The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-01-18
BOTH TRAGEDY AND COMEDY
SCENES ATTENDING PAYING OF
FINES BY VOTE SELLERS.
Fourteen Hundred Are Guilty

Men Waited Half an Hour in Line
10 Deposit Their sentence Slips
All Election Corruption Methods
Broken in Ohio Prosecutions.
WEST UNION, Ohio.-Twenty-fVe
penitent and self-confessed vote-sell-
ers. who were waiting for him at
PEBBLES when he returned today to
the county seat from his home at
Portsmouth, were tried by Judge
Blair before daybreak. Court was
held in the lobby of hotel and the
men thus spared the fourteen mile
overland journey to this village.
When Judge Blair arrived here he
found seventy-fve others ready to
acknowledge their guilt, To the 100
he gave the customary fine Of s. and
five years disfranchisement. The
days work brings the total number
of those found guilty up to 1,426.
The total number of indicted is l.
648.
Never before in the history of Ad-
ans county was the Office of county
clerk so congested with work as dur
ing the period of the remarkable in
fux of purchased voters to the coun-
ty seat to plead before Judge Blair
and deposit their fines with the
clerk. Three assistants were i'm
pressed into service by Clerk Gar
man, and many times men waited
half an hour or longer in line before
they could deposit their sentence
slips" and pay their fines.
One wondered why many of these
people. some with the external evil
dences of poverty, raised the money
to meet their fines. Many Of them
were day labOrers, working for
mere pittance; others were small
farmers cultiyating a few acres
planted to tobacco; scores of them,
except on election day, rarely hand
led money at all, pledging their
growing crops in barter for the nee
essaries of life they needed from the
stores. To many Of them the pay
ment of their fines and cost was a
severe punishment.
One man who paid his fine raised
it by selling two pigs, which were
the only live stock he had. In some
cases the men who bought their votes
came forward and paid the money
out of their own pockets. One polit-
ical leader made the public state
ment that he would pay the fine Of
anyone whom he had purchased to
vote for him in case the person was
unable to meet the obligation. And
this feeling prevailed generally
throughout the township.
There were some amusing Incl
dents connected with the payment
of the fines. For instance, Uncle
Freddie, a village character, when
before Judge Blair admitted that he
was paid $25 for his Vote-which
was the largest amount given to any
voter at the last election. And how
much of it have you got now?" the
judge inquired. Shaping his hand
on his pocket Uncle Freddie replied
that he had still $12. Then | fine
you $40 and costs, said the Judge,
and Uncle Freddie, with a rueful
face soon appeared before the clerk
with the balance OF his bride money,
to which he had TO add several more
dollars for costs.
Another man, William Brooks, of
BentOnville, who is an old soldier,
after paying his fine remarked: ON
~ just think of having to pay a fine
Without having sold your vote at
Ill. l was paid S. for voting my
own ticket, which wasn't selling my
vote"
Still another man paid fine who
confessed to Judge Blair that he did
not know his vote was bought until
he went home and found a stray IS
bill in his pocket.
There was another man who paid
a fine of $40, although he did not
vote at all. He had merely taken So
80 absent himself from the polls.
And so the story ran with its
tragedies and its comedies and it's in
teresting sidelights upon almost ev-
cry phase of human character.