The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-02-22
FOR THE MOST POPULAR.
THE HEHALD'S" GREAT CONTEST FOR
BOYS AND GIRLS ALMOST OVER.
1t Will Close at 4 O'Clock Saturday After
noon and Those Having Most Votes will
Get the Costly Prizes offered.

Last summer The HERALD introduced
novel feature into Washington journalism.
Novelty no less than variety is the spice of life
and novelties when iudlciously handled are
always welcome in every business. They re-
lieve the monotony of the ordinary routine, no
matter what that routine may be, and they add
a new interest and infuse fresh energy into the
ordinary vocations of men and women.
The novelty which THE HERALD introduced
to its readers and the general public Of Wash
ington was the offer of chance to vote. In
all other parts of the country except the District
of Columbia there is not much novelty about
voting. The people get rather too much of it
to do at elections of all sortstown, city county,
State, and national elections. But the disfran-
chised citizens of the District of Columbia have
been relieved of all this voting by the wisdom of
a paternal government. So that chance to
vote for anything at all is privilege highly
priced by the people of Washington. The
HERALD not only gave the public here chance
to exercise the great American right of suffrage,
but it gave them also the chance to do good at
the same time. Approaching the fact that no
class of those who serve the people are more
worthy and receive less generous remuneration
for their labors than the teachers in our public
schools, the proprietors of THE HERALD offered
to give one of the teachers in the schools of the
District vacation trip to Europe at THE
HERALD's expense from the time said teacher
left Washington until the return here. Who
the teacher should be was left to the votes of
the readers Of THE HERALD, who were invited
to select their candidates and send in their bal
lots for their favorite.
The people of Washington at once entered
into the spirit of the affair." and it was pleasant
success from the start. large number Of pop
ular public school teachers had their names en-
tered on the poll lists by enthusiastic friends,
who worked for them in spirit of warm but
generous rivalry. The novelty of the scheme
and the lberality of THE HERALD were fully
appreciated, and the votes came in by the
thousand. The voting continued for eight or
nine weeks, and at it's close, no matter what
teacher they had voted for to get the free Euro
pean trip, all who participated in the affair
united in voting it grand success and in wish
ing that THE HERALD should soon give them
another chance to exercise the right of suffrage.
This it was promised, should be done as soon
as convenient
In fulfllment OF that promise, about three
months ago THE HERALD once more got its
polling booths in order, figuratively speaking,
and invited its friends once more to send in
their ballots This time the question which the
citizens were asked to give their suffrages on
was, "Who is the most popular boy or girl in
Washington s' No restrictions whatever were
placed on the franchise Every man, woman,
and child had the right of voting, no matter
whether they resided in Washington or not,
but all the candidates had to be residents of
Washington or its suburbs.
This contest was calculated even more than
the former one to excite widespread interest.
Nearly every family not Of the most recent es-
tablishment is blessed with that 'swell spring of
pleasure" as the proverbial philosopher puts
it, child in the house, and those not thus
blessed have relatives or friends who are, SO
that there are few households indeed in which
an immediate interest was not taken in settling
the question which THE HERALD propounded.
The children especially were thoroughly in
terested in the contest from the start, and it is
needless to say that whatever they take an in
terest in their elders are also interested in.
OF course, to make the settlement of the ques-
tion which THE HERALD propounded an object
and to bring out a full expression of opinion,
it was necessary to give some incentive more
than the mere privilege of voting Accordingly
The HERALD decided to give to the boy or girl
who received the largest number of votes as
the most popular very handsome and valuable
present The present decided on for the lucky
young person was nothing more or less than
handsome surry, specially built for the purpose by
one of the best makers in the country, and
beautiful pair of ponies to draw it. This
beautiful outfit, it was decided, should cost at
least 500, making it prize which any boy or
girl in the District of Columbia would be eager
to obtain.
AS soon as The HERALD plan for this unique
contest became known its friends among the
business men of the city got interested and de-
sired to joint with the proprietors of the paper
in endeavoring to make the contest still more
attractive. Mr.. H. King, Jr., the enterprising
proprietor of Kings Palace, decided to offer
two prizes, the first to be given to the young
lady receiving the highest number of votes in
the contest, whether the winner or not, and the
second to the young lady receiving next to the
highest number of votes cast. The first of the
prizes offered by Mr.. King was handsome
London dyed seal plush coat to be made to the
order and measure of the young lady to whom
it was awarded. This coat will be of the value
of at least $50. The second prize offered by
Mr.. King is Partisan pattern hat of the latest
design and most artistic make to be worth $25.
Mr.. Frank Hoffa, the well-known jeweler of
Seventh street, also wished to contribute to the
attractiveness of the contest, and for this pur-
pose decided to offer to the boy girl receiving
the second highest number of votes an elegant