The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-31


An incident illustrating the real feeling
of contempt the Taggart ring harbors to-
ward colored voters occurred in the fifth
precinct of the Tenth ward in the fight be-
tween the factions Of Councilman Golfer
| and James ID. Moriarity The Golfer fac
tion mad the chairman of the precinct
Bill Champion, back of it. He has re-
Gently been given city job. The meeting
was held in large vacant storeroom at 324
virginia avenue. At 7:45 o'clock the Golfer
contingent marched up to the building from
lhe Germania House, where beer had
moved cop1ously A few moments later the
rnoIIdIIty faction sauntered up. 1t was
aot ~ minutes later before a man carrying
q Sass ramp, that looked like IL would be
easiiy demolished In the anticipated fracas
ana a gasoline f1ambeau were brought up
anu am the door opened There was a strug
SIe ar the door, but the room was large
es4ough 10 hold as many more as appeared.
MoI1arltys "byes" took possession of the
rear OF the room, surrounding a table
Among the Moriarity crowd were four or
i've coiored men. Bill" Champion came in.
eyed ti1 them with an ugly scowl and then
sergeant John Lowe and two patrolmen
We're In the room near the door to preserve
order. Spectators who had expected to see
some run We're disappointed when they saw
the police.
It's all off, boys" shouted one. "Colter
mas brought the cops with him."
d
great time, hurrahing for Moriarity Edg
ing ms way to the back of the room, he
mounted the table, prepared for speech,
out nearly, topped over Grabbing his hat
as 1T fell, ne contented himself with shout
fogg Md HERE'S rits, Taggart Niger and he is
That's what isl said the colored man
alluded 10, with a grin. By this time the
constantly growing crowd was getting i'm
Call the meeting to ORDER" yelled some
one.
bill" Champion mounted a chair in front
OF the mantel on which the lamp was stand
ing. He proceeded to make a speech in his
best style. I've been chairman of this
precinct for two years" said he, land have
night if others are fair. Mr.. Moriarity has
rented this hall, but am chairman of this
meeting. see Republicans here that have
no right to vote. If they don't get out I'll
hold this meeting some place else. These
d-n niggers don't live in this precinct"
adS 81 you kH9w t doSt Know %
! thing! You don't know where you live
yourself!'
could make himself heard above the jeers
at his expense. II want order here"
".Oh, he wants order!' groaned the crowd;
At that Moriarity bounded upon the round
table, that seemed weak enough to break
beneath half his weight, and began speak
ing:
are out of order"
81 just want to say word" protested
Moriarity, with considerable heat Some
thing has been said about niggers.' just
want to say that Tom Taggart owed his
last election to the colored voters as much
as to anybody else. We are not going 10
do anything unfair. This meeting has been
called for this place, and here 1T must be
held. If you want to go some place else.
why, CO."
pion IF these Republicans do not leave this
room in five minutes | will call this meet
ing somewhere else This is Mr. Moriarity's
ha11 bIIf haG hear .IOfn Koch
ford with Republicans, and l do not pro
pose to allow them to vote at Democratic
primary
MIR Chairman" shouted the irrepressible
Jack Shea, 'if a man comes up here and de-
clares his intention of voting the ticket, DO
He never finished his question, for one of
Moriarity's friends pushed forward With
motion that a chairman or the primary pc
elected. That started Champion from the
room. Follow me, Democrats, he CRED.
About third of those present hled AFTER
Champion and Golfer: their minds ni Yea
with the prospects of free beer down at the
Germania House. The police went with
them. 90,
jeered one. ITO keep off them kir dergarten
kids answered another. They're down
on him for passing the curfew ordinance.
Then everything was smooth sa 1II,a g, tul
utes he was made chairman, William Brent
linger was made secretary ana Morlarlty
was authorized to appoint the FIVE delegates
TO the convention to-day, beside which he
was elected precinct committeeman. Mo-
Rarity soon selected himself, Willlam
Brentlinger Michael Shea, j.. j. Mor1arlty
and Steve Burns delegates. Moriarity then
did the handsome thing, sending the Dogs
over to his saloon, while ne ana bTen enhf u
went down to the Cleveland Club to ngnt IL
out before the credentials committee Win
the Golfer delegation that had meah"nile
been selected at the Germania House. no
''rralk about Moriarity packing the rooiI
with Renublicans.'' cried one of Moriarity $
friends George Golfer had more Repq Ii-
licans than anybody else why a nan u ,1teis
place What did he do the baby act foT ana
break off to have another meeting! Hes
great man to represent me ae got the best
of them They Ought to have stuck II ouI
and held the meeting where 1t was calico
for. They had plenty of police 10 take care
of them if they were scared. 1,;s
Moriarity was confident that ne ana ms
delegation would be seated, even II Cnaii,,
pioIi did give the credentials TO the ou isa
SeIepates selected at the Germanla ROUSE.
Beer was the principal feature OF the p Ii-
mary in the fourth precinct OF the f bee On
tap in the interest of the macnlne anu I f4
Scanlon had one in his own interest: But
the push o Geu "a frsely as the other
In those cases where city employees We're
the precinct chairmen there could nave peen
Duo Ose that any but Taggart delegations
would receive the credentials. inns Wa az
true of the eleventh precinct OF the Mlh; III
the office of Superintendent of streets Her
nick. was elected precinct commltIeenlaa1n'
and Mike O'Brien, G. w Jones aIu q MI
Moore were selected delegates. me hocn-
ford element which was largely IN the ma
ioritv held a second meeting ana electsu
Bruce Wiseman and LutZ TO contest inc
Taggart delegation. 80, ,o+ 30
the Fifteenth ward and two sets OF dele e5
safes were selected The meeting was held
in the rear of a saloon at Capitol avenue
and Morris street. When the voters nau
gathered a man jumped up ana TOOK CndIse
81 the meeting He requested tnat all VINO
favored the selection of John Mahoney as
chairman of the meeting STAND on one sue
of the room Those VINO Favored s he" "
| nhal were to stand on the other sloe. WINE
The crowd was trying to separate ana VQt-
ers were being pulled from one Sue 70 tite
| other the temporary chairman cried out:
"Mr Westphal is elected. some one theIl
| moved to adjourn, and the meeting broke up
| without delegates having been selecteu
| Later in the evening the two 1actlonS n neiu
| meetings and elected their oelegates. witt
| the first meeting was in progress one man
| hawled out that it wouldn't be a bad plan
| to put out the lights and nave a lree hsiltii
| His advice was unheeded, however, t I,ll
| there were no personal encounters. ne
seventh precinct of this ward also enjoyed d
| row The delegates recognized by the chall ,
! man finally lost the credentials Whlcn hau
| been issued them. - -. a., To-,
| ington primary two sets of delegates pc
| ing elected. One primary was hela at
o'ciock in the afternoon and the othef at
| 3 o. clock in the evening. The Sentlnel IN us
| coll of March Is fixed the latter hour ana
| its call of yesterday fixed O'CLOCK