Arizona silver belt., 1890-09-06
Different Ways of vo,ina.
Houdon Wit and wisdon.)

manner. In ancient Greece, as the his
 torian Grote informs us, the people Ina
 way of ostracising, or ''shelling,"
 troublesome man out of the city. Whel
 two rival politicians had become &
 violently opposed to each other tha
 then feud threatened the public peace
 or rendered the passage of good meas
 ures too difficult, the voters were callet
 upon 10 decide which of the tw,
 should leave the city. Every citizen wh,
 chose to vote put into large ne
 talllc urn small shell upon which Ii,
 had written the name of the man who's,
 punishment he preferred. If six thous
 and votes in all were cast, but mol
 otherwise, the shells were examined
 and the man who had received mos,
 votes was condemned to ten years ot
 honorable exile. Mir. Grote was of the
 oplnlon that this method often resulted advantageously, and saved Athens from
 civil wars. In some of the ancient
 Mediterranean States there was bret. ! ty Fariation upon the vote by shells. l The voter wrote the name of his candi-
 date upon an oliye-leaf. This was
 called petalism, or leaf-yoting, just as
 the shell method was called ostracislI
 from a Greek word signifya . little shell.
 The great jury, hundreds in number,
 which condemned Socrates to drink inc
 hemiock, voted ill another way. Those
 who desired his death cast into brass
 box little ball of metal or stone. which was either black in color or pierced through the middle. Those who voted for his aequittal threw into the same box wigite ball, or one not pierced.
 There vas small majority of black bulls, and thus he was doomed to die. At the present time, in club elections. we often use the same simple method; and We say of . defeated candidate.
 He was blackbnlled This way If voting was probably one of the earliest attempts to secure secrecy. The Ro- mans had some interesting modes of voting. When law wns submitted to the people to ratify or reject, each ci,i- sen received two small, square. smooth pieces of wood, called tabells> or tab lets, On one of these was written thu letter A, which stood for Antique, I re- ject, On the other were two letters. U. R., which stood for Uh rogas-part of the Latin sentence, Ego hanc legem uti rogas jubendam censeo, T think that this law should be ratified as you prqpo5e; CT, in other words, iIet it pass. One of these tablets the yoiar put into 8 large bronze urn provided for the purpose, which he could do secretly if he wished The object of sll these simple expedicnts was to give ihe voter perfect freedom by making his vote secret. But at very carly period interruptions politicians found means both to intimidate and bribe the voters Long ago as the trial of Soc rates, B. C. 390, voters were bribed in what the Greeks styled dekads. or tens. 1t is to be feared that corrupt voting is i almost as ancient practice Q voting it. self. We may infer this from a consid- crGbie number of ancient methods of 1 fraud. In some countries 2f southern Europe, instead of voting by shells, leaves, or tablets, which | could be concealed about the person in | great numbers, and put into the urn surroptitiously, the voters were re- Qulred to use wands or rods five or six feet long. These were deposited in long box through small slit in the lid. As no man could conceal n stick six feet long, the voters were prevented rom casting more than one vote. Even t the present day, the people in Greece 7ote with black balls and white balls, as heir forefathers did, although with ,pecial precautions against bribery and rand. The duty of voting is invested with. solemnity by opening the polls in he churches and on Sunday. Entsr- ng the ediiice, the voter sees before the iltar as many boxes as there are candi- iates to he voted for, each box being ilyided into two compartments, one painted black, and the other white. A Jerk comes to him with wooden bowl ull of bullets, from which the voter is ,iyen as many bullets as there are can lidates. To conceal from the bystan- lers how he votes; the elector thrusts lis hand down long funnel, and drops me bullet into each box. The paper 'allot is . Yankee invention, first nsed n l642 to get out of office Governor Iohn Winthrop, who had become un- ,opular. The party opposed 10 Win hrop were confident of majority if he people could vote without fear. To his end the freemen of the colony were equired to vote with paper ballots. The election was held at Boston, in 1 hurch. The voters were required to ome ill at ono door with their votes eady written. lny them down on atahle 1