Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-21
NO BREAK IN THE DEADLOCK
Ninth District Congressional Convention
Shows No Sign of Result.
ADJOURNMENT IS TAKEN TILL TUESDAY
Five Hundred Ballots Recorded and
Then the Hot and Weary Dele-
gates Decide ON a Recess
Adjourned TIL Tuesday.

The republicans Of the Ninth Iowa con-
gressional district are still at sea as to
the selection Of candidate to succeed Hon.
A. L. Hager of Greenfield and when, after
casting 52S ballots, an adjournment was
taken yesterday afternoon until o'clock
next Tuesday afternoon, the deadlock in the
convention remained unbroken and the stu
alton is precisely the same as when the in
formal ballot was taken last Thursday
afternoon Except for the few ballots yes
terday morning that the Curtis men
switched to McPherson all the delegations
have stood pat by their instructions from
first TO last and the convention will go
down as the longest drawn out and hardest
fought political battle in the history of the
Ninth congressional district Three days of
constant balloting without effectng any
thing had made the delegates weary, and
this, coupled with the extreme heat of yes
terday, which made the convention room a
veritable Turkish bath, caused the motion
to adjourn to next Tuesday to be received as
veritable godsend. Following the ad-
journment many of the delegates at once left
for their homes. while others fastened over
to Omaha to visit the exposition, and the
latter will stay here until the convention re-
convenes, verying the caucuses that will be
held in the interval with trips to the Mid
way.
With four hundred ballots recorded with
out a break in the situation, the Ninth Iowa
congressional convention reassembled yes
terday morning shortly after 8 o'clock
and at once settled down to the
work of voting once more. There was
a general feeling of expectancy that some-
thing was going to drop. and after
the 434th ballot had been cast and
counted, the first break in the dead
lock took place. 1t came from the
Curtis delegation, which swung twelve of its
votes to the candidate from Montgomery
county, amidst the widest ENTHUSIASM from
the supporters of Smith Mcpherson. Chair
man Consigney of the Pottawattamie dele
cation jumped to his feet, and with up
lifted hand tried to head off the applause
as Reading Clerk Everest announced the
435th ballot as follows: Byers, 4S: Hager,
80; Mcpherson, "a; Curtis, l. He failed,
however, to stop the roofing, which con-
tinued for several minutes unabated, and
for time it looked as il the deadlock would
at last be snapped and the convention sue.
ceed in making a nomination. But it did
not, and the balloting continued right along
without any further change until the 471st
ballot had been announced, when John Y
Stone secured the attention of Chairman
Patrick, who was busily engaged mopping
the perspiration from his brow, and moved
that the convention take a recess for thirty
minutes, which carried without the formal
ity Of roll call by counties.
One Motion Overlooked.
to fho
delegation, little diversion had been in
Jected into the proceedings by Delegate s.
Gardner from Audubon, making a motion
that If by IL o'clock the convention failed
to make nomination, an adjournment be
taken to one week from next Tuesday at
Atlantic. Chairman Patrick evidently failed
to notice that the motion received second
and failed to put it and amid considera BILE
CONFUSION the balloting was resumed and
the man from Audubon dropped back into
his seat and proceeded to fan himself vigor-
ously in vain attempt to cool off after his
little exertion.
The court room was oppressively hot and
the delegates discarded coats, and some of
them their vests while frequent trips were
made to and from the table where the big
pitchers with iced water were placed.
The recess brought no alteration in the
voting and at the close of the 475th ballot
John y. Stone Of Glenwood once more took
the floor and moved an adjournment until
80 O'Clock in the afternoon. The Byers men
yelled mo- and Chairman Patrick on put
ting the motion said he was unable to de-
eide and roll call by counties was called
for. AS the counties were called the Byers
delegations came to the conclusion that an
adjournment after all was probably the best
thing under the circumstances, and fell in
line with the motion, which was carried
unanimously. and with yell that would
have done the Indians at present gathered
at the exposition proud the convention
stood adjourned.
Caucuses of No Avail.
On adjournment a number of caucuses
were held and strong effort was made to
induce the Hager men to go to Mcpherson
and for a while there was the belief that
Mills and Audubon would during the after
noon change their votes to the candidate
from Montgomery, but later developments
showed that the combination could not be
brought off For some reason or another
the twelve men on the Curtis delegation
who had gone over to Mcpherson felt ag-
grieved at something and during the inter-
val before the afternoon threatened to go
instructed. Strong pressure was brought to
bear on the Pottawattamie delegates to
break from Byers, but they were loyal and
refused to listen to the voice of the siren
Some of them were undoubtedly only too
anxious to make a break either for Hager
or Mcpherson, but were held in line by the
others. From the best sources it became
apparent that the afternoon session was
unlikely to produce any change in the situa-
tion and that an adjournment to next week
would result.
IF the convention will come to order We
will take up this burden of life once more"
remarked Chairman Patrick as he assumed
the gavel on reassembling at 80 O'Clock in
the afternoon, land for the 476th time IL
there is no objection, the clerk will call
the roll" In accordance with the threat
they had made the Cass county delegates
switched back to Curtis, and the result Of
the ballot brought the vote back to where
it started Thursday on the informal bal
lot. With wan smile Chairman Patrick
stated that he hoped there would be no
more ballots like that, as it made the
reading clerk stutter, but this little sally
'.,nt unnoticed.
The thermometer as the 4S0th ballot was
cast and recorded showed the temperature
in the convention room to be SO degrees
and the delegates and spectators were per-
spring freely. To vary the monotony on
calling for the 4Slst ballot, Clerk Everest
read the counties in reverse order COM
mencinP at Shelhy brt tho rasr,, ,,oo a.