The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-11-06
THE WIND-UP OF THE CAMPAIGN
SaSf'@Y n0 oOnoaY Preceding Presidential
at National

No matter how quiet a presidential
contest may be. its wind up-election
nights bound to be strenuous and
flll of excitement. and the present
campaign will be no exception to the
general rule. And, no matter how
differently things have been con-
Quoted this year. the excitement that
attends the counting of the votes and
the sending and receiving of the re-
turns, all over the country will con-
centrate itself as usual at the national
headquarters Of the two big parties.
Each of these places, separated ply
sically by the space of less than a
quarter of a mile, will be a sort of vor-
tex, around which will swirl the hopes
and fears. the uncertainty and the
doubt of all those who have striven in
vain for several months to galvanize
what will go down into history as a
campaign of silence" into the SEM
blance of a genuine. old-fashioned, hot
political fight.
Quiet Days Before the Voting.
At headquarters the last few days of
all campaigns are singularly alike. On
the Saturday preceding the election
everybody agrees that though two
days intervene before the fateful show
er of ballots can fall into the boxes.
still. beyond the usual Saturday night
rallies and parades, nothing further
can possibly be done by the commit
tee to influence the voters. Develop
ments of great importance may make
themselves felt. work already done by
both friends and foes may bear fruit,
but these can neither be hurried nor
nullifled. Virtually, though no one
can say with certainty which way it
will fall. the die is already cast.
On Saturday afternoon. then, the
committee members and their assist
ants of every grade-prominent party
men from various sections of the coun-
try who have served without monetary
reward and hired employees of every
sort-all knock off early and betake
themselves to other scenes. Commit
teemen and others near enough their
own towns to get 'home to vote" hast
en- away to take their trains. Those
too far away from home for this. or
who are needed at headquarters on
Monday to keep up a pretense of ac-
tivity, betake themselves to the metro
politan resorts they have learned to
frequent during the campaigns contin-
uance.
Holding the Headquarters.
To them Saturday evening, Sunday
and Monday drag along on leaden feet.
Perhaps there is no more depressed
and depressing crowd in all the world
than the corporal's guard of political
workers, hired and otherwise, whose
duty it is to hold the Notifications at
headquarters on the Monday before
presidential election. Sometimes, driv-
en- to some sort of activity just to les
sen the tension they hire drays and
men, and scatter through metropoli-
tan streets whatever they have left
in the way of campaign documents"
Sometimes they simply NOPE around
and make each other miserable. Some
times though of course no committee
man ever countenances such a thing,
they seclude themselves in some mac
cessible room and indulge in the UNI
certainties of a good old game of draw.
Election day is not like Monday.
Nothing at all is doing at headquar-
ters. usually on that day till well
along toward noon. Soon after that
hour the attaches begin to drift in and
take their places at the desks they
will Occupy only a few hours more.
Later some of those who have been
home to vote come scurrying in. The
press bureau opens up in order to give
out it's last Jolly to the afternoon
newspaper reporters.
Getting Ready for the Battle.
Telephone and telegraph line men
bring wires into the place. Other en-
poyes of the news transmission organ
izations install extra Morse and Bell
Instruments. Messenger boys troop
through the doors in droves, bringing
kilograms from the four corners of the
land to the chairman, who probably.
has been entrenched in his inner Of
flee since some early hour in the day.
BY or o'clock the place is fairly
we'll filled with the committee, it's staff
and a small army of friends. By the
time lights are turned on the atmos-
phere has become strained, with sort
of electrical tension. No one thinks
of going out to dinner-the meal is
brought in. For the chairman and the
committeeman it comes on great drap-
ed trays in covered dishes from some
noted nearby hotel or restaurant. For
the others it comes in all sorts of
shapes down to ''hot dog" and rolls.
Meanwhile, arrangements have been
completed to receive and analyze the