Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-31
SOUTH CAROLINA METHODS.
An Expose of Ballot BOX Stuffing by
Thomas Miller.
MAIL ROBBERS TAKE AN uPTuRN.
Owing to Scarcity In tho Catch.
wanamaker Of,rs 1000 for
Everything in the
Market
WAsmrNaToN BUREAU, TUE OMAHA BEE,
5l3 FOURTEENTH SrnEsr.

WAsurNGroS, ID. O., August 30
Thomas II. Miller, who is contestipg seat
in congress from the Seventh South Caro-
lima district, furnishes in his brief u very in-
teresting and instructive account Of the
manner in which election frauds are still
practiced in South Carolina AS every one
knows who knows anything at all of the sit
uation there, the Seventh is the district
which was cut out especially for tho
colored population. 1t has n prepondcrance
of blacks over whites of more than ten to
one and Is so shaped that 1t joins up to
almost every other district In tho state. No
attempt whatever was made when the state
was gerrymandered to comply with the
terms Of the law, which required continuity
of territory. The sole aim was to iucor-
porate as many Of the black republican votes
as possible in this one district in order that
the rest of the state might be manipulated
more easily This scheme in short, was to get
six democratic congressman to one republican
from the state of South Carolina in the ma
tional house Of representatives. Right after
the gerrymander Smalls was elected. He
should have been permitted to take his seat
at the first session of the Forty-seventh con-
gress, hut he was deprived of that seat until
just before the closing days of the session In
July, 1882 A very brazen attempt was made
to deprive him of his election to the Forty
ninth congress, and after the Ehftieth con.
gress was elected it was given out that
Smalls would not again come as
representative of the great state of South
Carolina ana he did not He was elected
by something like twenty thousand majority
and yet the scat was given to Elliott The
democratic majority IN the house refused TO
consider the case in the last congress, and
therefore Smalls was never allowed to oo-
| cupy the seat to which he was justly enti-
| tied. In 1888 Smalls did not run, and Miller,
who decided to contest for tho election with
Elliott, was counted out as usual.
MIR. Miller shows that in many
| of the precincts of the strongly
republican counties the democratic managers
| of election absolutely refused to attend to
business, and therefore there were no polls
| open. In one place there were 265 men who
| were prepared to cast their ballots for Mil
ler and in another 80. They had all been
registered and all the election laws had been
| complied with AS far as they were concerned,
| but not one of the 515 was permitted to drop
| his ballot into the box In an
| other county 265 republican voters
found their ballots arbitrarily rejected by
| the democratic managers on various ftmsy
pretexts. The same old story of stuffing
| ballot box full of democratic ballots where
| there was originally almost solid repub-
licau vote cast, and then mixing them up and
| drawing out the excess, thereby deprivlng
hundreds OF republicans of their suffrages,
| was resorted to in no less than eight pre-
cincts in three counties. The brief says that
| Miller's vote instead of being 1908, as re-
| turned by the state board, was at least ,531,
| aud that Eliiott's vote, instead of being
! S,a5S, would not exceed 1856, even after all
| the frauds were allowed for. There is little
doubt that MIR. Miller will be permitted to
| occupy the seat, and some interesting dis
cussions in regard to the registration of the
southern democrats are expected.
AN INCENTIVE TO CATCH MAIL ROBBERS.
| Some time ago attention was directed In
| these dispatches to the fact that the mail
| robbers were difficult to capture because Of
| the fact that the government offers no in
| ducements to the COW boys and others in the
| vicinity of the depredations to risk their
| lives or limbs IN apprehendng these scoun-
| drels. Heretofore the entire reward offered
| in such cases amounted to only 500, and this
was not sufficient attraction to induce any
| one TO put himself at much trouble to
| and the government in Suppressing the
| knights of the road. The recent robbery in
| Montana have attracted the attention of the
| chief OF the special agents Of the postoffce
| department 70 the utter lnadequacy OF the
| reward and he Immediately recommended
| that the postmaster general make better pro-
| visions for protecting the mails in the
| sparsely settled portions of the country. In
| response TO this suggestion Postmaster Gen.
| eral Wanamaker yesterday issued an order
offering 81, 900 reward instead of 500, for the
| apprehension OF any person found
guilty of making an armed attack upon a
stage coach or railway mail car having the
mails in transit. 1t is believed that this
| larger reward, together with the rewards al
| ready offered by the express companies, will
have the desired effect of suppressing mail
| robberies.
| MISCELLANEOUS.
| Senator Plumb, of Kansas one of the COM
| mittee having charge of the investigation
into the plans for irrigating the arid lands in
the northwest, arrived in town to-day TO get
some papers. bearing upon the matter, and
-t.( Ia tt,fat.
| members of the committee there next week.
G. Smith, of Iowa, is at the Riggs.
Joseph F.. Manning has been appointe d
guager in the Fifth Qllinois) district.