The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-06-17
TEN THOUSAND
half HYs1ER|CAL
Constant Hammer Of Single Line Of
Thought 10 Wearing Channel
In Each
Brain.
"HE" MEANS ROOSEVELT
The Big Question Today ls "can He
Do III" and the Answer VII:
Be Given To
morrow.

SnlCAIO, june lf,--lSu lHUuSdHu
men, talking of one topic, eighteen
hours day, wearing a channel In
their brains with the constant ham
mer. hammer, hammer Of single line
of thought, are standing in the hotel
lobbies today half hysterical with
nerves.
1t will be a tremendous relief when
the gavel falls tomorrow at the Col
iseum and the convention begins.
There are countless visitors here
for the convention, but the ten thous-
and are the men whose fortunes, in
one way or another, are bound up In
the result of this weeks balloting.
The lobby of the Congress hotel,
in which hostelry are the Taft, Roose-
velt end Cummins headquarters, today
was jammed with humanity, and filed
with clamor that resolved itself in
to a continuous roar. The same ques-
tions, the same answers were repeated
twice an hour. The tiled floor is
hard on the feet and the delegates
and other politicians shifted wearily
from one foot to the other. Yet they
stood to talk, talk, talk from early
morning on.
1t is the same slow, moving crowd
massed together in little groups, thai
fingers In the fetid, tobacco-ladeT
space. A band comes Alaring into th'
lobby. Everybody crowds about th'
delegation 1t is escorting and mo
ment later the crowd takes its plac'
again in the lobby Upstairs, In ;
corner suite on the parlor floor, |!
Roosevelt.
4 His outer door is closed but there
stands constant hopeful group o
thirty to forty men. 1t saems nevel
to vary. Sometimes one gets in t.
see the colonel but not often.
\ The hall and the vast, garrisl
! lFlorentine room of the hotel, devoted
to Roosevelt boomers. is full of mel
Iand women. Women, too, are in tht
i Taft headquarters, In the more gar
irish gold room at the far end Of tn,
same floor, half block away. Head
quarters for Senator Cummins o
Iowa, are alongside Tafts. Senate
i Kenyon is in charge and Senate
Kenyon's wife shakes hands with twt
thousand women and twice that man,
1 men each day. She is the only woman
in the reception brigade.
4 States quarters are scattered her
and there through Chicago's hotels
not many people staying in them
The noisy babble is In the Congress
lobby and something might turn u
should anyone stay in a stat
headquarters.
4 Once In while one Of the leader
edges through the crowd, a string o
satellites in his wake and everybod
in his path suspends for a moment
but only for moment.
The rulers of the convention re
main out of sight nearly all of tn
: time-and help thereby to make tn
tension more tense.
On the sidewalk outside the Cor
gress is another crowd, thousand o
more, shifting in and out, staring
talking.
Here, as everywhere else in tn
convention crowd, the talk is all tn
same:
"Can he do it,. is he gettin
! Tafts delegates?' rs It true tn
southern negroes are deserting
He in lobby conversation alway
is Roosevelt.
Sunday night, the vibration of hi
personality was shaking all the crow
The Taft men cheered little, the Roos
welt men much. Saturday night
had been a half and half proposition
with fierce quarreling.
There We're few quarrels Sunday {
today. Delegates and politician
door-keepers and ergeants-at-arm
partisans, all, are preparing for ii
i battle. 1t will be a royal battle. TT
, strings of the situation are draw
too taut Something is going to brea
: soon.
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