The morning call., 1894-10-30
STRANGE DOINGS.
Those CanVasSers Are Not
Canvassing.
THEY REPORT FOR DUTY,
And Are Daily Told That There Is
Nothing to Do.
The REGISTRAR DIDN'T KNOW 1T.
Regiments of Legal Voters Being
Cited, Nobody Knows What
For, but May Guess.

very strange state of affairs was de-
veloped by the Election Commissioners
yesterday. AR army of men who had been
cited 20 appear and show cause why they
should not be stricken from the great
register appeared aud showed cause In al
most every instance. Who summoned
them or why they were summoned nobody
knew.
Registrar Evans knew nothing about it,
except that his clerks sent out the cards
in response to lists submitted by some
bOiy-presumably the purity committee,
whatever that is.
During the afternoon eight of the ten
men appointed to canvass for stuffers-five
from the Democratic and five from the
Republican party-were present and
more useless appendage to a campaign
than they reported themselves to be never
was heard of.
All of them denied respoE siblity for any
of the citations. They said they had
| cited nobody.
j. w. Sweeney, Democratic member of
This canvassing committee having charge
of the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-nintb,
! Thirtieth and Thirty-second districts,
made statement in justice to himself. He
| said: He had reported on the first day OF
| his appointment and was paired with Al
| Houston, a Republican,, to DO these dis
| tricts. He worked with Mr.. Houston two
days, but since then had not seen him. He
| had no official list of suspected characters
to look after and did not know whether
| Houston had or not, or what he was doing.
he Sweeney had reported twice a day
at the Registrars office for instructions.
and every day save the first two he had
beer told that there was nothing for him
! TO de-. He had reported tn bob Fllz-
gerald. who had been appointed by the
Registrar to take charge OF he work OF the
! ten canvassers. The Republican can
vassers, he thought, had been given llsts
TO look after, but none of the Democrats
| had. He saw a list OF supposed suffers
! given TO one of them on the first day and
had asked for one himself and was told
| that none were given out.
Mr.. Evans was called upon to explain.
He said that he had placed Mr.. Fitzgerald
| III charge of these men and instructed that
they be detailed in pairs. and thought they
had been given lists OF names registered
from hotels to look after. Ii IL hadn't
been done then his instructions had not
been carried out.
Mr.. FITZGERALD was called for but did
not respond. A messenger was sent to the
Registrars Office for him, but reported
that be could not be found.
This is awful! exclaimed Mayor
Ellert. "a man might sit here for thirty
way. There seems to be no system about
this work at all. Regiments of people,
almost all OF whom seem 10 be legal voters.
and 10 one knows who has cited them or
why. There seems to be no possibility OF
| fixing responsibility.
All of the canvassers in turn were asked
i! they had cited any men TO appear be
fore the commission and they admitted
that they had not. The Republicans said
they had been at work, but had found no
one who they thought should be cited.
number of persons who had not salts =
fed the commission of their right to vote
we're named TO these canvasserS and they
were told 10 employ themselves looking
them up.
Sweeney said he was there TO do work If
any was found for him to do, bu: he had
not thought IL necessary Tor him to en-
danger his head in search of 1t.
resolution was adopted instructiDg
election boards 10 make returns to the
central Office Immediately upon the count
being completed.
John Heenan had an unusual complaint
in view Of the strenuous efforts of many
people to get on the official ballot. He
said his name had been used by the Dolan
Club, he believed, and placed upon the
ticket for District Attorney.
Mr.. Heenan said he had notified the
Registrar that the thing had been done
without his authority, ana he did no;
want to be left on the ticket. and that as
his request had not been complied with he
now wanted il taken off.
Evans said that in view OF the action of
the court and commission there was moth
ing for him 10 do but leave the name on.
The commission decided that nothing
could be done but only spread the note on
, the minutes that he was not a candidate.
That question of paying the thirty-two
extra clerks hired by Mr.. Evans. without
consulting the commission, came up again,
as they want their money. After much
discussion a resolution was finally adopt
ed ratifying the action of the Registrar,
ana MI Broderick will probably sign the
warrants under Its authority.
The board met agaiu in the evening, but
only to adjourn, for no persous cited
appeared.