Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-05-06
ANTI-ATKINS men OUT OF SIGHT
THE OLD MAN HAD A CLEAN
WALK-ONER
WITH OVER 100 VOTES TO SPARE
The BrattlebOrO Democrats Are Trying
TO Find Out What Hit Them

And What Became of the Ante-COnven-
tIon Figures--Thc Proceedings Report
ed Summarized Detail.
From our Special Correspondent
At Montpelier yesterday the Haselton-
Davenport-Chlds anti-Atkins boom disin-
tegrated, collapsed, and fell with a dull,
sickenng thud. "The mourners go about
the streets and refuse to be comforted.
At the present writing the entire aggrega-
tion of Antis is 'in the soup
The convention was the largest and live
liest that Nermont's unterrfied has ever
reyeled in. Things began to warm up
Wednesday afternoon, after the arrival of
the first train loads of delegates, and then
began crescendo that eliminated in
terrific double forte Thursday afternoon,
when Atkins was sustained by majority
Of 10 in a total vote of 81.
Wednesday evening the supporters of
Seneca Haselton gathered in Capitol hall,
and for an hour roasted "Caliph" Atkins
in elegant shape. j. II. Holton was elect
ed chairman. and then Asaph p. Childs
took charge of the rally and kept things
humming for an hour. One of the mild
est assertions made was that Just as sure
as God rules the universe, just so sure will
We have a different management of the
party before tomorrow sun goes down.
About the time ''to.morrow's sun was
going down the genial Asaph, who in this
convention was like the Label on the bot
tle-on the outside-was sitting on the
stage of the opera house gazing mournful-
ly at the surgng mass of humanity which
was yelling itself hoarse over Hiram vic
tory.
4 midnight "Wednesday both sides were
claiming the earth and were talking of an
neXing part of the solar system. The con-
testing delegations had been politely heard
and excused with thanks-all except the
one from Rutland, which was heard and re-
jected the next morning.
After both factions had eaten breakfast
Thursday they announced to the reporters
that victory was assured by a couple of
hundred majority, and proceeded to brace
up the claims of the night before Among
the distinguished delegates at large" pres
ent were noted A. p. Childs of Benning-
ton, p. NJ. Meldon, and T. W. Moloney of
Rutland, Felix w. McGettrick and George
w. Burleson of st. Albans.
1t was apparent after the battle that the
fight against Atkins had been poorly manag-
ed. Grand Mogul Davenport put his foot in
it at the outset, and kept it there. His col
leagues helped along the thing by series of
bad breaks, and lost a possible chance to
down "the old mana poor gray-headed
old man who has grown gray in the service
of the party as "Tom' Brown of Rutland
pathetically put it. The Ants wasted lot
of valuable time at the outset in getting
the convention to adopt a resolution ap-
pointing a committee to investigate the
charges against the Atkins faction of pack
ing the 1890 convention with bogus dele
gates. They won the fight over the adop-
tion of the resolution, and scored valua-
BILE point But they did not follow up the
advantage, and the committee never re-
ported. V. \. Bullard made a feeble eff
fort to work in the report but was choked
/ off.
A sad atfliction was visited upon Mr. At
kins few minutes after the cheers for his
victory had died away. Word was brought
to him that his wife had dropped dead
/ from heart disease. Mr.. Atkins was COM
{
/ The hall and taken home in carriage.
/ Mrs. Atkins had been i'll for a long time,
and it may be that Thursdays exciting
/ events helped to bring on the fatal attack
! A. =. Childs, though not delegate, asked
| leave of the convention to introduce a res
olution of coincidence, which was heartily
granted. sympathy for Mr.. Atkins was
expressed by his bitterest opponents.
] EOllOVinO are the sumuna ri zad dat
The Proceedings In Detail.
At high noon Thursday, with the Blanch-
ard opera house packed from pit to DOME
by fully 1900 men, and before the solemn
tones of a dirge, which the band played as
Capt. Thomas II. Chubb of Post Mills
stalked down the aisle, had fairly died
away, the rotund form of Chairman At
kins, whose scalp by the way does not YET
dangle at the belt of the Brattleboro dele
CATION, loomed up on the front of the
stage, and in tones that were a cross be
tween fog horn and wheezy bull fiddle
called the aggregation to order. He pat,
ted the delegates on the back, fgurativey
speaking, by working off the gray-whisk-
cred remark about "their fine appearance .
etc, and then proceeded to dilate on the
luck that the Vermont Democrats had had
Tor years IN getting on the right side i'm the
national conventions, and incidentally h,
gave b. b. Smalley handsome boom. TIL,
delegates had not been up the greater part
of the night before for nothing and wher
Mr.. Atkins named the various presidential
candidates from Mcclellan down, each ont
was very appropriately cheered, but wher
it came to Cleveland there was an uproar
and under the lead of Mr.. Smalley the del
egates for several minutes relieved them
selves of much enthusiasm, and at the
same time loaded the air with a conglom
Grafton of perfumes that thoroughly testeC
the ventilating facilities of the hall.
Inasmuch as Mr.. Burleson, who wa
several weeks ago announced as the to-be
chairman, failed of an election as delegate
5. c. Shurtleff of Montpelier was draggeC
forth to do the labor. Mr.. Shurtleff Is al
able lawyer and sound Democrat, but a