Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-29

BALLOTS CAST IN NEARLY ALL Tx CHCRCHEf
IN THE DISTRICT BUT LITTLE INTEREST
TAKEN AND THE VOTE VERY LIaHT-A MAJORITY
AGAINST THE PROPOSITION.
II anybody ever imagined that local Metho
dism was even ordinarily interested in the con.
test which ended last night why, then, "any.
body" had better confess at once that he OF
she was mistaken. "Shall women be eligible
for admission as delegates to the general con.
ference?" was the question at issue aud the vote
was, to the ultrs-confdsnt on the affirmative
side, an overwhelming surprise. The real test
was the interest, or the lack of 1t, felt by tho
church membership. A heavy vote would
have given the subject new lease of life, no
matter how the result was figured out, but the
inactivity, SO plainly apparent in the ex-
tire mely light vote, was more fatal to the cause
of ecclesiastical female suffrage than the
majority which its opponents secured despite
the unconcern of the great bulk OF the men,
bership. Very naturally those who were on the
affirmative side OF the fence turned out will
1ngly and as numsrously as possible. Some of
them worked with much urdor and, in at least
one church. there was house-to-house canvass
in favor Of the proposition. The opposition
either voted or stayed at home. and the stay-at-
homes were numbered by Thousands. The total
membership Of the white Methodist churches
in this city is over 5000. OF these many are
too young to vote. all told-affrmative and
negative-the vote did not reach four figures.
HAMLINE CHURCH.
More powerful in numerical strength than
any other Methodist church in the city is Ham
line, but the vote there was light. The voting was
done in a class room. in the adjoining lecture
room prayer meeting was IN progress and up
stairs-in the church itself-a wedding was
being carefully rehearsed. The ballot box was
crimson lake, and it had once held twelve gross
boxes of somebody's extra strong rubber bands.
Strips of glazed calico held the cover down.
but ballots could be inserted through roughly
cut slot. Behind the box sat the pastor, Rev.
II. r. Naylor, DID,, supported on his right
hand by J. W. Davis and Oh his left by E. J.
Booraem, the latter acting as clerk On the
same table as the ballot box were two
smaller boxes in which were the
ballots, for and against. 1t was an
easy thing for anybody SO inclined to tell how
anybody else voted There was nothing partic-
ularly serious about the affair; in fact, the
gathering was most socially inclined Occa-
sionally a voter would be challenged but it was
a iocular proceeding, the victim being some
aged brother or sister and the challenge
grounded on the statement that he Or she was
not OF full age. In all there were 101 votes
cast, sixty of the voters being females and
forty-one of them males. The result showed
that thlrty-one people had voted for" while
seventy were against" The membership at
Hamline Is about $50.
METROPOLITAN CHURCH.
At the Metropolitan Church the election was
held in the lecture room from to 10 o'clock,
and the vote was taken under the supervision
of the pastor and Messrs. A. B. Duvail and j.
NJ Holmes (the latter appointed in the place Of
Judge Smell; recently deceased. The superin-
tendents table bore the ballot box, which hap
pened to be the box used by class 81 OF the
school, and as the lady voters stood below the
box those of uncertain age could say "they
we're under twenty-one," although voters were
required to be above that age. But 100 ballots
were polied out of over 600 on the rolls, and
the election may be said to indicate the want
Of interest i'll the question. Mrs. La Fetra,
Mrs Deane and other active workers in
the W.C.T.U. were active in giving out the
tickets and arguing their side OF the question.
1t was suggested by one that it would be SUPER
fuous to send women to the general con ference,
which generally had enough ''old women" on
the floor.
"Yes," replied lady, "they are old granny
men whom we want to put out and give their
places to live women"
One feature of the evening was the casting of
q ballot in the affirmative by the pastors
mother. now eighty-fou years of age, and
another was that, as 10 the case OF other cleo
tions, that the ballot boxes contained few
more votes than were recorded. This fact was
the voters supposed that they had the ri ght to
cast proxy ballots and folded them together,
but. not having made the point when voting,
such ballots were excluded. The vote stood Sc
for and 50 against
MKENDREE CHURCH.
Things were extremely calm at McKendrse
Church. In the lecture room three gentlemen
sat at a table and kept their eyes on q large
cigar box on which was blue label that pro-
irpnh to info I'd e. ~
the cigars contained in this box have been
made by a frst-class workman, O member Of
the Clgarmakers International Union Of Amer
lea, an organization opposed to inferior rat
shop, coolIe, prison or filthy tenement house
workmanship" The central figure OF the three
behind the table was the pastor, Rev. C. Her
bert Richardson, DID,, and his assistants were
Messrs. Zephaniah Jones and b. F. Full
Ter. Voters got their ballots on the
piano, which was in the rear OF
the officers, and this made the ballot absolutely
secret Three hundred and thirty members
were entitled to vote, but only seventy-four
put IN an appearance. Forty-five Of these were
Of the female persuasion. The result showed
that twenty-one had voted for" while fifty
three had voted against" Somebody had
dropped in two ballots and a recount became
necessary. The offending and superfuous
ballot was thrown out; it was easily identified,
two had stuck quite closely to each other.
GRACE CHURCH.
There was q class-meeting-a real old fash
toned class-meeting-out at Grace Church yes
terday evening, and the voting did not inter-
fere with it in the least. Never was any cleo
ton so calmly conducted, and at no time was
there display Of the slightest possible amount
Of interest. The voters entered by the s street
door. helped themselves to ballots from small
table midway between the door and the voting
place. 1t was possible for watchful individual
to see what ballots were picked up, but nobody
cared enough about the matter to 20 to that
trouble. The ballots were deposited in an up
turned cigar box, on each end OF which was
pictorial representation Of the late John Nc
Cullough in the attitude OF ye noble Roman.
but perforce standing on his head. The cleo
ton officers were the pastor, Rev. A. K Riley,
Charles Brunger and James L. Evans When
they had counted up the little slips Of paper
they found that three people had voted for, +"
while twenty-three had put themselves on
record az against" Ten OF those who used
the right OF franchise were ladies, the re-
mainder, not unnaturaiiy, were gentlemen
One of the .'for" ballots was dropped in erron-
eously. but the error was discovered too late
for correction.
NORTH CAPITOL coNoREaArIoN.
The North Capitol congregation, Of which
Rev. C. o. Cook is the pastor. held the election
IL. Il. n