The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-20

with the man who dopes the story of
the game
Edward Branch Lyman in the New York
Sun.
Record of Popular Vote.
In a paragraph going the rounds of
the press 1t is stated as a politically Gu
rious fact that no record was made of
the popular vote Of the United States
for president previous to 1924, and
tnat the vote in that year was but
So2,o62, or less than that cast by
Kansas In 1904. AS to making-that
IS compiling-an official record of the
popular vote, it may be said that only
AFTER 1887 was the operation rendered
possible by federal statute. In that
year a law was passed requiring the
governors OF states within a certain
specif1ed time to file with the state de-
partment return of the votes cast for
every candidate for presidential cleo
tor
The popular vote for president was in
the earlier period of government I'M
der the constitution technically non
existent in many states, for the simple
reason that in many of them the cleo
tors were chosen by the legislatures.
There having been no previous nomin-
alton for the presidency, and the cleo
tors being still supposed to be an indie
pendent body. differentiation between
the vote for legislators and president
was impossible. In those early, pre-
convention days the action of the cleo
tors might be inferred from existing
public opinion, but the statistical basis
such as we now have was lacking.
In 1895, when John Adams was
chosen to succeed Washington, ten
states appointed" their electors by the
legislature. system which survived in
South Carolina until the civil war. The
election machinery in the early days
was primitive in some states and in
others had not been provided In 1888
an attempt was made to hold a pop
ular election in Massachusetts,, but
| there was so much doubt as to its le-
gality and as to the law that the legis-
lature cut the knot by appointing the
electors itself. and similar was the
course ultimately followed in New
Hampshire
stages of our political development
refrained from going to the polls be-
cause they did not know how or for
whom to vote is very probable, but it
| is also evident that at first there was
a good deal of apathy as to the exer-
| else Of a freeman's privilege. On no
other supposition is 1t possible to &C
count for only about 1900 votes being
| cast in Pennsylvania in 1892, and yet
the records show no more. The as
| sumption that the records are entirely
Trustworthy is, however, dangerous, for
statistics was then as a science in a
very elementry state. Nevertheless.
this circumstance alone is indicative of
| the Pennsylvanians of that day taking
their national politics very easily and
reserving their excitement for local
contests.-Boston Transcript.
Travel and Nervousness.
In the case of railway accidents ii
is not seldom observed that people
only slightly injured, or who even have
received no apparent injuries at all,
| later show signs of nervous troubles
which there was no reason to foresee.
Until now 1t has been thought that
an accident, accompanied by fright or
| nervous excitation, was necessary to
cause the appearance at a more or less
distant date of the psychic motor and
tsensory troubles characteristic OF
! railway spine" of traumatic neuras-
| thenia. But in addition 60 the fact
| that the sudden stoppage of a train
causing a shock against the seats o.
| the sides of the carriage suffices to
produce it, interesting Investigations
| have also proved that prolonged or
very frequent railway journeys may
have the same effect as accidents or
derailings, that Is to say, they are
4
| troubles which recall by their charac-
teristics the neurosis produced by
| traumatism, nervous troubles, which
it seems proper to designate by the
term railway neurosis."
| Observations of this neurosis have
often been recorded There is the case
of a railway employe, S3 years of age,
who had been travelling almost con-
| tinually for eleven years, and had to
go into hospital suffering from violent
1
in the back of the neck. the back. the
loins. and the lower limbs. The head
ache lasted all day and sometimes
even all night and increased when the
patient worked with his head bent
1.-The railway. The patient further COM
planned of weakening of sight, hear
| ing. and memory and of breathless-
ness and buzzing in the ears.
| Another case Is that of a man As
years old, an engineer. who for four
years passed all his time on the rail-
health, until that age, who began to
ing feeling of fear, weakening of sight
shivering. giddiness and ill-humor
The patient changed his professaea
but in spite of that the troubles en-
| tinued.
Thus, in the first case. the contin-
uaf travelling on the railway sufficed
b1es. In the second case this travelling
was the. occasional cause of them
| Paris Edition OF New York Herald.