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Show "Along for the Ride 'Characters' Svarm To Convention City i - J By Kenneth L. Dixon '"'PHILADELPHIA, June 22 J J(INS) By the old tradition concerning con-cerning the intuitive powers of 'camp followers, this should be quite a year for the Republicans just in case there are any lingering linger-ing doubts in that department. Of course, it doesn't fill any ballot boxes, but usually you can tell something of the probable future fu-ture facing an army, a prize fighter fight-er or a political party by the number num-ber of characters who, as the say-' say-' ing goes, just came along for the ride. And, for what it's worth, Philadelphia Phila-delphia this week certainly is crawling with citizens who frankly frank-ly admit they have no business here. They pop up all over town in the most unexpected places. After Or while it doesn't surprise you at 11 to run into a shoe salesman from Spokane or an undertaker from Utah, using the annual vacation va-cation to kibitx on the big Republican Re-publican shindig. Pure Curiosity i And, to a surprising extent it's an attendance of pure curiosity, . gather than connivance. Naturally, you expect to find the usual number of hangers-on around the various state delegations delega-tions and the camps of the different differ-ent hopefuls. But you can hardly lay they came along just for the side. Also, no one normally faints from the shock of finding a handful hand-ful of lobbyists hanging around Wherever the politicians congregate! congre-gate! True, more than the average allotment of such have popped out Of the woodwork this year, but unquestionably they are impelled by something slightly more than mere curiosity. Make the Point It's the presence of people who tare nothing to peddle who make the point and they are here by the thousands. - Between sessions they drift around town, visiting such placet as Independence hall, the oU Christ church and the Betsy Rosi house. Many of them, as a mattei of fact don't even have admission admis-sion tickets to the actual convention conven-tion sessions, so they content themselves with watching the politicians poli-ticians at work around the various vari-ous hotefc a good show on an circuit . Typical of the kibitzing trend is the influx of the fight mob from New York. Down at Lew Tend-ler's Tend-ler's Broad st emporium tht other night it seemed that hall the guys from Jacob's Beach had suddenly moved into the city oi brotherly love a strange place indeed for the cuff -and-cauli flower flow-er league to gather. Ignore Louis Battle What makes it particularly strange is that this is the week when Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis plays a return engagement with Jersey Joe Walcott a time when every fight follower worthy of the name commonly is hanging hang-ing around the camp of the challenger chal-lenger or the champ. Tou find others equally unexpected unex-pected at a political convention. In one evening, at half a dozen assorted gatherings, this correspondent corre-spondent encountered (1) an auto parts salesman from Oklahoma City, (2) a department store man from Keokuk, (3) a machinist from Peoria, (4) a cattleman from Abilene, (5) a preacher from Alabama, Ala-bama, and (6) a bartender from Los Angeles. Each had come to Philadelphia at his own expense, and with no particular mission two of them weren't even Republicans "at least I've never voted that way in my life," one put it Ne Official Business And not one of them had any official business here whatever. Of course, you also have your important personagea who just happened" to be on hand, such as John L. Lewis, who remains somewhat some-what coy about the reasons connected con-nected with his coming. But you could hardly call him a casual visitor any more than you could hang that term on Jim Farley, former for-mer national Democratic chairman, chair-man, who was in town to make a speech, and "just dropped by" Republican headquarters to say hello. But this correspondent's favorite favor-ite of all the casual visitors at the convention is the young lady from Denver who just paused here for the week en route- to upstate New York. She wants to see whom the Republicans Re-publicans pick before she continues her pilgrimage to bring back the bones of Zebulon Pike! |