The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-22

fter one of the most exciting and A intensely interesting primary cleo { \ tions in the history of municipal politics in Birmingham George B. Ward leads the ticket for mayor by a large vote. Failing to receive a majority second primary will be necessary to de- eide between him and Charles s. Sim mons as to who shall be given the nomi- nation.
 MT. Ward received l252 votes, MT. Sim mons 7sS, MT O'Neill 5s4, MT. Forney 17S and Mir Crittenden IF.
 Notwithstanding the rain and slush a total of 2929 votes were cast which Is just 91 less than the number registered. This is considered the largest vote, based on registration, ever brought out in Birming- ham. It is true quite a number of voters were registered on the day of the primary but even this number, which is about 200 would not prevent the vote from being a record breaker.
 The heavy vote was due largely to the exciting contests for aldermen in sev- eral of the wards, besides the numerous candidates for minor offices, who have worked for weeks to get their friends to the polls.
 The vote received by MT. Ward was surprising, as numerous even money bets had been made that the second primary would be between Simmons and O'Neill. MT. Ward, however, developed great strength towards the close os the cam paign. and before o'clock yesterday
 
 would be the man they would have to defeat If they entertained hopes of win ming.
 According to the number of votes cast 1t would have been necessary for MT. Ward to have gotten 1465 votes to have received a majority, that being one more than half the number boiled. MT. Ward, receiving l252, lacked just 213 of having clear majority.
 Other than his statement given out early in the night that he believed he would receive 1500 votes, Mir Ward had nothing to say. He will probably give out a statement today His friends are very jubilant, and were predicting last night that there would be no second primary. They asserted the belief that MT. Simmons would withdraw.
 Henry R. Howze, manager of MT. Simmons campaign, said:
 "Of course, we are somewhat surprised at MT. Ward'es vote, but you can state that MT Simmons is still in the race and there will be a second primary. We are in the fight to stay and believe we will have a majority of the votes next Mon day"
 The other candidates had nothing to say concerning the result. The friends of Crittenden and Forney say that the small vote received by them was largely due to the fact that the other three can didates were considered in close fight and that their friends believed that to make their votes count they would have to be cast for the three stronger men.
 The AIdermanic Race.
 The folio ving aldermen have been nom- inated: Greener in the First, simon Klotz in the Second D. R. Copeland in the Third, Gum in the Fifth. Fulghum in the sixth, John L. Parker In the Seventh, Henry B. Gray in the Eighth, Stockmar in the ninth.
 In the fourth no candidate received majority and second primary is neces- sary.
 The most exciting of these races oc- cured in the Fifth, Seventh Eighth and Sixth wards In the Fifth Alderman Gum defeated R. N. Wheeler by 80 votes after one of the hardest fought campaigns in the history of Birmingham politics. It is said that more than s10,000 have changed hands as a result of Gums renomina- tion-
 In the Seventh 1t was hard fight all Cay between Alderman Thach and John l.. Parker MT. Graham only received Is votes and Parker had clear majority over both his opponents.
 When 1t was discovered that R. F. Cooper was polling heavy vote in the