San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-10-17
PoLITlcA, HYsTERIA.
The Remarkable Part Played by WOm-
an in Recent Convention.

The Remarkable Part Played by wom-
an in Recent Convention.
I'm glad fate took me to q convention
which never had a parallel, and prob
ably will stand alone in history as the
climax of political hysteria-all on &C
count of a pretty woman and white
umbrella There's no doubt about it.
| Men are creatures of sentiment.
The proper time to have cheered for
Blaine was after the nominating speech
of Senator WOlcott, whose rich voice
rang out as did no other, though all the
| colored speakers had clear, musical
voices. Colorado's junior senator looked
well, dressed well, spoke well and was
personally a favorite. When he sat
down the applause that followed was
the genuine expression of the Blainiacs
and lasted but short time. Its COM
parative brevity surprised me, and indi-
Gated what had been told by a journal
list early in the morning, that President
Harrison would be nominated on the
first ballot.
Then William Henry Eustis seconded
the nomination in an address which riv-
aled the platform in the variety of sub
jects introduced. Applause was about
to die at the end of two minutes when a
lady back of the platform, and just
above ex-Speaker Reed, waved a beauti-
full silk flag evidently prepared for the
occasion. Still another flag appeared in
the same quarter, waved by another
woman. The sight fired men who other
wise would have been quiet. Cheer fol-
lowed cheer. If ever a human being
was obsessed it was the pretty young
woman in white, who between those
waving flags stood on her chair, opened
her white umbrella and swung it to and
fro with a persistency which no one in
her senses could have endured. There
was hysteria in arm and face.
With fixed and CLASSY eye the woman
in white swung on and on. Men and
boys, not to be outdone by so frail a
creature, waved handkerchiefs, opened
umbrellas, took off their coats, raised
hats upon canes, howled, shrieked,
jumped up and down and acted like
maniacs, keeping their eyes ON that
swirling white umbrella.
"Who is it?' "Will she never sit
down." What's the matter with herT
IF she doesn't stop soon she'll be the
death of mer' were several of countless
EXPLANATIONS. The umbrella was with
drawn, but the mission of the woman in
white had not ceased. The umbrella
was replaced by tricOlored star with
James G.. Blaine's portrait in the middle.
To and fro the woman in Write waved
it, and the cheering redoubled in volume
ITO the platform" cried some. The
obsessed woman moved down with her
star and had almost reached the plat
form, when her husband, a journalist,
stopped her in her mad career and led
her back to her seat. Mounted on a
broom the star was still waved to and
fro until at the end of twenty-four
minutes the woman in white succumbed
to nature and the reign of hysteria was
over.
Delegates had taken little part in this
demonstration. Harrisonians sat silent
and grim, unmoved by the vagaries of a
hypnotized woman. Sound and fury
signified nothing to them. The curious
spectacle did not change one vote The
man from Maine had already been sac
rifced by political exigencies.-Kate
Fields Washington.