The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-02-25

~ l
to decide for themselves. The essen
tial thing is for the contestants to get
their votes into the Office and If there
are any votes being held out now
and one who has been watching the
contest would be justified in assuming
that there are-why they had better
be gotten to the contest office in time.
The contest will close at the stroke
of IL o'clock midnight Saturday Votes
handed over the contest counter at
1901 will get nothing but a tired
smile from a tired clerk. Votes that
are mailed a minute too late will be
Of no avail. If the contestants will
keep that in mind The News does not
care IL the votes do not come in until
11:59 IL Saturday night. But If the
contest editor was contestant instead |
of a mere-looker-on, he would not take |
chance on getting his vote in at that |
time. There is nothing like having a |
little lee-way. He would not wait until |
the last minute before closing his list.
| He would cut off few hours at the
| finish and give himself that much time
in case of accidents. Trains go wrong;
/ crowds sometimes hustle a man so
that he cannot get through. There
was a fearful ballad once on time,
entitled, 1.-The Pardon came too Late"
Well votes that come in too late will
be of exactly as much avail as the
pardon was to the fellow that was
hanged. The News will make every
possible provision to take care of the
people who bring in their votes per
sonally Saturday night. 1t will pro-
vide sufficient clerical force and II
will see that no time is wasted and
that every woman who gets in on time
has those votes counted. But it can
not put the clock back, and 1t is ut
terly helpless so far as accepting votes
/ that are overdue.
1t won't do candidate bit of good
to have few hundred thousand votes
all ready to cast and keep them too
long. When the girl who cast her bal
lots is "jingling the bag of gold, and
the other playing on that fine Werlein
Piano etc." it won't help you a bit
to say: Il had enough votes to beat
that girl but couldn't get them in"
And the contest editor is not going to
indulge in any reminiscent sympathy
when this is all over. There will be
congratulations for the winners and
admiration for those who made a good
fight and went down in defeat, but
: there will be nothing doing for the
candidates who fail to get their votes
in in time to have them counted.
You see The News has no discretion
in the matter. When the polls are
closed they are closed to stay closed,
and that is all there is to it.
Thefaaever was contest which ex-
cited quite the interest that this pres
ent one has. 1t is not only a matter
of individual preference, but cities,
towns and counties are lining up be-
hind candidates. 1t is certain that
there will be hot finish so far as the
News is concerned, There will be a
lot of people about and it will not 1e
easy by any means to dispose of the
crowd. The News desires everyone
present to give the contestants enough
space and not crowd the contest office
too much.
But Two Days Remain.
Friday and Saturday are the remain
ing days in The News Great Contest.
On Saturday night at ~ o'clock sharp
the contest closes. The candidates
have done nobly up to date and their
efforts are not relaxing during the re-
naming days. Subscriptions are pour
ing into the contest office and thou
sands of votes are going into the re-
serve. A little help now will be worth
a barrel Of consolation after the RAGE
is over.
/, Open Evenings.
For the benefit of those who are not
able to get to the contest office during
the day, the contest office will remain
open from 1880 p. m. til 1000 p. m.