New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-29
MITCHELL. THE N4THEUdTICT

There's nothing convincing as mathemat-
les A great many people believe implicitly in the
maxim that figures won't lie" and we presume
there are those who carry It so far as to believe
that II you see them In THE New-York Sun"
they may be So What the Qulgg movement has
most felt the need Of during these last trouble
some weeks, IN which the managers have been
electing General Tracy by word Of mouth, has
been mathematics and good, irst-class math-
ematcian to handle them. It was all very well
for Platt to say that he wished he was as sure
of salvation as he was Of Tracy's election, and
for Quigg TO stake his political reputation
his glowing prophecies; but their cocksurcness
was mere dead wind without figures to back IT,
What they wanted was some one with figures
and tables and percentages and computations
and approximations and allowances and deduc-
tons and miniinums and maxlmums, spiced
with a bit Of Latin, Ike "Noscitur alb socs" or
"Quod erat demonstrandum.'
He has turned up in the person Of Edward
Mitchell, late Of the Committee Of twenty-five
In an address "to would-be anti-Tammany
voters" published in yesterdays Sun" that
eminent mathematician, by mathematical proc
esses of the most bewilderlng ntricacy, elected
General Tracy beyond the shadow Of n perad-
! u
the vote for Folger fifteen years ago, which, he
says showed loss Of just 14i3 per cent With
ont giving any rtason for such precision, he
! skipS AT once to the Mckinley vote Of last year,
which. he says was 1900 larger than that for
Governor Black Then he takes Governor
Blacks vote and reduces 1t by 90 per cent. Then
/ It occurs to him that there are Republicans who
have been deuded by the false preences' Of
~. TTv,fn and no i,1
"dulgng in their personal grievances and vim
/ "dictiveness." and he ships off 10 per cent more,
making 80 per cent in all. That gives Tracy
192 600 votes Then he reduces the Democratic
vote for Governor last year by the same per-
centage, and elects Tracy just as easy rs roll
ing off log Then he begins tossing figures in
the air catching them on his chin, throwing
them over his neck and under his arms bal
aucing them on the end Of his nose, and doing
al Of those Interesting, complicated and con
fusing things with them that the man in the
| circus does with the balls until you don't know
where any Of them belong or what they relate
~ cxcept al the end of It all Tracy Is - OOC
ahead lust as the circus man swallows all the
balls but one and ends the performance by fling
ing that one into everlasting space The only
trouble about ii is that the voters who undertake
to follow Mitchclrs percentages and deductions
and equations and computations are liable &c
get so hopelcssly lost in the fog that they won
get back in time to vote.
A simpler calculation, as it seems to us. would
be something like this Take the 191 votes thai
Oulgg east as Il Unit. If each delegate repre-
scented 900 voters there are 19l 900 votes right
off Add the ~ per cent that fell off from
Folger. subtract &c per cent from Tammany'
vote last year on account Of George, then sub
tract 10 per cent from George on account OF
Gleason. add the four votes which Jimmy
Woodruff found IN canvass Of seven mem
bers of the Montauk Club, deduct two for Mr.
PLAT and Mr. Hackett, who don't vote here, AND
set down Mr. Mitchell, in view of his remark
able fexibty as doubtful. and we have theI
General Tracy elected beyond doubt even II