The San Francisco call., 1896-11-06
THEY MOURNED
FOR LOST HOPES
Afford, Baker, Lawlor and
Gator Bewailing
Their Fate.
Several Leading Democrats Are
Frustrated With
Grief.
WAS A TERRIBLE SHOCK
Not a Very G cd Time to Present
Campaign Expense Bills at the
House of Mourning.
WAS A TERRIBLE SHOCK

An air of gloom has overhung the late
headquarters of the Democratic State Gen.
tral Committee and the Silver Committee
ever since last Tuesday night.
Visitors who 60 to either of those places
10 collect bills tread softly on tiptoe as if
at wake and carefully refrain from whist
ling. 1t is not good form 10 whistle in the
house'of the dead.
Chairman Afford is blue, George w.
Baker is blue, William P. Lawlor Is blue,
and Populist Gator, who put up nice
little JOB with Stephen NJ. White and fell
t..rough, is bluer than all.
20 my fellow Democrats my fused
Populislsl What terrible shock it was
TO be disappointed Did we not bugle
the doom of the Republican party? Did
We not sound the charge upon Wall street
and the shylock, of Lombard street and
the grasping >yndicales and trusts other
than the D mocratic ones? Did we not
call upon this great and loyal people to
renounce the Republican devil and all his
works and lomps, including Mark Hanna
Did they do IL?
"Methinks echo answers nit. F."
The blow indeed was terrible one.
They had been sure of winning. They
lad the Republicans on the run. They
would turn The State over for Bryan by
$4,000 majority with the greatest ease.
Wasn't every body for Bryan except John
2. Irish d E. b. Pond-aud-and lew
thousand more leading D. mo ocrats?
Oh, il vas cruei To be deceived thus, and
worse than all to be left in debt with no
resources draw from. And now they
walk the floor in the still watches OF the
night, Afford and Lawlor and Baker and
Gator, the big four OF The big iuse that
sputtered and sputtered and went out in
the sewer.
They are so very disconsolate that they
have not the heart TO pack up their polItl-
cal hopes for the journey to Salt River,
but are as men dazed and are ON the way
to Bitter Creek without their overcoats.
For two hours yesterday Afford and he
three sat in headquarters with their chins
burrowing IN their shirt bUsoms and ttelr
eyes fixed on t. e floor. The big tears th It
Gator shed spla>hed monotonously like
the drip OF the winter rain in pine for st.
Never word spoke they. Twas time
for silence and for tears They were in
terrupted every five minutes by the en-
trance of melancholy looking men with
bills in their hands for campaign expenses,
but when Mr.. Afford saw them he waved
them away dejectedly with mis- hand and
the injunction In broken hearted accents /:
Go way! Lemme alone; don't you
see we re sck ?"
"Ohl where's my senatorship?" groaned
Gator.
"Oh. where is that United States Dis
trict Attorneyship?" sighed Baker.
Where's that Superintendency of the
Mint" murmured Lawlor, his once rosy
cheeks now of an ashen hue.
Where's everything?" asked Afford,
drearily. .'Where's the PopuIists ?
Where's the Democrats? Oh, tits terrible
to be alone"
Warren B. English came over from Ala
media wearing a heavy overcoat and with
band OF Grape on his hat. He looked
like man who had suffered aud had not
been thanked for it. His eyes filled and
his voice choked up as he pressed the
hands of his associates in misfortune
When he took hold of Gators soft, fat
hand and saw the expression of woe upon
his countenance, he himself, unab to
bear the strain. was overcome, and fell in
limp heap into the wastebasket.
Jim Budd was sick abed. Tarpey had
locked himself up in the Palace Hotel an
was engaged in meditation and Tom
| Clunie was up on the city front in Sacra-
mento pewailing the loss of his BETS
1t is expected that the patients will be
able TO be up next week, when they will
| engage in ordinary business pursuits and
give politics a rest