Mexico weekly ledger., 1892-06-16
The Cuba Convention.
HOW THE CLARK MEN VIEW THE
SITUATION At THIS TIME.
History In Full Of the Mass Meeting
Held In Cuba, Crawford County,
Last Friday.

Last Friday.
From the Louisiana tMo,l Journal.
| see in the Sundays Republic a
statement of the alleged proceed
ings of the Cuba Convention by
the Hon. r. II. Norton. Horace
Greedy used to write about farming
under the heading "What / knew
about farming Now, without
wishing to appear egotistie, | wish
to answer Mr.. Norton's article by
telling what / know about the Cuba
| Convention, for there was but one
legally organized convention held at
Cuba, No., June 10th, 1892.
In telling about the convention
and answering Mr.. Norton, it viii
be best to give a short review of
the canvass and the call for the
convention, in order to show the
inconsistency of Mr.. Norton's posi-
ton. | was in Crawford county for
about one month previous to the
arrival of Messrs. Clark and Nor
ton for their final canvass OF the
county. Both gentleman had been
there and had seen many of the
leading Democrats before | went
to the county. Mr.. Norton had told
several persons that he did not
need the vote of Crawford county
to secure the nomination, as he
would have enough votes to assure
his nomination without their vote,
but of coure he would like to have
their support as a compliment. In
all parts of the county l found a
strong feeling in favor Of Mr.. Clark
and am satisfied that, if the contest
could have been decided by a pri-
mary election as early as May 18th,
Mr.. Clark would have carried the
county by 8 to 1 against Mr.. Nor
ton. 1t was the desire of Mr..
Clark's friends that there should
be a primary election held, but Mr..
Norton's friends succeeded in de-
feating this move and got the
Central Committee to order a mass
convention to be held at Cuba,
which is eight miles farther from
the center of the county than
Steelville, the county seat, is. The
canvass was a bitter one, and COM
plete arrangements had baen made
to secure the attendance of every
Democrat possible in the county.
On the morning of the convention,
the people from the country COM
menced coming into town, soon
after daylight. 1t was conceded
that the voters on the north side of
the river were about equally divided.
As fast as the people came in they
were given badges so as to distin-
gaish the supporters of one can1i-
date from those of the other, but
before the supply of Clark
badges arrived from Steelville the
supply on hand was exhausted and
to judge from the badges in sight
one would suppose that Mr.. Norton's
supporters greatly out numbered
those of Mr.. Clark. The first train
to arrive was Mr.. Norton's train on
the Salem branch road. 1t brought
a large crowd, among which were
many boys and Republicans bear
ing banners, some of which bore
inscriptions that any Democrat
should blush to carry. The next to
arrive was Mr.. Clark's car attached
to the regular mail train on the
Frisco road. 1t brought 125 DEM
ocratic voters by actual count.
There was one incident in connec-
ton with this that made it appear
that train men were the unfavorable
to Mr.. Clark. At Bourbon the
train did not give sufficient time
for the delegation to get on, but
pulled out and left many standing
on the platform. But Mr.. G. w.
Woodruff who had charge of the
Clark car compelled the engineer to
stop the train and go back to the
station and let the others get on.
Following this train was Mr..
Norton's special train of three coach
es from st. Louis. They were all
crowded, but the most of the crowd
was composed of persons who did
not live 1n..the Ninth Congressional
district, and many of them were
Republicans. As another favor of
the railroad company to Mr.. Nor
ton this train did not stop at the
depot, but went o up to town be-
fore stopping.
The next train was Mr.. Clark's
special train on the Salem branch
road. This train by actual count
had 425 Democratic voters of Craw-
ford county. After it arrived, which
was near l p. m. the Clark delega-
ton formed a procession and march
ed directly to the grounds of
which Mr.. Norton speaks, south of
town. After their arrival upon the
grounds it was learned that, as
the grounds were outside the. city|
limits, the meeting could not be
held there, as the call was for the |
town of Cuba, SO the Clark delega-.l
ton started back to town, but in
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