The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-11-06
BY JOHN S. PARRISH.

ngures as they are licked off by the
Telegraph or told by the telephone. Fsy-
cry man has some sort of a tabulation
OF nSures, based on previous elections.
Win which he can make comparisons.
Inc chairman, the committee. half a
dozen of the most trusted employees
ana a few party pillars barricade
themselves in the innermost room. Ev-
e-yDody smokes at the committees ex-
pense, and long before the first tell
tale tick of the Morse is heard the air
is blue from the combustion of high
priced cigars. Some of the workers
are so wrought up that they puff away
In silence, but more talk with one an
other in subdued tones lest the ten
sion become too great to bear.
when the Returns Come In.
The news began to arrive at one
committee headquarters on election
night, not many years ago, soon after
Z O'Clock. 1t was from a New York
precinct. and. of course, it was dis
counted. Everyone knows how New
York city goes in practically every
election, and this was not an excep-
tlonal year. Still, the size of the ma
Jority in that particular district was
thought to be significant, and the fig
urers got out their pencils and began
- NAA"AtAA' "A 4ANNAC AcbACk hlIlSS
(Brooklyn) was heard from. Then
there was news from New England,
then New Jersey, then from "up state"
in New York.
The very early figures seemed fav-
orable to the candidate for whom all
present had worked throughout the
campaign, and the evening opened with
something like cheerfulness, but by 8
o'clock there was a decided change.
The telephone brought the first de-
cidedly bad news. 1t was so at vari-
ance with what one dignified old COM
mitteeman expected that he jumped
from his arm chair swearing that the
operator who had called out the fig
ures was either drunk or crazy. The
operator CHANGED to be a youngster
of some spirit, and he promptly re-
ported that he couldn't stand for any
talk of that sort" The committeeman
apologized. but he pulled from his
pocket big wad of gold certificates
and passed them feverishly to his son,
who was present.
BOIstered Up With Bets.
Here, Bob!" cried the committee
man, take this roll and go out on the
avenue with it, If you met any of the
other fellows just offer 'em two to
one that the news we have just heard
is all wrong. Everybody knows it's
an Internal lie!' Then he cried with
the lack of logic to which even ma
tional committeeman are sometimes
given, Bluff 'em, d 'em! Bluff
'eml'
a groan, to return fifteen or twenty
minutes later with the roll intact and
a grin on his face.
Il bluffed 'em, dad. blu it wasn't
easy. I wouldn't try it again, either,
for the bulletins are showing figures
that are pulling down the mercury
pretty FAST"
By this time more bad news had
been received at headquarters, the tel
egraph having added a few sinister
clicks to the telephones discouraging
words. A moment later tremendously
depressing news from the Middle West
man in early middle life sprang out
of his chair as if electrified.
Great God!" he almost sobbed,
my father would break out of his
grave sure if only he were to hear
that news"
Years afterward this man was kill
ed by the bullet of a hostile native
under tropical skies, but his friends
say he faced death itself with far
more cOmpOSure imam ne listened TO
the unfavorable returns which came
all the rest of that night with scarcely
an instant's respite.
When the Result Is Defeat.
By 10 o'clock the newsswas so bad
that everybody gave UP further figur-
ing, and nearly everybody conceded
the election to the other side. This
state of things had barely been adj
mitted when a strange tumult was
heard on the ground floor of the build
ing which housed the committee.
At first there was the confused
tramp of many feet and the hum of
many voices, punctuated with an occa-
sional whoop of. defiance and exulta-
ton. The faithful band in the upper
room hardly had time to wonder what
all the row was about before its cause
was made perfectly clear. A delegation
from the other headquarters, cheered
by the news which was as favorable
to the one side as unfavorable to the
other, and reinforced by a hundred or
two men from the street, had invaded
the place. Presently the din resolved
itself into a rythmical beat-tramp
-tramp-tramp, tramp, tramp-ac-