The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-04-14

other day in the Secretary of States
Office, which is strongly illustrative,
both of the ruling passion of the
average Fusion Republican patriot,
and of the carelessness and utter
disregard of the requirements of the
law which have characterized tteir
conduct throughout in the prepara-
ton of their nomination papers.
1t seems that when it became neces-
sary to secure signatures to the
nomination papers of the Caffery
ticket it was the desire of the pro-
noters to have the signatures dis
tributed as widely as possible
tn roughout the State, and in pursu-
ance of this purpose the work of OBJ
tanning signatures in Winn parish
was turned over to MIR. w. B.
Bailey, the editor of the VIM
Comrade and candidate for a
local Office. Editor Bailey appar-
emily worked with assiduity and got
a goodly number of signatures upon
a blank form that had been fur
nished him for the purpose, and
forwarded them to the Caffery COM
mittee in New Orleans, by whom
they were in turn brought to the
Secretary of State to be filed, as
the law directs. A few evenings
since the Advocate representative
was examining papers to learn some
thing about the nature of the howls
being sent Ut by the Caffery-Shoal
ars revolutionary junta, when his
attention was directed to the papers
which had come in from Winn par
lsh. The blank forms which had
been furnished had been filled out
with signatures and a sheet of fools
cap had been pasted on the bottom
of the sheet on which five addition
al signatures appeared. On the re-
foolscap was the following letter,
which was evidently intended for
the chairman of the campaign COM
mittee in New Orleans:
519-19oo.
..This is the best l could do. I
am now in Baton Rouge. l have
succeeded in securing our place on
the official ballot. The meeting at
Winfield was good one. 1t cost
$25 for hack hire; 81. 10 expenses
for hack drivers and horses. l run
500 circulars and distributed them.
S25 should go to Gunby and $40
should come to me. l have written
you several times lately, but can't
hear from you at all. What's the
matter? My folks are all sick. How
is the fight going?
Yours,
w. B. BAILEY"
Doubtless the author of this inter-
esting epistle expected the chairman
of the committee would tear off the
portion of the paper containing the
letter, and send the "rhino," for
which he SO anxiously importuned,
by the next mail But the stony
hearted chairman turned deaf ear
to this appeal for the Glue for 'Fme
and Gunby," and fired up the pa
pers, including the querulous letter
from the anxious Bailey, to the
Secretary of State, there to be
placed on file and to become a part
of the records of the State. There
are volumes hidden between the
lines in this pathetic appeal for the
stuff TO the big Republican daddy
sitting among the money-bags in
New Orleans. Those horny-hand-
ed sons of toll, Gunby and Bailey,
had been out in the highways and
by-ways of the remote country dis
tricts engaged in awakening the ma
tives to a sense of their peril; they
had been talking and wrestling and
PRAYING with the obdurate, and
Bailey, to use his own elegant ex-
preston, 'srun off" goodness knows
how many circulars. They had
called into requisition hacks and
horses and drivers and, in addition
to all this, Bailey had taken the
trouble to write this earnest epistle
1nquiring sswhat's the matter?" and
chow is the fight going" and tor
all this he only demanded $35--
"$25 for Gunby and $40 for me-"
We can imagine the sense of infin