The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-06-03

Probably the happiest man in WASH
ington, writes Walter Wellman to the
Chicago Times-Herald. Is General
Charles H. Grosvenor. Of Athens. Ohio.
General GrOsvenor. as all the world
knows. Is the mathematician-in-ch
Of the Mckinley boom, and his work Is
done. There never was a greater
mathematician than Grosvenor. He
has q method all his own. Coming
from Ohio, the state which gave rise
and fame to the late John g. Thomp-
son, whose greatest service to human
ity was as originator Of the theory that
when you have claiming to do 1t Is
better to claim everything in sight and
put the burden Of proof on the other
fellow. 1t was not surprising that Gros-
venor exhibited tendencies to large and
eloquent and comprehensive figures. In
his room in the Cochrane hotel in this
city General Grosvenor has kept for
several months a staff of clerks and
stenographers and accountants. These
able and alert young men and women
have had nothing to do but to count up
Mckinley delegates, and In this task
they have had the assistance OF type
writing machines. adding machines.
automatic tabulators and various other
devices. General Grosvenor has kept
an eye upon the work every minute,
and has seen to 1t that everyone was
pushing things for all he or she was
worth. But the strangest part Of the
whole business is the fact that. count
as hard as they could, count they early
and late. count they with enthusiasm
and greediness which disguised the
friends of all other candidates. these
counters Of General Grosvenor have
never been able to get ahead Of the
she, ho
race with them In the matter Of elect
ing Mckinley delegates. and up to date
the country seems to be a lap or two
ahead.
General Grosvenor has often con-
fessed his encouragement. There were
times when things did not go right. He
thought he was counting industriously
and 'alertly, he knew he had issued
the strictest orders that nothing should
he allowed to get away, he used the
mails and wires lavishly. he sat up late
nights with his hand on the lever Of the
automatic adding machine. and yet,
with all this energy and precaution, al
most every morning General Grosvenor
awoke and read the papers and found
that the Republicans Of the country had
got little ahead Of him-had elected
Mckinley delegates whose names and
existence had evaded his eagle eve. So
it was. too. with the regular weekly
bulletin. Grosvenor thought he had
everybody In. He was quite sure no
wandering Mckinley delegate had been
overlooked. Yet after each bulletin II
was found necessary to apologize to
some man who had been omitted and TO
include him in The next bulletin, only
10 have some other chap rise up and
claim his rights in the same fashion.
Under the circumstances 1t Is easy to
gee that General Grosvenor Is glad to
get through with his job. The Repub-
licans of the country have been making
things pretty lively for him for several
months. but he has caught UP with
them at last and the deed Is done.
LAUGHS LAST.
General Grosvenor has known all the
time that II he was making any error
1t was in not catching the Mckinley
delegates fast enough They came in
ut such a rapid pace, with such a hot
delivery, with SO many curves and un-
dershOots, that Grosvenor was afraid
all the time some of them were getting
away from him. On this account it
was particularly hard to be accused by
the odious and enviOus opposition Of too
much extravaganza. 1t was sad to see
the look Of pain upon General Gros-
venOr's face when some one accused
him of stuffing the returns. For weeks
and weeks 1t was the fashion in WASH
ington to sneer at General Grosvenor.
to crack jokes about his mathematics, to
say smart things concerning his rapidly
expanding Mckinley column. He has
been called almost everything anyone
could think Of, and has been forced to
stand pat against more poor jokes and
weakly attempts at wit than any other
man in the history Of American politics.
But now that 1t Is all over, now that he
has caught up with the enthusiastic