Gloucester County Democrat., 1902-05-22

and under its provisions the house of dele
gates and council of the city were con-
stantly making demands upon the board
of police commissioners to name the new
appointees when they were made.
Mr.. Bowie then quotes at length from
the fair and stringent provisions of
the Nesbit election law and begins his
comment thereon as follows:
1t is impossible to conceive any statute
which would make false registration more
difficult or more sure of detection than the
provisions of this statute which we have
just quoted, and yet, according to the
contention of the majority in this case,
notwithstanding the purging of the lists
which was done by these clerks in every
precinct of the district, there were still
over 1900 men left there who fraudulent
ly registered, if the McBurney canvass is
reliable.
The 'McBurney' canvass was made
for the purpose of showing that Butler
had registered 14,000 straw voters!
Evidently there were few cases of
fraudulent registration, for here is evil
dence of it:
Hardly Democratic Votes.
One of the worst cases reported is
shown in the testimony of Prentiss Trow-
bridge. He says that there were fifteen
men registered at 3004 Manchester avenue;
that he was informed by l. H. Bradbury,
who lived there, that ten of the men did
not live there. This was the headquarters
of the Republican party in that precinct.
Under the peculiar legal construc-
tions made by Republicans for cam
paign purposes it seems that it is even
criminal to die so soon after an elec-
ton that the hired canvasser fails to
find the voter at his home. whereat he
is put down as having been falsely reg
istered. Mr.. Bowie says
Mr.. Shapleigh, a man who was known
all over the United States is put down as
a fraud in this canvass. He was guilty of
no other offense than that he died two
months after the election. Mr.. Thomas c.
Henning, lawyer of the city of ST. Louis,
who resided at the Jefferson club, was put
down as fraud because the canvasser err
roneously marked him as 'T Henning."
Young Mr.. Henning is a close per-
sonal friend of Colonel Harry B.
Hawes and is well known stump or
ator. Mr.. Shapleigh was at the head
of the great Shapleigh Hardware COM
pany.
Some of the challengers on the day
Of the election had list and started
to challenge every man who offered to
vote. Public feeling ran very high be
cause of this outrage. and very natural
ly meeting of representative Demo-
Gratis, most of whom were lawyers,
was called at the Southern hotel two
or three nights before the election
(seme witnesses say it was Sunday
night. others give u different date to
discuss and consider what rights the
Democratic party had left in st. Louis,
if any.
Since that meeting at the Southern
hotel the situation has been relieved to
some extent, as a number of the Re
publican tricksters are under indict-
ment for fraud and bribery, one is un-
der penitentiary sentence, while two
other ringleaders skipped their bond
and are now hiding in old Mexico. The
atmosphere is being cleared gradually,
and the situation has been somewhat
relieved. A number of the men who
made it practically impossible for q
Democrat to be elected to office in ST.
Louis under the corrupt Republican
ring rule will soon be receiving their
the finest penitentiaries in the world.