Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-06-07
THE FIGHT IS ON.
Chairman Clarkson Raps the
Convention to Order.


No Nomination Expected Before Thurs
day Afternoon-one Side or the
Other May Force Things.
Special to the Leaf Chronicle.
| MINNEAPOLIS, June THE grea,
National Republican convention, anC
to which the eyes of the Democrats
as well as Republicans from one END
Of the country TO the other are turn
ed, is on. 1t was a few moments af
ter the hour of noon when James s.
Clarkson, OF Iowa, chairman of the
national committee, appeared upon
the platform and raped loudly on
the desk with a gaveI which already
rested thereon, a gavel, by the way,
constructed of Minnesota wood, and
made by the boys of the Industrial
School of Minneapolis, and called
upon the great gathering before him
to come to order.
And it was great gathering in
deed. Fancy an auditorium cover
ing full acre of space built up inside
still larger structure in the form OF
square, and with seats rising from
the central space about a half acre
backward upon each of the four sides
until they reach the wall. Fancy
above these seats wide gallery
sloping upwards with seats in tiers,
to the right and left and all about,
and fancy every seat occupied, the
vast sea of heads, and one can get a
faint idea of the convention at the
time it was called to order. The
acre of space in the center was occu.
pied by the delegates, while back of
those in the orchestra circle were the
alternates. On the south side of the
hall, raised four feet above the floor,
was the platform with the chair OF
the presiding officer fair in the CEN
ter. Immediately back of this plat
form were eighty-four chairs, each
occupied by memberss::of the ma
tional committee, 9and In the rear of
these again several hundred invited
guests and women relatives of the
delegates. In front of the platform
was the irostrum, extending about
six feet into the space reserved for
the delegates, and from which the
speech before the convention will be
made. To the right and left We're
the quarters for the working news
paper men, some five hundred of
them. To shut out the glare of the
MONDAY sun, which otherwise would
have fallen Immediately upon the
delegates, ithe heavy glass roof had
been painted delicate blue, while
daylight came through forty square
windows inithe roof directly over the
galleries. The band, instead of be-
ing located in the gallery as in pre-.
vious con ventions, had a comfortable
location for itself in the form of a sus
pended platform reaching only from
the roof, and in connection with the
chairman Of the convention by means
of speaking tube. The decorations
of the interior were very elaborate,
blue, old gold, and the national col
ors predominating. The big posts,
each twice the circumference of a
telegraph pole, had been covered with
bronze snd presented glittering ap-
pearance. AT the center of each of the
four sides OF the hall, immense silk
flags, each about thirty feet in length,
were suspended from the talons of
enormous eagles. Over the chair
mans seat hung the stars and stripes,
fastened in the large pillars on either
side by a large eagle head. Shields
bearing the names of the several
States decorated the front OF the gal
lery, together with the national col
Ors and specimens Of the golden grain
of the northwest. Although the Of
fetal call designated the hour of noon
for the assembling OF the convention,
the forty floors were opened soon
after nine O'Clock, and an hour later q
stream Of people began to flow over
the bag bridge that leads from the
business section of the town to the
exposition halls. The spectators were
ahead of the delegates, and 1t did moi
seem very long before the verandas