The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-06-08

A RumpuS In the General caucus at Deer
ing-Delegate Goodwin's Change of
Heart Iucurs the Disp1easure of His
Sent to the Convention.
There is no longer any reasonable doubt
about whom the Cumberland county
Republican convention will nominate
for sheriff. That interestingly question,
which has Kept the party leaders busy in
debate and work for many weeks, was
practically settled in Portland's Ward 6
caucus last night, if indeed, it had not
already been settled "a hours before.
Ward 6, whose choice was hidden by a
tie vote for county delegates, Monday, had
another try yesterday and piled up the
biggest vote on record, giving Candidate
Despeaux 81 majority.
This gives Despeaux 80 of Portland's
40 regular ward delegates and the five
delegates at large. En~
Deering distinguished itself in its
general caucus by electing two sets Of
delegates at large. Delegate Charles I.
Goodwin, whose shift from the Despeaux
side to Dresser's support after the caucus
had instructed him, received chilling
reception from his associates. After
assuring themselves that he really in
tended to stand by Dresser, the three
Despeaux men withdrew and elected a
delegation at large to suit themselves,
leaving the Dresser men to do likewise.
| One of the first duties that will de-
| velop in the county convention will be
| to choose between these two rival Deer
ing delegations.
WARD SIX CAUCUS.
| All the strength that both sides could
command was marshalled in the Ward
contest. Prominent political workers
from all the other wards in the city
dropped in during the day to see how the
Ward leaders conducted themselves.
Some of these Headers remained quite
awhile, and not few of them partici.
pated in the effort to win over converts to
their side of the sheriff question.
The polling place was crowded at 4
O'Clock when ex-Alderman Charles j.
Mcdonald, who presided at the caucus
| Monday night, called them to order and
announced that as this was but an ad-
journed session of the original caucus, it
would be unnecessary to go through the
usual preliminaries. B. A. Blossom, who
had offciated as secretary, and Clarence
johnson and Fred King, as tellers, took
their places, and the balloting proceeded.
1t is to the credit of the ward that, in
spite of the crowd in attendance much of
the time, and the intense interest taken
in the contest, that no trouble of any
| kind occurred. 1t was peaceful, quiet,
caucus, but the most intensely interesting
one that was ever held in that ward.
Almost the entire voting strength of the
party was called out.
In Mondays caucus, which was termed
an unusually big one, S47 votes were
cast. Yesterday 4l4 citizens deposited
| their ballots.
The general understanding outside of
| the ward room, was that the caucus
would continue till O'Clock, as: was the
case the preceding evening, bNt the secre-
| tary's records showed that the caucus had
voted to keep the polls open from till s..
Consequently the polls were closed at 8
o'clock. Neither side could find any fault
| with this arrangement, for all the votes
had been drummed up and there was
nothing to be gained by prolonging the
contest another holr.
1t was clear from the first that the Des-
peaux men would win. By 6 o'clock the
Dresser leaders had practically given up
hope, though they still kept up bold
front and worked hard for their candi-
date.
When the votes were counted, the Des-
peaux delegates were found to have a
majority of 90. They had 274 votes to 212
for the Dresser delegates.