The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-19
Every Corner, Door and Aisle Carefully Guarded
 By Officers in Chicago
HALL IS A MASS OF
 FLAGS AND BUNTING
For First Time in History no Picture of President Hangs in Coliseum. Every Convenience Arranged
 to Give Millions Report

Chicago, June lS.-For the first time in the history of republican national conyen- tions no picture of the President hangs in the Coliseum. where today 1O7s dele gates from the states and territories of the nation met to name a candidate fos President and Vice President. and to formulate a party platform. Rough iron work, arching overhead, is hidden beneath red, white and blue bunt- ing and the galleries are marked by lines of mountain laurel draped about tri-col- ored shields and more flags. Over the main entrance a velvet rug of royal pur- pie marks the box of Chairman Frederick Upham of the local committee on ar engagements and his Chicago aides.
 View of the Hall 1 The ehairman,s table, bearing a brass plate inscribed to inform all that the desk was occupied by the chairman four years ago, when William Howard Taft was nominated, stands about a third of the way from the south end of the rectangu- lar hall. on a dias. Back of it are the seats of the national committee and the space for the workers and those who helped to finance the gathering. At it's side are grouped 300 seats for newspaper men, where every word may Be heard distinctly and licked away to 90, ,000,OO0 Americans and many times more persons of other lands who will be await ing the message of the men at the keys. In a basement in addition, the newspa- per men have great, spacious rooms, where hundred telegraph operators or reporters may work for each press asso- citation or paper, and adjoining, 200 opera tors of the telegraph companies, attend ed by 500 messenger boys will be reaoy to add to the news reports or convey other information abroad
 High upon the wall, back of the speak CTS stand, which fronts the chairman's s table, hangs a broad blue shield on which are embroidered in gold the arms of the United States. Copies of the first 1S starred flag of the nation flank 1t, and above, below and around are hundreds of large silken emblems of America.
 Use Kitchen Chairs
 In front of the chairman's table and facing south, are 107S hard, plain wooden kitchen chairs, uncushioned and fastened  no chairs waved
 In the various sections there are metal stands indicating the state represented, and these will be pinned to the floor. Farther back and facing in the same d. rection are still another 1078 seats, also hard and Puritan like, where the second choice or alternate delegates will squirm around and await their opportunity in the absence of the regular delegate to represent their districts.
 Policemen at every corner. at every door and in every aisle were the distinguish ing features at the scene at the Coliseum in the early hours before the doors were opened to ticket holders.
 The nervous tension due to general ex- peetation of tumultous scenes from the drop of the hat at the opening of the republican national convention was very apparent on all sides. The police were as nervous as anybody else. It was diffi- cult ev.ll for people with proper tickets, including newspaper, to get into the hall Assistant sergeant-at-arms, doorkeepers ushers and other subordinate officials were so keenly alive to the possibilities that their hands trembled as they took tickets.
 Police Appear Early Along the front row, between the body of delegates seats and the platform. a solid row of uniformed police as early as , 30 a. m sat waiting for-nobody knew what.
 Last touches Of the carpenters mingled with an o0ligato of hammers and buzz of conversation, forerunners of the heav- fer hanmering promised when the conven- ton began.
 Five minutes later a thin procession of men in plain clothes came in at once of the entrances. Assistant sergeant-at- arms they were, but the police bounced upon them as if they were a hostile army.
 Colonel William F. stone. sergeant-at, arms of the convention, who was on tip- toe all morning with solicltude for the maintenance of peace and smooth fulfill ment or orders had his assistants quickly ordered out of the aisles and seats.
 The soft click of the secret saunders of the newspaper telegraph operators be- gan to be audible near the platform about 10 o'clock, the press station with it's up- ward of 400 seats. was filling lp; the con- vention hall story" of the momentous republican onvention of 1912 was stream Ing out to the newspapers of the civilized world.
 Five minutes later the spectators began to pour in.
 An hour later the delegates took their seats.
 Two hours later the convention was on.