Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-11
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

| AIJnOugn 1910 was all OH year III
politics, the country voting merely for
members Of the House and
Election one-third of the Senate,
Night. there was , marked I'd Interest Interest
of the conditions created by the seat
ing of President Hayes. The Demo-
Gratis carried both House and Senate.
| The Stars account of the scenes in
Washington on election day and night,
printed in the issue of November 6,
| 1878, is in part as follows:
There were fewer people around the
local news centers last evening than is
usual on the night after an election of
| such importance and general interest
as that of yesterday. There were. how
ever, enough out to make the streets
unusually lively. Nobody seemed to
enthuse much, however. The largest
crowd congregated at the Imperial
Hotel, where the Democratic commit
| tee were getting news. The dispatches
were received upstairs and read to the
crowd in the rooms hired by the COM
mittee and we're afterwards posted on
the walls. All the colonies and majors
who could get in were crowded around
the table at which Gen. Walker pre-
sided. The usual number of half-grown
young men who are always interested
In politics were on hand. At first the
news, meager and discouraging to the
Democracy, was kept upstairs. About
| 10 o'clock, however, the crowd which
was beginning to gather in the hotel
lobby downstairs wanted to hear some
thing too. The back of a soap box was
converted into a bulletin board and
perched on the circular steam heater in
the center of the lobby. The crowd
soon got so large that nobody but those
Immediately around the heater could
get a glimpse at the news To get over
this difficulty the dispatches were read
from the foot of the stairs aloud and
the lobby cheered or remained silent,
according to the nature of the tele-
grams. They remained silent more
than they cheered. At II o'clock it
was almost impossible to work ones
way through the lobby. The crowd
upstairs had also thickened. Very few
drunken men were seen downstairs. Up
stairs two men asleep in two different
corners was all that marked that the
returns had been entirely too much
| for them. There was no free liquor.
| An old gentleman, after SkirmiShing
around the rooms, confidently whiS-
pered in Star reporters ear, This Is
the first occasion of the kind have
known without whisky and cigars
AT Republican headquarters, l418
F street, one of the reading rooms
downstairs was kept open until late. 1t
was SHINY patronized. Upstairs the
front room was all that was thrown
open. Col. Cook read quietly from
the white sheets Of paper to an audi
ence averaging from to about so.
crowded around his table. It was a
low-spirited crowd at first, but began
to brighten up considerably as the
wires began to bring dispatches about
Republican congressional gains. They
didn't cheer often, but now and then
would try to raise the roof. The pri-
vate dispatches warmed them up the
most. About half past IL o'clock
the general sentiment that seemed to
fill all was expressed In the phrase of
one enthusiastic party man, We've got
emf The crowd began to talk about
bulldozing. Col. Cook told how a man
the committee had sent to Bethesda,
Md. as challenger had just tele-
graphed back that he challenged one
Democrat and had to leave with the
loss of his hat and the gain of black
eye. Another man who had been sent
to Rockville teleeraphed back he
couldn't get near the polls to challenge
ANYBODY A man in a SLOUGH hat told