The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1908-11-04
G. O.P. HEADQUARTERS
POLITICAL BEE HIVE
Faithful Stay Up All Night
to Hear Election
Returns.
LAKE COUNTY MADE GOOD
Joy and Gloom Intermingle With
Various Reports-Wait for
Watson News.

And the next day it actually showed
Four o'clock in the morning found 200
deleriously happy republicans still
waiting for another fragment of news
from the outlayfng precincts, still hun
gering for another report of majority
for Jim Watson.
It was the fondest dream of the
Hammond boys that the county Of Lake
should give Mr.. Watson sufficient
majority to make up for the lack of
votes in the rest of the state and elect
him to the governorship.
Early in the evening they became
convinced that the county ticket was
safe and the interest was greatest
when a report came over the wires
which conveyed a bit of information,
no matter how meagre, that would
shed ray of light on the governor
ship race.
Reports Are Cheered.
| Every favorable report was greeted
with wild cheers and when early in
/ the evening it became apparent that
Mr.. Watson was engaged in one of the
most desperate political races that was
| ever run and that there was danger of
his defeat there was gloom everywhere.
/ There was not a man in that throng
whose admiration for the fighting nom
inee was not glowing to the point of
alteration. 1t was wonderful what
loyalty was to be seen everywhere
A favorable report would come in
and all of the vindictiveness would
turn to joy in the hope that after all
Jim Watson might yet occupy the gov
ernors chair.
But If the returns on the governor
ship were not satisfactory there was
plenty of balm in the way of glowing
reports on the national and state cleo
tions. Big Bill Taft and Sunny Jim
had everything their own way. All of
the Wellmanized bear stories about
doubtful state were laughed at and in
the county it was seen that there was
not much show for the Lake county
democrats.
Schaaf Had Splendid Organization.
| The splendid organization which had
been built up through the indefatigable
efforts of Richard Schaaf brought re-
suits and it was soon seen that what
appeared, early in the campaign. 10 be
a most remarkable success.
Field Marshall Richard Schaaf, jr.,
was cheered time and again by his ad-
miring cohorts His smile radiated
over the entire headquarters and the
crowds who came to hear him admir-
ingly watched him in his efforts to
collect the reports from the scatter
ing precincts.
-
became apparent early in the evening
that all was lost to the democracy of
the county. Even the prospect that
Marshall would be elected failed to
cheer the workers who had hoped and
believed that Carter, Simon and Becker
would be elected and who were finally
forced to admit with the exception OF
Becker. they had received a terrible
trouncing.
Along towards morning the sleepy
crowds in the republican headquarters
We're enthused by the information that
the reports from the country districts
were more favorable to Watson.
Many stay For Finish.
At one time he was said to be only
| 1000 votes behind and then only half
of the precincts in the state had been
heard from. At that time Lake county
: had estimated that its vote would be
but 1900 for Watson when in reality ii
proved to be twice as large.
) Lake county will save Watson" was
} the shout that went up on all sides
and again the crowd took a new inter
est in the returns. BY four o'clock il
! was certain that every candidate on the
republican ticket except Sam AbIeman
had been elected.
But the boys wanted to hear more
about Watson was coming on. The,
t knew they had delivered the goods II
\ him and they wanted to see what tbs
e rest of the state would do. At FIVE
E thirty in the morning there were still
r about a hundred persons who had re
mained to see the finish.