St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-01

drink with him, that fellow was sure to
turn up BLACKBURN man. Conse-
quently MIR. RANDALL's tactics were to
keep his runners on the incoming trains
and have the congressman fixed before
they got into Washington; and when
they reached the capital they were sur
rounded by RANDALL'S retaIhers, so
that BLACKBURN'S friends could have
no deal with them. At preliminary
caucus held by the Democrats it was
decided that owing to the slender Dem
ocratic majority in the house it would lie
wisdom to extend an invitation to the
Greenback members to affiliate with the
Democracy. The illness of one of the
Democratic members from New York
seemed to necessitate this course, and
it had been given out by Gen. WEAVER
and some of the other Greenback lead
ers that they were willing to go into the
Democratic caucus, provided they could
have proper representation Oh the COM
mittees. This movement was play
ing directly into BLACKBURN's hands.
but RANDALL's friends failed to
discover it until it was too late
to check it in caucus. The Green
back members were sure to vote
for BLACKBURN in preference to
RANDALL if they got into the Demo
cratic caucus, and there were enough
of them to give him the nomination.
Here was howdy-do for RANDALL.
But with that superb generalship which
has always characterized his leader
ship, RANDALL managed to excite a
mutiny in the Greenback camp. He
sent his prophets among them to teach
them that it would be treachery to the
Greenback faith for the Greenbackers
to hand over their party organization to
the Democrats. The trick worked like
a charm. The Indiana parson, DE LA
MATYR, was the first to kick, and al
though WEAVER labored to carry into
effect his original agreement with the
Democrats he failed by one vote to
carry it through the GreeDback caucus.
Thus BLACKBURN was beaten and
RANDALL nominated. But when the
day came for congress to assemble
RANDALL was still in the lurch. The
sick member from New York was still
absent, and without his vote the
Democrats could not organi re. Mr..
RANDALL had sent special messenger
to New York the night before with in
structions to bring that congressman to
Washington the next day, dead or alive.
When Mr.. RANDALL came down to
breakfast that morning he found a tele-
gram on his table from the messenger,
stating that the absent congressman
would leave New York on the morning
limited express. 1t took six hours for
the train to reach Washington, and it
would not be due until $50. Congress
met at IL O'Clock. and the trick was for
the clerk to delay the proceedings in or
ganizing the house until the New York
express arrived. The Republicans were
onto the scheme, and, with the aid of
their new Greenback allies, succeeded
in pushing the clerk along faster than
he intended to 60 1t was an exciting
scene in the house, and particularly in
teresting to those who sat in the gal
leries and looked down upon the paria-
mentary battle waged below. At 2
O'Clock the clerk had commenced to call
the roll on the vote for speaker, and
that New York train was yet twenty
miles from Washington. The absent
congressman's name was RILEY,
and his name was low down on
the house roll, which gave the clerk a
chance to kill time by drawing out the
names of the members, or by getting
tangled up on new names with which
he was not familiar. If there is any,
thing a new congressman dislikes it is
to have his name pronounced wrong on
the first roll-call. He is sure to resent
it, and to rise up and ask for a correc-
ton. All this consumes time, and a
half-hour went by before the clerk got
down to the RS. Finally, the absent
members name was called. There was
general craning of neckS towards the.
door and a buZZing noise ran through
the hall. A moment later the door flew
open. the painting congressman sprang
in, and with voice tremulous with ex-
element shouted out. "Record my vote
for SAMUEL j. RANDALL" 1t is cues
tionable whether Mr.. RILEY ever heard
himself spoken of so highly as at that
moment by his Democratic associates,
who flOcked around him with praises
and congratulations. JOE BLACKBURN
got his reward later OH, when the Ken
lucky legislature elected him to the
senate because of his plucky fight
against the RANDALL element.
Casting Lots The senators from
the new states are now
for Sena- ON the ragged edge