Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-10-14
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Progress of the Campaign at
Three Committee Headquarters


NEW YORK, Oct 10. Especial The
state committee headquarters of the three
partios-Rcpublican Democratic and Chi
cago Platform Democratic oil located
within the space of less than three blocks
AS of old the Republican headquarters
occupy n suit of ground floor rooms on
the south side of the Fifth Avenue hotel,
while the Democratic headquarters are
two or three flights up on the north side of
the Hoffman House The Chicago Platform
Democrats have located their headquarters
at 10 West Twenty fourth street, in com
mercial building
Plenty of activity is visible daily at all
three but they were working hardest yes
terday at the Chicago Platform headquar-
ters. There the gubernatorial candidate
himself, Henry Nj. Mcdonald, was per
sonally pcgging away, reading lists of
names fer clerks to copy, debating letters,
addressing envelopes and attending to a
multiplicity of other routine work that is
performed by underlings at the Hoffman
House and the Fifth Avenue If Mr.. Nc
Donald doesn't succeed in making an i'm
preston on Empire State politics. it won't
be for lack of endeavor on his part.
what Mcdonald Hopes For.
Neither Mr.. Mcdonald nor his friends
can possibly hope for victory at the polls
and this is so self evident fact that it
hardly need be alluded to, but they do
hope undoubtedly to poll enough votes to
enable them to make n contest for recog
milton as the true representatives of the
| Empire State Democracy at the national
convention of 1900. That they can do
that is certain, providing all those who
| believe in the Chicago platform vote the
| ticket, but concerning this there is some
| doubt as yet
Mr.. Mcdonald came to New York in
| 1891 from Pierre, 5. D., where he had
been engaged in the banking business
| from 1888. Prior to that he had been n
practicing lawyer in Rochester where he
had made himself pretty well known while
| yet a young man by the vigorous prosecu'
| ton of remarkable libel suit. He has
been engaged chiefly in financing opera.
| tions of one sort and another since coming
| to New York and was recently much in
| terested in pushing the ordnance company
organized by DIR. Richard Gatling.
| Personally Mr. Mcdonald is tall, straight
and not unduly stout. His hair and whis-
kers are tinged with gray, the contour Of
his face inclines to the Roman, and his
manner is that of man Of wide expert
| ence.
Tnmmnny's Excellent Organization.
| No matter how the present campaign
| turns out, there is no discounting he fact
that Tammany is today better organized
| than il has been for years. The proper
disposition Of patronage has always been
one of Tammany's strong points, and the
game has been better played in this regard
| during the past 20 months than ever be-
fore.
For one thing, it is claimed that more
| negroes will vote the Democratic ticket
this year than ever before. Tammany,
say those who hold this view, has dis.
tributcd about SEQ, 600 worth Of patronage
among the colorcd brethren, and the dis
tribution has been effected with extreme
good sense, the individuals to whom tho
| plums have been awarded being OF I'M
usual intelligence and far more than the
ordinary amount of influence among those
of their own race One man, now known
as the colored Croker, who worked hard
for Trncy's election to the mayoralty last
fall, is now strainng every nerve fer Van
| Wyck, and his lieutenants include d con-
| siderable number of leading COlUrcd men.
The Democratic state committee head
quarters at the Hoffman House are quiet,
but husinesslike. Unlike the Republican
headquarters at the Fifth Avenue, the
windows do not open on the sidewalk, and
therefore the public in the street can get
no glimpse Of the workers or the cclebri-
ties who frequent the rooms. AS the can
didatc, Judge Van Wyck, has personal
headquarters of his own at his Brooklyn
residence, he is never present with the
committee workers, and this fact OF itself
helps conserve the quiet of the place.
Naturally the newspaper men who visit
the Hoffman House rooms Inquire often
and earnestly whether tho Chicago plat
form movement is exciting much appre-
hension, and naturally the answers are
invariably of n negative nature. At the
same time there isn't the slightest question
that Candidate Mcdonald and his work
ers are being watched with the greatest
attention and that some of the campaign S
sharpest work is to be expended in their
direction by the Democratic state com
mittee.
Roosevelt sim Picturesque.
Candidate Rooseveltis still picturesque
and he couldn't be otherwise if he tried.
Acting in accordance with the wishes OF
the committee, he spends several days OF
each week at headquarters, and when he
is present the Fifth Avenue hotel rooms
are crowded with visitors and as lively at
a county fair.
Republican state committee officials do
clare that no gubernatorial candidate has
ever excited a 1.-THE as great popular inter
est as that bestowed upon the colonel, and
this is manifested quite as emphatically
by the number and character of the letters
sent to him as by the number and nature
of the personal visits paid. The visitors
by the way are so numerous and SO per
sistent that the entire layout of the rooms
has had to be changed about for theiT &C
commodation, and their demands upon the
colonels strength are SO great that he Ii
obliged at regular intervals to get up from
his desk and go to another room to regain
his breath, SO to speak. Sometimes OF
such occasions he has betaken himself tC
the window and gazed out at the throngi
, hurrying along Twenty third street. Ii
such cases, however, his object has invari
, ably been frustrated, for at his first ap
pearance the moving crowds become sta
tionary ones, and presently there Isl block
on the sidewalk, and frequently an en-
thusiastic series of cheers
The enthusiasm manifested in this anC
other ways has a good deal to do with the
) conviction of the Republican generals thai
D Roosevelt is sure to win. Yet this convic
! ton is by no means strong enough to pre-
vent the waging of a hot campaign. On tho
| CONTRARY like their opponents of the Hoff