Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-16
ELKINS' DESPERATION.
PARKERsBURG, W. Va, Oct. i

Sir:-It is amusing to see the ex-
IRENE desperation of the efforts OF Mr..
| Elkins to carry the Legislature. He
! has evidently given up all hop@if ne
! ever cared enough to hope-of carrying
| the State either for the national or
| State ticket, and is concentrating his
forces in the close Democratic coun-
ties and close Senatorial districts. The
! Fourth Senatorial district, now repre-
sented by Senators Dotson and Kidd,
and in which Dotson is a candidate for
reelection, is a bright and shining
mark for Elkins's trained political eye.
1t comprises the counties of Peasants,
Wood, Writ, Calhount and Gilmer.
Wood is the only Republican county in
the district, and in 1898 it came within
less than 200 votes of giving a Repub-
lican majority sufficient to cover the
Democratic majorities in the other four
counties.
Peasants county is Democratic by
probably not more than 100, Writ by
$50 to 200, Calhoun by 800 to $50, and
Gilmer by about 400. Mr.. Elkins's idea
! is to make his main fight in the three
close counties of Peasants, Writ and
Calhoun, with the double purpose OF
e~lecting the delegate from each Of
those counties and so reducing the
Democratic vote in each as to elect
the Republican in the Senatorial dis
trict. He is playing for big stakes.
Since Mr.. Elkins has found that he is
out of the game in Kanawha county
that the insurgents down there are i'm
previous alike to his Establishments and
/ cajolery, made to them in person, and
the more substantial inducements held
out by proxy to some of their leaders
members of the County Court, for In
stance-he has redoubled the vigor Of
his attack on this district, as though
to make reprisal for the loss inevitable
in the Ninth.
In his desperate straits he uses the
Republican Gubernatorial candidate as
a pawn, and the acting Vice President
of the United States, Senator Frye, as
a stouter.
On Thursday last Acting Vice Presi-
dent Frye and Hon. A. B. White went
up to Elizabeth, in Writ county, and
made speeches to a handful of people.
From there they drove some thirty or
forty miles to Grantsville the county
seat of Calhoun county, at which place,
although Judge Billiards. court was in
session, the handful would be repre-
sented by a smaller hand.
At each Of these points Acting Vice
! President Frye devoted his remarks
almost entirely to the Hon. Stephen
B. Elkins. He said he had come all
the way down here from his far distant
home in the summer snow-clad peaks
of the State of Maine to tell the people
of West Virginia that they must
for the Republican candidates for State
| Senate and House of Delegates, so they
can send Mr.. Elkins back to the United
States Senate. He told them what a
terrific blow, what a national calamity
it would be if Stephen should get lost
in the shuttle.
| The Acting Vice President was jam
med, jolted and disgruntled, and did
not talk much. He her drove some
thirty or forty more miles to Spencer,
in Roane county, where he and Mr..
White spoke yesterday. When Acting
Vice President Frye reached Spencer
he was worse damned, worse jolted and
worse ~disgruntled, and talked less. He
remarked for ten or fifteen minutes
upon the virtues of Mr.. Elkins and the
paramountness above all paramountcy,
of sending men to the Legislature who
would send him to the Senate. It is
said that the Acting Vice President of
the United States is mad. But when he
and Mr.. Elkins meet again at the Mil
lionaires' Club, Stephen will fix 1t uD
with him. LOOKER-ON.