The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-27
AROUND THE POLLS.
The Voting Was Slow in Many
Precincts.

The Voting Was Slow in Many
Precincts.
At the direction of the police, the voters
formed in double file from the entrance
to the roped-in space. The plan of adj
hitting voters to the booths at the various
precincts differed according to the ideas
of the managers. At some precincts as
fast as voters passed out and a booth be-
came empty another voter was allowed to
enter. At others the managers waited I'M
til all the booths or stalls inside became
empty, and then signalled the police to
let in enough voters to fill up the stalls
again. At the majority of precincts, how
ever, the plan practiced was to let in two
men at a time, one from the head of each
line This plan appeared to work better
than any of the others, as there was 10
confusion, such as resulted in other pre-
cincts from allowing half dozen or more
men to rush in a a time, and the men in
line felt that they were being fairly treat
ed as man from the head of each line
was admitted at the same time
Fairly good order was preserved. The
police did not seem to feel called upon
TO interfere, except when there was an
actual conflict and a great deal of rough
language and profanity was INDUCED in
The lines were well protected from the
crowds around them, however, so far as
the Morning News reporters saw, though
there was some complaint of lines being
broken by heelers in some of the precincts
Owing probably to the fact that Chief
McDermott did not make the rounds Of
all the precincts and that Police Commits
sioners Karow and Jackson were seen
making the rounds on horseback a report
was spread that the chief had been sus-
pended for forty-eght hours, and that
the commissioners had taken active
charge of the force. Maj. Karow, when
spoken to about this report by a Morn
ing News reporter, replied that it was alb
solutely untrue. The chief was attend
ing to his duties as usual. he said, and had
visited several of the precincts during the
day, but was directing the work of the
force chiefly from the barracks. Lieut.
Reilly, Maj. Karow said, was in charge of
the reserve at the barracks. Mai. Karow
said that he and Mr.. Jackson not only
made the rounds for a good part of the
night before, but had been on horseback
practically all day, going from precinct.
to precinct. Mr.. Netsburg also spent the
day visiting the precincts on foot
Maj. karow said in answer to other
questions that the assignments for duty
for the day had been made by the chief of
police and the commission together, and
that owing to the fact that there was too
large a territory to be covered by one
man, the members of the commission had
each taken a section of the city to look
after themselves.
At o'clock the estimates furnished from
the different precincts showed that the
Liberal claims in the northern precincts
and the Citizens claims in the southern
precincts were about standoff The Lib
erals were more positive in their claims.
however. Maj. Meldrim also made the
rounds of the precincts on horseback. To
a Morning News reporter Maj. Meldrm
said at > o'clock that he believed the Lib
erals had the bet er 6 it by about votes,
but that the vote was altogether too close
for his liking. The business men, he said,
had not turned out in any great number
up TO that time This vote, he thought,
would increase the majority of the Liber-
ais.
Both sides had gotten In their best work
by this time. however, and after that the
voting was about even. BY 3 oclock or
before the long lines had disappeared from
I'm front of all the polling places, except
i'm the fifth and Seventeenth precincts.
These were regarded as strong Citizen
Club precincts and charges were freely
made by the Citizens Club men that the
Liberal Club managers in these precincts
were delaying the vote purposely. An at
tempt TO blockade the line in the Seven
teenth was made by the Liberal workers,
it was claimed.