Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-08-07
CELESTIAL VOTERS.
HOW THEY ELECTED THE WRONG
MAN MAYOR or BALLARAT.


a Political Scheme which Brought
Disaster To Its Perpetrators and
Furnished Lots of Fun Ftr tho.
Winner and His Friends.
In the early ffties, when what is now
the Australian colony OF Victoria was
the Mecca for many of the gold hunters
Of the world, "a tent town" called Bal
Ilarat, now a beautiful and thriving city,
grew up like a mushroom in the night.
Ballarat men We're prosperous, and the
wonderful placer mines yielded fortune
after fortune till at last the increasing
importance of the settlement demanded
some sort OF organization in the govern
1nent of its local affairs
For year Flaw and order CORPS"
q body of men formed for the same pur-
poses and very similar in every way to
the old California vigilance committee,
had exercised the only authority that
the place had ever known. But the
miners wanted something more advanc-l
ed, and it was finally decided to elect
mayor for six months, lust to see how
!. IL went and to give the man chosen
| for the position power to decide on the
number of municipal officers he wanted
to help him in his administration. Then
they would nominate and elect enough
people to fill the places.
/ The story of the way the first mayor
of Balarat carried his election forms
Ia unique incident in the history of the
vote by ballot and, as it has never APP
peared in print, may be worth the tell-
/ ing.
There were two candidates for the
/ place, Edward Warburton, Scotch min
ling engineer, and Evan Tomlinson, call
i ed by the irreverent Smooth Tommy"
I Both men were wealthy. and each was
1 popular in the community, but Tomlin-
son had the advantage of being born
politician. There We're about 5000 white
men in the settlement and, i'll addition
to these, Ballarat had its Chinatown
up on one of the hills, with population
LOT 500 The spirit of democracy was
very strong among the cosmopolitan
crowd of miners.
Iomlinson had figured out that the
vote for mayor would probably be very
/ closely divided between himself and his
Icpponeat. and as three-fourths of the
\ Chinese We're working on claims owned
i by himself and his brother he made up
his mind that the only way to make his
i election certain was to get the consent
of the free and independent" to a prop
osition to allow the Celestials to cast
their ballots with the whites.
4 Warburton and his supporters, realiz-
4 ing that such concession would mean n
idea. but Smooth Tommy had the ear
.gf,F NJ low
corps, who were running the preinlina-
st5ties. and Warburton's protests were over
p ruled.
.liiamy Barrett. a roustabout specula-
tor, was installed as clerk Of election.
! The ballot boxes were five old fashioned
i leather portmanteans, with Sits in the
sides, and the ballots were small printed
Slips of.this character:
Tomlinsen OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. o
Warburton ............... ...............
Election day came. The Chinese were
well in hand and had been thoroughly
q drilled into what they had to do. Tom
q linson had explained carefully through
their interpreters that every man. in or
der to vote the right way, would have IL
mark n cross inside the square following
the top name on the card. The interpret
the top name idea on their men. and
they understood the lesson thoroughly
a Each Voter WAS to approach the table
on which the portmanteaus sat i'm ful
view of the crowd and on being handed
Il his ballot by Barrett was to deposit il
after making his cross.
Some OF Warburton's long headed
Il friends had found ont all about the in
structions to the Chinese, and they got
lat Mr.. Barrett and bought that gentle
man, body and boots. TO help them carry
8Fout a little plot that they had devised 10,
u the benefit Of their candidate. ii was
very simple. All that the clerk had 10
do was to hand out n ticket, upside
down, to every Chinainan who came
along to vote. 1t was a slim chance
that the conspirators were depending
on--simply the belief that the Chinese
would carry out their literal instrnc
tons and insert their crosses on what
they believed was the top square of the
card. That tie square appeared on thu
left hand side OF the name would proba
4 bly, strike the Chinese voters as bein.
S perfectly natural. according TO their owl
method of pcnmanship. Barrett fulfilled
his part on the contract III very thor
Eough manner.
81 The Tomlinson adherents. who hat
watched nearly 500 Cinnamon march NJ
TO the polls ard seemingly carry out theil
promises, thought that the election was
as good rs settled, and many of then
We're making merry over the prospect ii
Fthe tent saloons along the Ballarat ten
dcrloin long before the polls We're closed
Their joy was short lived. Warburtot
was elected by Il majority of nearly Irt
lvotes-savsd by his opponents own In
borers. Old miners say that after tt,
result was declared and when Tomlinsol
, found ont Ill about the double cross,
or. rather. tie single cross, that had beer
, worked on him he walked up the hill u
Chinatown and, standing among tht
shncks OF his almond eyed vassa!s. reay
the riot act 10 them with fiery eloquence
Even wlieH he called them DUNDEE
headed, blithering Monsolian IDIOTS the.
smiled sadly and We're unmoved. III,
might as well have been talking Gaeli,
for all they understood.
That wis the last that Ballarat q
! Australia eyer heard of the Chinese SUI.
frage proposition. Chicago Times Her
) aid.
QUICK GUN PLAY.
1t Saved Government Detective'
I V,,n