The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-25
BALTIMORE LEADS AS A
 PARITY CONVENTION CITY

| Today's Democratic national conven- tion in Baltimore will not find the people of the Monumental City inex- |perienced in the handling of. a great political gathering. The present aS- semblage is the seventeenth conven- tion of a major league" party to be held in the Maryland metropolis. In one Presidential year-back in 1892 the, three leading parties, Democrats, Republicans and Anti-Masons, all met in the old city on the Chesapeake. For period of score of years, from tional conventions were held in Bal timore. Chicago, beginning its con vention career with the Republican gathering that nominated Lipcoln, in 1860, ranks second to Baltimore, with a dozen conventions to it's credit. method. of nominating Presidential candidates, Philadelphia has had half a dozen big national partisan gather ings, and St. Louis one less. Indian apolis has been the choice on three occasions, and Cincinnati has had the same number, the Democratic conven- ton held in the Ohio city in 1856 hav- ing been the first important meeting of its kind west of the Alleghanies
 Cincinnati was also the scene of the memorable gathering of 1876, when Robert G. IngersOll made his brilliant but futile "plumed knight speech for James C.. Blaine. z. Buffalo has had have one convention each in their his tory include Charleston, Cleveland, Denver, Harrisburg, Kansas City, Minneapolis. New York. Omaha and Pittsburgh. z.sA riotous national convention in the po-. litical history of the United States. Fifty two years and two days ago to- day, June g, 1860 the Democrats con- vened in the Maryland citys Threats. of the impending struggle S between North and South were already Sins cir culation and found free expression on the floor of the convention in the Front Street Theatre. There were two would-be occupants for nearly every seat and the wrangling soon resulted in the use .of language decidedly un- parliamentary and in the exchange of blows. Chailenges to duels were. ire quent. On the second ballot stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, received 181 1s1-2 votes. In an attempt to placate the Southerners, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was. given the Vice Presi-4 dential nomination, but refused 1t: and the national committee nominated Herschel ". Johnson, of Georgia. The bolters and those who. had been refus- ed seats in the regular convention met in the Maryland Institute and nomi- mated John O. Breckinridge, of Ken lucky, for President. The denuncia- tions of Douglas. <, the little giant, were couched in terms that left noth-.. ing to the ina aginatiDn.
 Today is the sixth anniversary of the tragedy on the Madison Square Garden roof in which Stanford White. the eminent architect, was shot and killed by Harry Kendall Thaw. who is now seeking his freedom after hay. ing been confined over four years in the Asylum for the Criminal Insane at. Matteawan. N, r.. The two trials of the young Pittsburgh millionaire, the last of which resulted in his ac- quittal on the ground of insanity, were the most sensational in Ameri- can criminal annals. Lately it has been asserted that Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the beautiful '.child wife" who was the cause of the tragedy, IS the mother of twenty-mOnths old baby, born to her in Hamburg, Germany, and of which it is alleged Thaw IS the father. According to other pub lished statements, Thaw has denied the paternity of the child, if it ex-. ists.