The morning call., 1890-10-15
IN THE PRECINCTS.
Registration Slow, But Working
Smoothly.

Perhaps no man in San Francisco was
ever put so to his wits end in the same
length Of time as Registrar Smiley during
the last forty-eight hours. The day pre-
ceding and the first day of precinct regstra-
ten are always trying ones. and he is Il man
of strong nerves and constitution who comes
out of the ordeal with the e9l0r of his hair
unchanged. Registrar Smiley thfaks he was
fortunate to get through it with any hair
LETT at all.
On the day previous to precinct registra-
ton there is always the confusion of getting
the polling-places established and properly
equipped for business. This year that
work was more than ordinarily cumber-
some and tedious because of the new pre-
cinctlng of the entire city, making nearly
double the usual number, and in some re-
spects the application of a new system.
Anticipating this, however. the Registrar
this year was given comparatively unlim-
tied resources, and the perfect system under
which the Office has been conducted made it
possible to have every detail of precinct
registration completed by the time the
boards were ready to open at O'Clock yes
terday morning.
BEAT ALL PREVIOUS RECORDS.
Heretofore the great rush to the central
office for enrolment on the day preceding
precinct registration has caused such con-
fusion that it has been impossible tor the
clerks to get the names all segregated and
entered on the proper precinct rolls in time
to hand each roll TO the respective lnspec-
tors at o'clock on the following morning.
This year it was done for the first time in
the cty's history. The clerks in the central
Office labored with Mondays 900 registered
names until o clock yesterday morning, when
the precinct registers were closed with every
name properly entered up TO date, and at
o'clock, when the precinct boards opened
for business, every Inspector was in posses
sion of his completed register
The confusion that always attends the
fixing OF pulling-places and getting precinct
registration under way is unavoidable. Reg
istrar Smiley has had all sorts of annoy
ances from parties who were determined not
to allow the ,poliing.places to stand where
he had put them. Time and again yester-
day they resorted to every subterfuge at their
command to get the polling-places into
saloons and among the haunts OF the Buck
ley ''heelers" and suffers SO they could
run things their own way. In all cases they
were completely frustrated, and by this time
precinct registration is moving along in an
unusually dignified and orderly manner.
SAMPLE ANNoYANCEs.
For instance, to illustrate some of the
annoyances that the Registrar had to con-
tend with, early in the morning yesterday
word reached him that in the Ninth Pre-
cinct of the Thirty-seyenth Assembly Dis
trict the man who contracted to let the
board have room at GIG Howard street had
pOSitlNeiy refused 10 let tDeln nave bue
room longer than one day and wanted $50
for 1T. The board accordingly moved to
neighb0ring saloon. When the Registrars
clerks got to the place they found the
precinct officers in the saloon, all loading up
with bug juice as fast as they could.
On further inquiry it was found that the
man who agreed to furnish the room was
waiting to have the officers of the board
come TO take possession, and wondering
why they were late. As to his refusal to
permit the rooms to be occupied, he said the
officers came to him and demanded that he
dump everything out OF the building. This
he refused to do.
Another complaint came from the corner
OF jackson and Buchanan streets where
there Is booth. The officers did no. like
the booth and complained to the Registrar
that they had no light and no furniture. A
clerk was at once dispatched to the place,
and it was found that the place had every
needed convenience for the w0rk-light,
furniture and all, and plenty OF 1t.
From the Eighteenth Precinct OF the
Forty-fourth District like complaint was
made, but 1t proved as groundless as the
one beforeit There was a saloon tempt
ingy near.
HAD NO FLOOR.
For the First of tue Thirteth booth was
provided. Long before noon the complaint
reached the central Office that the floor of
the booth had fallen out and the place was
unit for use. Inquiry proved that there
was no floor in the first place, and none was
needed. Simply an excuse to get into
saloon.
The trouble in the Eighth of the Thirty