to satisfy the accursed cravings.
She was compelled to yield and paid him
the money. 1t would have supported them
two weeks with their humble kind offood.
1t would have bought th~-ee-quarters of a
ton of coal to have kept them warm over a
month.
But it gent into tie pocket of the man
and was traded by him for drink, going
into the till Of the rumseller who moves in
society that recognizes him with respect
and courts his political influence because
of the power he yields over these poor
victims of his soul and body destroying
traffic. What curse that five dollar bride
was 10 the man, and not one cent of bene-
fit, but rather a means Of abuse, 10 his
wife and children.
That family draws money from the
township poor fund, and The children beg
food at more than one kitchen. And this
truthful incident about one Eve dollar bin
occurred in Matawan. 1t is but one story
of one bill, and was without doubt repeat
ed with some variation in connection with
nine-tenths OF the votes bought in this
township and everywhere else. Thus the
tens of thousands, yea millions, raised 10
buy votes, almost wholly go to make rum
sellers in our land millions richer; for the
bribe money is but a 1.-THE of what is spent
by the bribe-takers when once the appe-
tite is started, and but a 1.-THE also of what
the bribe givers pay into the till for drink