Albuquerque evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1911-1914, 1912-11-08
CiEKItAARAAs At
'SAFl Re CAST
FIRST VOTE
Two Men ZOE and 90 Years Of
Age for First Time Deposit
Ballots for President Of the
United States.

A feature Of the voting on eisctiOn
day in Albuquerque was the battalion
~ aged first voters" aOme of them
over seventy years OF age, VINO caw
their first ballots for president %
the United States; but they were all
3 Youngsters compared TO two veneer
able citizens who exercised the privi-
lege for the first time in Santa Fee
Tuesday. The Santa Pc New Next
can tells about them ns follows:
To wait just eiEhty-one years for
the privilege Of voting for a president
OF the United states and then having
the pleasure Of casting his vote for
the successful candidIe, woodrow
Wilson, leader of "A party TO which he
had belonged for over four score
years. WAS the privilege and eNper-
fence of Grrgorlo Macs, Of Santa Re.
Although lO2 years OF age, Mr..
Macs travelled three miles To the polls
In precinct No. T. yesterday, making
the trip In a buggy
~ have waited Il long TIME 10 do
this" he said To some demo crats
standing around him, but you do not
know what n consolation IL is finally
To feel that ! am a citizen OF run
Pledged state In the union, helping
rlec the president of that union"
Then the old man who has out
lived the biblical span Of life 10y a
third Of a century, handed his ballot
10 the teller and said: 81 give thanks
to the Almighty for sparing me 70 see
this day ~ sunshine for the state In
which | was born and lived all my
life"
MIR Macs has. indeed, lived. Born
IN 1910 he has lived through one CEN
fury into another, and seen three dlf-
t"rcnt nations guard the destiny OF
Sew Mexico. A. "A hoy he Witnessed
IN" decline and fan Of Spanish power
In the Sew World. Az a man he snw
the rise and fan of Mexican DONNA
tlon And In the fullneHs OF his years
h. haH sc"n the American occupation
and tn" unparalleled expansion OF the
southwest under lts enlightened slim
uluS
For over sixty years Mr.. Macs has
seen New M"XlcO struggle FOR state
hood and again and again heard that
congress had closed its doors on the
lnspirninR statehood debutante. Fin
nlly. after hr himself had rounded out
"A century. far older In years than the
territory Itself In which he lived, the
stnunch democrat went Ia the polls
yesterday To perform the final act
symbolic uf full-fledgcd statehood.
He Votes at ~.
Another veteran citizen was Jose
dc lun cruz Rodriguez, who II report
~ ~ M nin"ty-eight years Of age,
ana who also voted yesterday, casting
his first ballot for presidential cleo
tors. Born only four years after MIR.
Macs, Don Rodriguez can say that
his natal year WAS that IT the printing
press. lie was ono year old when Ma
p"l"un met his Waterloo and five
years of hg" when the first ship
crossed IN" Atlantic. AZ the age ~
fourteen h" could have seen the first
passenger train IN the United states.
when h" brCum" at ugr, Morse had
Just invented the telegraph. IIo was
twenty three years old when Queen
Victoria assembled Great Eritan's
throne. ~" was past thirty when he.
heard thr news 81 the war with Mex
co ana he WAS thirty four when the
French revolution Or rs broke out
IL" was already "A grey haired man
past fifty when Abrahm Lincoln was
shot and WAS nine years past the
three score ana ten limit OF biblical
days when thu Chicago fire nov al
M II forgotten, was announced To- the
world.
Those two old men. Don Macs and
Don ls"drigu"z. could swap stories on
the history Of the world which would
max" most of the 1900, 900 voters
yesterday look like babes Ia swad-
ding clothes by an age comparison.