Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-03-12
A Grave Departure From Well Estab-
liShed Usage.

Portland Advertiser, March 10.
To neutral and unsophis.ieated outsiders
some Of the goingt- IN relative to the Au
gusta Republican ward caucuses are not
sholly understandable. Ii is very we'll
known that q hot contest is waging at the
capital city, between the supporters
Of Governor Bu,leish and Postmas-
ter Msnley, who are candidates for
congressional honors, and it is quite
natural that each side should seek to make
every possible point s2aips. the other. The
first move in the game was for control OF
the ward caucuses held last evening for
the nomination Of ward officers and mem
befs Of the city committee. And here is
where come OF the inexplicable movements
began. |. is customary to held sill of the
caucuses simultane ously throughout the
city. This IS the invariable prsc'ic
Of all parties in Portland, ard it i.
said to hsv, been the same hitherto in Au-
gusia. For some ressop, however, the cit.
committee of Augusta chose to dtpsr, from
the custom and hold Part Of the eaucuses
on one evening and the re msinder on ar
ether. There are seven yards The eau
Gu, in ward SIX was called for Wednes.
day afternoon at 3 O'Clock in wards two,
Ave and seven for Wednesda evening at
80 O'clock, in ward four on F.id.y AtteI-
| noon at . e. clock and in Yards one and three
on Friday evening 1t 7 30. Meanwhile the
! general ,ur IS Tor nomination Of q candidate
for mayor i, sandw; 1ed in between, being
called for this evening at 7.30. Such q stfik-
ing departure from pre- cetent naturally at
tracts attention and sets iuquisitive people
wondering what ii all means. No explanation
has been volunteered by the responsible
authorities, and though there are doubtless
reasons for the depsriu 'e,ths nlultitu lie can
only guess at them. The first four eau
uses took place, as advertised. yesterday
afternoon aud evening, with the general
result Of 3 triumph Of the Msnley faction.
Several features aud incidents OF these
meetings, as reported, are Of particular
interest 10 two Of the wards t3ere was
no division, but ia wards two and seven
there was spirited contest on committee
men. The ksnnebec Jof RsAL sAyf,
1.-The most notable thiog in connection
with these two csucu:es was the large vote
thrown. Ia ward two the total vote was
l42. This is IL more votes than we're
thrown for governor IN that ward At the last
State election. a ward seven the total
vote was 81, This is one more vote than
was thrown io ,ha. ward for both the Re-
publ can aud ,mocratic candidate for
&c ernor at the last ciats election" IL
this statement IL true-and there seems 70
reason to doubt its coirectness-it indi-
Gates something wrong. A suggestion had
been made that c1scx lists be used in
the caucuses. IL il understood that
objection va, made to this, on the ground
that the registration Of vcters had not been
finished. That. h3wsver, was not consie
cred yAlii objection in the Portland Re-
| publican caucusss. The esucuses we're
hsld here ten days before registration was
i9ished, check lists were used and there
was not the slightes. ground 70. suspicion
of caucu. )ackibg or any thing Of the sort.
The plain, unvArnished facts 10 thu AT
gus:a case are here given, so far as devel
opsd. and readers are left to draw their
own COZ c.usions.