Evening star., 1912-06-18
NEW STORM CENTER
Coliseum Supersedes the Con-
gress Hotel in Chicago.
OFFICESEEKERS ANXIOUS
Long Line Of Applicants for Conven-
tion Appointments.
FAIR SEX MUCH IN EVIDENCE
BY EDNA FERBER.

Copyright 1912. by Associated Newspapers)
CHICAGO, Ill, June 1S.-Chicagos
storm center was switched overnight
from the Congress Hotel on Michigan
avenue to the gray-walled Coliseum on
Wabash avenue. From now on the
hotel will cease being a combination
made house-college campus, battle
ground and human maelstrom-and
will resume its normal functions Of
providing sleeping accommodations
and refreshments, solid and liquid. to
guests within it's portals. They'll have
a chance to put the chairs back into
peacock alley and pick up around
under the sofas.
At 8 o'clock Monday morning there
stood outside the Coliseum and ex-
tending in a serpentine effect for a
block and a half down the street a
line Of waiting men that for tenacity
of purpose and unwearied patience
made the ordinary gallery line outside
Aida" night look fretful and restive
At noon the lire was still there. only
1t had grown considerably. The line
was composed Of your Office boy.
neighbor, janitor and the man who
lives in the fiat upstairs, and they all
at the republican national conyen-
ton The fact was that the ser
geants-at-arms had been carefully
picked and passed upon by Messrs.
did not know that. They didn't even
know what sergeant was.
but it sounded military. II somewhat
hazy, and. anyway. 1t got a guy into
the big show, didn't it? and getting
into the big show these days is a feat
requiring finesse. pull and power. No
hungry bread line waiting for its mid
night roll and hot coffee ever moved
up with more eagerness.
Police in Waiting.
Lined up on the other side of the tope,
on the sidewalk. were $50 picked police.
and they weren't picked from Chicagos s
famous beauty squad. either. They were
chosen for their cool-headedness. good
judgment. courtesy and strength. quail
ties which they will need In large guam
titles from now until the close of the
convention. The requirements made upon
the sergeants-at alarms are still more
chesterfieldian.
For the first time in the history of
politics the college yell found its way
into a campaign. and California. which
has been starting things ever since it
marched into Chicago a hundred strong,
was the state that started 1t. There would
did not illustrate something. Men who
manipulate college yells are usually
young men. These Californians who
started the yell were very young. and
very Rooseveltish. They marched Indian
fashion through the Florentine room
down the stairs, into the lobby and to
the street. This was their yell. In de-
fiance Of the steam-rollerites:
Fight 'em, fight EN-, fight 'em;
Rah, rah. rah:
California;
1t doesn't look impressive. but II sounds
rather thrilling with the paper scenery
and a strong bass effect.
One more day of activity and tension
such as has pervaded headquarters. since
Friday, and something must surely have
snapped. The seething unrest and ex-
citement has infected women as we'll as
men. and the women were more. than
ever in evidence where things were likely
to be liveliest. Mrs. Roosevelt, over at
the Blackstone Hotel. set an everlasting
example While her husband was the
center of the boiling brew she was calmly
knitting in her hotel apartments. Knit
ting with regular needles and all the rest
posed as though she were sitting on the
veranda at Oyster Bay waiting for the
folks to come home to supper.
In all the maze of doubt and conjecture
and uncertainty. one thing stands out in
the convention with clear and unmis-
lest parties at this political soiree have
been the colored gentlemen from the
southland. Ordinary. unnoticed individ
uals like Col. Roosevelt went about in a
slouch hat and working clothes. Chaun-
cey Depew, who once bore great repu-
tation for sartorial effects. and who did
not consider himself clothed with decency
unless q gardenia graced his buttonhole
smiled and bowed under woody velour
hat In the middle of June Spick-and-
spanness was noticeably lacking In the
costumes of governors and senator's. But
not In the ranks of the colored delegates
Where the eye caught the gleam of a
billed" short there you were sure to find
colcred delegate. Did a lustrous Prince
Albert and q white lawn tie delight the
beholder? Above 1t lowered a dusky
face and gold-rimmed eyeglasses.
The southern element may go down into
history as having been uncertain as to
political convictions. but from first to
last they've never Wavered as to costume
They've stood as one maI for the long
tailed coat and the passionate vest and
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