Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-11
COUNTRY PRECINCT POLITICS
Farmers Of Douglas County Have Confidence
in Republican Nominees,
TOO BUSY HARVESTING FOR POLITICS
Republican Speakers Asked For In
Every Precinct and the Demand
VIII lie Complied with
Some "Convcrsions."

y party VI tdUNllhleB Oh Tue lNfubiANNh
county ticket returned from trip through
the country precincts. They made no
speeches, but simply went, among the people
in an endeavor to get acquainted and size
up the situation correctly. They express
themselves confident OF the success OF the
republican ticket, both county and state.
'Tho conditions are a little different in
the country from what you ind in the
city," said f. Il. Bryant one of the party.
"The farmers have little time at this sea-
son to devote to politics, and as they live
80 much farther apart than the city people
do 1t is hard for them to have meetings
We found comparatively little being done in
the way Of campaigning on either side.
There is a great demand from the repuo-
llcans. though, for meetings and speakers.
Everywhere we went we found that lew
good meetings. during the campaign would
be a great source OF satisfaction to the
people They will not take the time to or
ganize and call meetings themselves, but
If meetings are arranged for by the county
committee and notice given considerably In
advance they will be largely attended.
I'VE feel that the situation is promising
TO us as republican candidates. We asked
every man we possibly could how he stood
in regard to the ticket We found lots or
republicans, majority of the voters being
unquestionably favorable to the republican
candidates They take more interest in the
commissionerships than any other Office ana
the republican candidates stand an excellent
chance with them"
The county central committee has already
set a date and made partial arrangements
for republican meeting at Millard. Octo-
ber 30 a special car will take about 100 Ger
man republicans, including some of the best
speakers in the county, to Mllard, where
there will be a rally. Advices from that
point assure the committee that there will
be no lack of interested auditors Similar
meetings will be held in Elkhorn, Florence,
Waterloo, Valley, Elk City and, in short,
every town in the county, the dates to be
announced as soon as possible. 1t is the in
tention OF the committee to have one or two
OF these meetings in each precinct before
election day.
Down in Sarpy county they have taken the
trouble to put the stamp of falsehood on
few of the alleged conversions of repub
licans, advertised by the local fusion organ
to have taken place in the wake of Bryans
late tour. The paper stated that H. c.
Glesman, a republican farmer living near
Springfield, had announced his opposition to
his old party. When his attention was
called to the item Mr.. Glesman promptly
went before a notary public and swore that
the assertions of the paper in question were
entirely false.
Exactly the same thing happened to
statement of the same paper regarding the
politics of Charles Thompson, a lumber
dealer at Springfield. Mr.. Thompson was
astonshed 10 read one morning in the
Omaha popocratic pape. .hat the sins of the
republican party had at last become too
great for his loyalty and that henceforth he
would shout the name of Bryan. He thought
1t. worth while to take the trouble and time
to make sworn statement, branding the
assertions Of the paper utterly false.
1t appears that neither Mr. Glesman nor
Mr.. Thompson was present at the Bryan
meeting at Papillion, but it was not difficult
for the imaginative press agent to picture
the force of Mr. Bryan's arguments even at
distance of several miles
Up at Ainsworth the people do not be-
lieve too implicitly in the theory that a
prophet Us not without honor save in his
own country, and whenever one comes to
them who cannot show that he has received
any attention in his own country they in
sist on making little investigation to see
whether he has ever been anointed or not
So it happened that when a semi-religious
colored politician of Omaha by the name
of Woody went up there to lead the people
out of the wilderness he came to grief.
Woodby went to Ainsworth at the invita-
tion Of Rev. Garner of that place and began
a series of revival meetings. Genuine re-
vivals being popular in that section of
the country he at first commanded large
audiences. Then he branched out into pol
itlcs, delivering genuine popullstic sledge-
hammer blows at the administration, mixing
in a little socialism and a little real anarchy
When he adopted this style his audiences
rapidly dwindled to a handful of rampant
populists,
Then the fuslonists at once proclaimed him
as another convert But the fact is
Woodby has not been republican in years.
In 1894 he ran for congress in this district
on the prohibition ticket as popocratic ally
and since then has been hitching onto the
Bryan cart.
The campaign will be warmed up in South
Omaha Friday night at a rally OF repub-
licans who will be addressed by number
OF wel-known speakers Candidates on