West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1900-04-26
RING RULE AND RAscALurY.
A sample OF the Methods Used TO De-
feat Ex-Sheriff Shaw.


Sheriff has at last attained his
hearts desire and now sings
This is the way long have sought.
And mourncd because found IL not.
James A. Lenhart now has a first
mortgage on the Office of Sheriff.
and his opponent Leroy Shaw, is
badly dis6gured, but not in the
Ring. He will never enter the
Ring, but prefers to fight on the
outside, where he has more room to
spread himself. He fell this time
just outside the breastworks, as he
fought valiantIy right up to the end,
and like the Beers in South Africa,
he put up good fight against big
odds. He had no one hardly to
help him, while the Ring brought
the earth and-not heaven. but the
other place-to bear against him.
Every little one horse official in the
county was fighting him and the
Ring had issued an edict that he
must be defeated this time. no diff
ference what it cost or how it was
done. Then Lenhart was desperate
and willing for anything. 1t was
his third and last chance for Sheriff.
an Office he had set his heart on years
ago, and although he is naturally
close and lets go of money with
great reluctance, it is estimated he
spent thousand dollars in this
campaign and promised deputy
ships to three or four men in every
district. This will make lots of
trouble for him now and he will
want the office with McGinty.
at the bottom of the sea, before he
gets done with it.
Some of the methods used to
defeat Shaw would do credit to the
Dave Martin Ring of Reporters in
Philadelphia, or Quay politics in
general. Some kind of lie was
circulated in every section of the
county and it was utterly impossible
to keep up with them. But the
dirtiest, meanesi, slickest and most
disastrous trick TO Leroy was
worked on him by HIS OWN BROTHER.
who as sly and sneaking tool of
the Ring, was able TO do untold
harm. This base migrate was no
other than ex-Judge Joseph Nj.
Shaw, who used to be Deputy for
LeRoy down in Pleasant district
and came out SO far behind the first
year that his bondsmen gave him up
and refused to carry him any further.
Leroy made it good and gave him
another show and allowed him to go
on part of another year without any
bond and when he finally had to
give up and admit that he couldn't
give another bond and left LEROY
several hundred dollars in the hole.
which he has never received cent
of yet and likely never will, and
ever since the Judge has had it in
for Lee, because the latter specially
favored him and lost lot of money
on him. In this campaign he
travelled over the county as fast and
as sneaking as he could, passing
himself off everywhere as special
worker for his brother and telling
everywhere that he had canvassed
the county and found that Leroy
had no show whatever and that he
had written him a letter to that
effect and that he would be out of
the fight at the last minute and his
name would not be on The ticket. or
be marked off if it was. Being a
brother TO Leroy and eveyone
knowing it, and where they didn't
he told them, gave full faith and
credence to his story and did far
more harm than all the open work
against him he could possibly have
done.
But now here is where the fine
work of the Ring came in. They
had four or five times as many
tickets printed as we're needed, and
instead of all of them being turned
over to the election officers, hun
dreds of tickets were placed in the
hands of SPECIAL Ring heelers at
many voting places where the
Judge had "fxed LeRoy's clock, y
with his name erased from the
ticket, and the Ring workers took
care to place these in the hands Of
many Of Shaw's and all doubtful
voters as possible, and with the
story of his own brother that he
would be off at the last minute and
his name erased from the ticket,
still fresh in their minds, what else
would they do but vote for the Ring
candidate and be taken in on the
slickest trick ever worked in the
county. The Judge took good care
not to get in front Of Leroy, but TO