The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-02-04

that use on the Exposition grounds in
j Philadelphia, says George Grantham
Balm. there is going TO be the liveliest
scramble for tickets ever known. The body
OF the hall win seat 1000 persons. The
number OF delegates and alternates will be
more than 1900. That leaves room on the
main floor for 200 persons-deputy sergeant
alarms and doorkeepers and guests. Ris-
ing on three sides Of the hall are tiers
of seats which will hold 900 guests more.
The stage looks as though II could be made
to accommodate 300 10 800 persons. II t.
part of the pan Of the committee to have
II seat 600 newspaper correspondents az
well az the officers OF the convention and
distinguished guests.
Col. II. l.. Swords. who has had great ex-
pcrfence In the handling OF national con-
ventions. estimates the delegates the al
teruates and their personal following at
300. and the assistant sergeants-at-arms
and the doorkeepers, with the newspaper
correspondents, at 1000 more Thus, With
out taking the visitors from other cities
or the citizens OF Philadelphia into ac-
count, the hall will be filled to overflow
Ing.
At every national convention for many
years the members of the national COM
mittee have announced firm determine
tion to limit the seating capacity OF the
next convention hall to the persons Off
necessary to its success. Whenever the
matter has come to a final hearing. how
ever, the committee has given way 20 pop
ular clamor and the hail has been swelled
10 the limit of the human voice. Morris
NJ. Estee tho permanent chairman OF the
convention OF 1892. did not make himself
heard beyond the FIRST rows of seats in
the exposition building at Minneapolis, and
John r. Henderson. OF Missouri. and John
". Thursfon, OF Nebraska, had little bet
ter success at the Blaine and Mckinley
conventions at Chicago and st. Louis re-
spsctively.
When st. Louis was selected as the
seat of the 1895 convention the citizens
had hall ready which would have hous-
ed the delegates and alternates and sew
eral thousand visitors. The Republican
national committee refused to accept this
hall and compelled the citizens TO erect
an enormous auditorium, seating 1900.
Eventually. owing to the damage done
TO the building by the great tornado. 1t
cost the citizens $4,000. and part of this
money William III. Thompson, the treas
urer OF the local committee, had to make
good out OF his own pocket. The auditor
ium stood for only a brief time
In st. Louis the thirty citizens who SUBJ
scribed to the convention fund received
tickets to the hall In proportion to their
subscriptions. Many OF these were put on
Slb for season ticket for the use of a
member Of my family buying 1t from
man who was peddling them on the side
walk In front of the Southern hotel IL
was cheaper to buy "a ticket than to hunt
up an official and beg one OF him as a
personal favor.
The distribution Of the tickets to a con-
vention is always determined by the ma
tionat committee. II is carried on BY the
serGeant-at-arms. Tim Byrnes, of Mime
sofa, was the sergeant-at-arms at the St
Louis convention. and Mark Hanna was a
much smaller man that Byrnes while the
convention lasted But Byrnes has been
heard OF less than Hanna since the con-
vention.
The national committee assigned so
many tickets TO the local committee. In
accordance with tho agreement made
with them. So many tickets were assign
ed to each delegate and alternate. This
has been the custom since conventions
began. Each member OF tho national
COMMITTEES also received n bunch OF tick
cts, and there was nearly riot when a
certain national committeeman broke into
the committee room with the statement
that his tickets had been appropriated by
some one else II was found later that
they had simply been misiaid.
This time II looks as though there
would be few tickets for national commit
tcemen. and as there will not be room.
under the present arrangement. for a
number OF guests equal to the number OF
delegates and alternatcs. 1t would seem
TO be impossible to make a division OF
tickets among the delegates How to di~
vide the limited number of guest tickets
II going to be a serious problem unless
some way II found to increase the capac-
iiy OF the convention hall
The serg~ant-At-arms Is going 70 suffer
mcsi under the new order of things He
VIII be bomharded with applications for
tickets which he can not an, and every
delegate IL going 20 hold him responsible
for his disappointment The sergeant-at-
arms Will be overran, too with apnlica-
ions for appointments. because n badge
VIII carry the wearer on the floor Of the
hail. when he tries TO az iaOoo visitors
and clamorous citizens into 800 seats no
VIII ind his office most uncomfortable.
Who this unfortunate individual viii 10
Is not yet determined Col swords was
OF enc national eanvon
fion, and Byrnes, Of Minneapolis. served
In another,
OF course. the new way Is the rational
way OF holding a convention. Every ona
who has attended national conventions
held In big halls knows that the galleries
have way Of usurping the functions Of
the delegates. Al St Louis and az Mime
The galleries wanted another
session. The delegates wanted 70 clear M
the business and adjourn When the chair.
man pat the question for adiournine. the
mighty chorus of yeas from tho vps.cta-
tors seats drowned the feehle maya from
the delegates. and the convention adjourn
ed
AZ the Chicago convention which no7al-
mated Grover Cleveland Tor the third tine
the galleries acted diSgracefuiiy They
we're fer Grover. ana whenever a speaker
opposed TO him Was on tho tiocr they inter.
Turted him with shouts and cries until, In
almost every case. he sat down nnhaar3
Senator JOAN w Daniel went Down before
the moh IN this way, but Beurks Cochran
fought IL out and got hearing from the
snlien galleries
The antt.Cleveland men wanted Is gain
time nv adjournment 50 that new com
ccula he made. Ne one viii over
know whether they had the votes 90 cause
an adjournment, Tor u was the galleries
that voted NE" IN great unraar Of
sound and left the presiting otncer 10
OPTION but 70 declare that the motiaa had
49, Thus fha al sasaf.4s.