| Show written for this thia paper ST LOUIS UP TO DATE copyrighted 1696 bv frank G carpenter ST louis april 1896 HAVE COME from washington to st louis to give you a birdseye view of ma matters t relating to the republican con venti bention ven tion 0 n I 1 am fortunate in hav t ing been here a the same vine t me as colonel joe manley the leader of the reed forces colonel william H hahn McKin mckinless leys chief aid dec decamp de c camp amp general clarkson the headon head of the allicon movement mu and senator tom carter who is for the republican party parly in gre general these mt men n have just held several vei secret sessions and they have materially changed a number ot of things kiich have hav ben been cons dered settled they have altered the architectural plans ot of the hall ball and the plans already published li dished bed in the newspapers have been modified to make them better belter suited to the purposes ot of the convention the sketch s st nt with this letter shows the conven tion building as it will be actually when completed the ground has been broken tho foundations are laid and a large gang of la laborers boreri are now busy putting it up I 1 went out to look at the work this morning the building is not far from union depot and within a five minutes ride of the leading leadin g hotels it is just next to the new city hat hall 1 and n a is accessible ces sible on two sides by street car lines which connect it with every part of the city when 1 visited it hundreds of laborers were at work A steam saw mill was merrily screeching as it cut the lumber which is soon to resound with the clapping of tens of thousands of en thusia hands A hundred hammers were pounding nails and a hundred odd carpenters were cutting and fitting the great timbers into place the work goes on rapidly it must go very rapidly in order that the hall be finished in time it will be completed within two months and when finished it will look as solid as though it had consumed a year in building it is you know to be covered with staff the same material as that which formed the outside ot of the worlds fair structures at chicago this material will be nailed on to the woodwork in square blocks making the convention hall look like marble save that its outside steps will be of wood the expense of the building will you know be paid by st louis it will cost 70 the architects contract is for oo but at least 7 SOD more will be required to 10 finish up the interior notwithstanding this the building will have a life of only six months it is being erected on land devoted to the new city hall ball and the contract provides that every bit of it shall be removed by october let us stop a moment and take a look at this sacrifice on the altar aliar of party politics first its surroundings it will be a palace tiding out of a lot of two story shabby buildings of brick and frame it will wiil have as its architectural brother the magnificent new city hall of granite and terra cotta brick which has cost cast more than one million dollars and which is one of the finest of the public buildings ot of the united states the city hall and the convention building occupy one large square containing I 1 judge about four acres of ground T the h e eleva is about six feet above the street and there is quite a large space running about the buildings between them an and the sidewalk the shabby houses I 1 spoke of are on the opposite side of the s reels surrounding the city hall block they look like second class lodging houses at one corner there is a saloon and just opposite the main side of the convention hall there is a vacant lot fenced by a ragged bill board plastered ovar with pictorial advertisements ot of rolled oats plug tobacco and special brands ot of whisky the he building will cover more than an acre of ground do you know how big an acre W is many city blocks art arc not so large well the convention building will cover considerable more than an acre and it will look like a great four story marble building with an extra story or canopy rising from its top in in the shape hape of a ridge roof this canopy will be made ot of plates of glass set in frames it will be neatly nearly half an acre in in area and will cover the space in the center of the convention hall which has been assigned to the dele delegates gatei and the alternates it will be so made that the glass can be raised giving the hall perfect light and as thorough ventilation almost as though it was roofed by the sky in addition to this there will be a series of ventilating fans which wilt will keep the air within the ball in constant motion the sides ot of the hall will have man many Y windows and there will be more than one hundred exits and entrances it is estimated that the hall ball could be emptied within five minutes if a panic should occur in going over the plans with one of the architects I 1 asked as to the streng strength tk of the structure he told me there was no danger whatever of its not being behag able to hold the people and to stand any kind of a strain it is said he six times as strong as it need be and everything will be built in the most substantial manner it will be entirely 0 ot wood but a brigade of firemen will be constantly on band with their engines steaming and the least sign of fire win will be detected by the watchmen the hall will seat persons it will have it is said the largest seating capacity of any building ever erected for a convention v ith perhaps the ex exception cepa of the hall in which james A PAT garfield was nominated in 1880 this is is said to have had seats the minneapolis convention hall ball had about ii seats and a great part of the view i 19 p that hall was shut off by posts and ana pit oil lars there will be no such posts in this hall ball I 1 am told that every seat will be a good one and that the acoustic properties of the hall by means of great sounding boards will be such that all can hear each seat will be a chair and about 14 chairs will be bought for the occasion the seats will be arranged in the shape ot of a rectangular alphi theater they will rise up on four sides of the square pit which forms the ground floor flo orand and which is occupied by the delegates and the alternates this pit will be about one half an acre in size in the middle in three great blocks or rows of chairs with aisles running through them will sit the delegates those from each state being together the states will be allotted seats in alphabetical order beginning with alabama and At arkansas kansas to the right of the speaker and ending with the states beginning with W the place of each state being parked marked by a pole with a little flag bearing its name on the right and left of the delegates in the pit will be the seats for the alternates and on the four sides of odthe the pit rising to the back walls of the building in two great banks of seats will sit the spectators the floor and the lower bank will seat about people le the upper bank which is a gallery fery forty feet wide running around the b ball 11 an and extending back up to the roof will sea seat 6 at the time of the convention the delegates will be thus surrounded by banks of gaily dressed humanity they will be as it were in hanging gardens of fashionable women and distinguished men gardens more wonderful wonder tul than the hanging gardens of babylon in front of the delegates and alternates on a platform about as high as a table will sit the chairman or president of the convention with the secretaries and tally clerks on each side of him back of them will be the national corn com cittee and the distinguished men of the party while on each side of the dent and a little lower down will be the tables for the workingmen ol of the press each press table will accommodate several men each table will have a pneumatic tube connected with it running to the telegraph offices which will be located under the seats at the front of the building and as the reporters write their dispatches they can send them to the wires sheet by sheet as they finish them there are to be seals beai a for the press there will probably be 1000 newspaper men at the convention but these seats are for those who are doing telegraphic work and not lor for drones and fancy writers arrangements are being made with the telegraphic companies to handle a large amoun ot of matter estimating that papers of the united states will wid take an average of three boco words a day from the convention the wires will be loaded down with at least 2000 words daily one of the volumes of blames blaines book contains I 1 judge about words the matter sent out from this convention daily would if published make about ten volumes of size I 1 have spent some time at st louis with the mon hon T M byrnes of minneapolis mr byrnes was the sergeant at arms at the minneapolis convention he has been chosen the sergeant at arms of this convention and he is by all odds the most important man just now connected with it he has to do with the seat in ing of the crowd and has entire charge odthe of the tickets all press men must make their application to him and they will be forwarded to a press committee here mr ift byrnes will have the custody of the tickets as soon as they are printed and through his kindness I 1 was able to get a sight of the wash drawings from which th thae tickets will be engraved these drawings have been kept a secret no tickets will be given out for fear they may be counte counterfeited tickets to a convention like this are worth money good seats to the minneapolis convention sold for too and upward some bringing and there will be a large number for sale at st louis mr barnes will have an immense vault in the convention hall for the storing of the tickets he is responsible tor for them to the national committee and has to account for every one of them there will be a big army of police on hand at the time and only those having tickets will get in two hundred thousand tickets will be printed this will make a bulk big enough to fill a good sized cart this number is estimated on the ground that there might possibly be three sessions each day and that the convention may last five days one ticket is printed for each session and tickets a day for fifteen sessions would require tickets there will not be this many sessions a day but the convention may ma y last longer than five days the contract for printing the tickets is an important one and is worth considerable money the big engraving companies of new york and st louis competed it but a st louis company got the job having underbid the new york companies I 1 understand more than 1000 the tickets are being engraved by woodward tiernan of tins this city who were able to underbid the ea eastern tern companies by being the owners and inventors of a new printing press which will print the finest of plate engravings by machinery heretofore all such work has been done by hand the tickets to the convention will I 1 think be the most beautiful ones ever made for a convention the engravings upon them will be as fine as that of a bank note and as there is a ticket to each session with a single coupon uon it ever man who goes into the convention will be able to heep beep his ticket as a souvenir the ticket the artists drawing ot of which I 1 saw is about the width ot of a column of a newspaper and about the length of a postal card on the back of it is a picture of the convention hall on the front the left half ot of the card has a beautiful engraving of st louis showing the bridge over the mississippi while on the lower corner there is a little engraving ol 01 the log cabin in which general grant lived on his farm in st louis when he was poor and unknown and hauled wood into st louis for sale on the face of the ticket will be engraved the words I 1 republican national convention 1896 joseph manley chairman and also the words guests ticket or delegates ticket or tress press ticket as the case may be three thousand five hundred of these tickets ate aie to be given to the business mens league of st louis through whom the money tor for building the hall was secured each of the delegates will have three tickets and each of the alternates will have I 1 think though I 1 am not sure only one the best way for visitors to the convention to get tickets will be through their delegates orif they have friends in the southern states by writing to them and asking them tp to try to work the matter through southern delegates whom they klowas the southern visitors tois will be comparatively few five hundred tickets are to be given to the grand army of the republic la in addition to these ther th erwill be a number of people who will be admitted as employ es of of the convention orders have been given for the printing of badges baag about one half of which go to the delegates alternates and national commatee men nine hundred press badges art are being made and there will be a lot of badges for distinguished guests and other notables all tickets will be issued monday june 15 at the convention hall but application should be made at once lor for those who wish to get them there will be a band of 1500 pieces in the hall and these will also have badges and tickets every indication points to an immense crowd here at the convention col richard C kerens of the national COUP cittee and senator tom carter each estimate that there will be at beasts strangers in st louis at that time and there is a probability that the number will be exceeded there wil be at least from missouri cot COL hahn tells me that there will be div from twenty to twenty five thousand here from ohio and that cleveland will send a delegation for mckinley of at least 31 3 from to 10 people are expected from iowa to shout about for Alli allison and among these will be i men who will ride into the city on white horses horse the question of taking care of these cobol white horses will not be a great one for st louis for people say that this is the largest horse and mule market in the world and they could stable to 10 such animals there will be io 10 men from indianapolis and its surroundings col manley tells me there will be a large delegation from maine and there will be thousands of republicans here from new england to shout for thomas B reed about 5 men are expected from chicago nc byork it is said will send 5 and I 1 eim am told that in all the states special cars a ai d trains are being engaged by the different clubs and by private pat ties st louis is peculiarly favored as to railroad facilities the country surrounding her is isi thickly hickly populated awen tytis ty hix great railroads center here bere and the unon un oa depot is said to be the largest in the world it is certainly the fina finest depot in the united states and the roads running into it have it is said a mileage greater than that ot of all the railroads oi england and france combined the cars are all backed into the depotvin such away a way as to leave the engines outside and the smoke of the ordinary station is thus avoided there is a big corps of messengers about the station it has a barber shop and a hotel connected with it it is in intact fact a little city in having a postoffice post office a book store dining and lunch rooms and more other side establishments lish ments than any other depot I 1 have ever entered the street cars come right to the depot and the visitors visitor lor for a day can go directly to the convection hall the railroads willit is thought charge only one lare lor the round tup to st louis and return in addition to the railroads there wi wib be a large number of steamers to brinig visitors from up and down the river it ft is estimated that there will be five hub dred passenger trains going in and wat oat ot of the depot daily the time of the convention and it is sate sale to say that there will be no trouble in landing the people expected I 1 A more important consideration |
