OCR Text |
Show - politics In "roMi'iinT" Dow Muntolpal Eloctiona Woro Manairod Doforo tho Eruption. 11 Ward nyitrm and 1'rlmarlea Worn tho ailia aa Tliiiwn or Our Atodcrn Clllpa llallot.llox NtufflnK Known to the Ancient. Tho Pompcllans wcro In tho midst ( a hot political campaign when tlm lty was destroyed by lava and ashes, A. U. TD. Dr. James C. Welllnff, presl-Jcnt presl-Jcnt ot tho Columbian university at Washington, ban been studying tho features of thlt ancient election, at I hey arc recorded upon tho walls and billboards which In thoso dsj-n took tho place of newspapers. In n very In-torestlnif In-torestlnif lecture before tho Anthropological Anthropo-logical society, ho gives a description of wan! polities In Pompeii mure than eighteen hundred years ngo. It sounds nstonishlngly like tho story of modern 'lections, with waril-iueutliigs, primaries primar-ies nnd appeals for candidates. Tlio city seems to haru had n thoroughly' 'iilppil polltlcut "machine." Political Polit-ical clubs wcro numerous. Some of them Mere, evidently compo-icd of "the boys;" tho Little Thieves, (orlnntanco, the Lato 'i'oporn and the Sleepy Heads. Municipal elections were livid onco a yenr, und any citizen wnx at liberty to run for nfllce UN Intention to do so as mado hnown by his friends po.t-!iif po.t-!iif his limno onathe billboards und walls about tlio city. One Titus Uo inarlus, a baiter, who had n shop on a corner nlth n sldu wall running back nloiu? nji alley, innde a "liamlhoino thing" by' renting It for bulletin boards. After a candidate's nninu had been posted for Konio tlmo, bo could tell prolty'cll whether ho flood any chanco of winning. If he saw Hint lie did not, ho went to thnchlef selectman and ashed to have his namo withdrawn; but it lie thought his chances pretty good, his name was put on tho "white list," nftor which there was no backing back-ing out. The system of wards and primary elections was practically tho samo as that followed In Now York to-day The electors chosen at tho primaries met at the Forum on election dny to deposit their ballots, and fell into lino as mcudontthopolUiiow. There ivero three judges of election, and inch candidate can-didate was permitted to station one ot his own men at tho ballot box, to BOO that no Intimlilntlon wns practised. Tho ballot box waH very closely watched, n fact which seems to show that ballot box stutling wan not unknown un-known even then. Tlm candldatu u ho carried a majority of th'i wards was elected. It will be keen that this gave the "machine" a fine opportunity for a rrcrrjmandcr The PoniM'IianR "whooped It up" for their cauOldatcs in thu true modern style. Thus thn Lato Tooni, who had their headqunrlersoppofcite tho forum, announced their preferences on a bill Ixianl as follows: "The LatoTopersbcg their friends to voto for Marcus Lavlnius A'utla for tcililc." A'atla. who was a favorite in snort-Inj snort-Inj elides, evidently hail Mime money to pcnd in the legitimate cxpom.es of his campaign, for all hia notices and announcements arc well got up. His rival, Popldlus, either did not look after Ids campaign, or else had no money to employ a competent billposter, bill-poster, for his notices nro miaspelled, and In all respects unequal to A'ntla's. Thobtis, n tuvornkoepor on the A'la Storta, u anted tX Uavius Rtifusaud M. Holconlus Prtscus elected duumvirs. Tlioy lind probably promised to get his taxes lowered, or that the police thonld let Ids place alono. Therefore Thelitis had all thu walls In his neighborhood decorated with "Thobun and his customers cus-tomers nominate t (Juvlns KufiiHiuid M Uolconins Priscus for duumvirs." TI.a t.li.nlnm.ll.l tii ml ml . I rrl li I II ri 'J lie electors (llil not minu burring up candidate, who expected their friends to do ell tho work for them One Inscription In-scription rends; "O Kuhoniut, keep your eyes open!" And lufaiis is prod iled as follows: "O Jnfuns, you arc fast asleep, and jet you wtyjrou arc elcc-tloni'i-rlnff!" Thero was a tavern in tho first ward whero a primary waa probably held. At any rate, n largo crowd hail assembled, assem-bled, and tho landlord very obligingly provided wxitn. For this he was rewarded re-warded by an inscription on tho wall. Tho MMilliucnt waa better than tho grammar: "O, landlord, you did great to get us them chairs!" Unluckily, Dr. Welling could find no record of how this election turnod out. Probnbly tho 2Sd and .Ith of August Au-gust came before) election day arrived. MISDIRECTED LETTCRS. Ktatiat Ira Know That l'aoplo Are AiMlwa-Ini: AiMlwa-Ini: Mall Matt-r Morn Carafully. Tho number of pieces of dead mall matter received nt the dead letter of-tlcedunng of-tlcedunng thu flscnlycar 1693 was 7,131,-0.7. 7,131,-0.7. an incrcaso over tho receipts of thu previous year of 313,847 piecca, or a littlo more thnn flvo per cent. This incrcaso in-crcaso of undelivered matter, accord lug to tho Albany lrcss, Is lefcs than tho pu-" cl'nL ' Incrcaso of matter mailed, as shown by tho statistics of other branches of tho postal service, and would seem to indicate more caro on tho ljart of tho peoplu In addressing their letters as woll as increased vigilance vigi-lance on tho part -of postmasters to -o-curo proper delivery. The number of pieces treated in tho dead-letter olllce, Including those on hand from tho previous year, was 7,-830,039. 7,-830,039. Theso were classified as follows: Flvo million four hundred and eight thousand nlno Irtnidred nnd forty flvo wero ordlnnry unclaimed lottcm, .01,445 wero addressed to persons in ll.n euro ( hotels. 21B.1M) wero mailed to foreign countries and returned by tho various postal administrations as tindcllverablo, tiO.OIt wero addressed to Inltlulsor fictitious persons and 7,100 wero domestlo registered letters. Thero wero 033,017 pieces ot mall mat-tor mat-tor of foreign origin and 1BJ,0S0 wero ordinary letters without Iiiclosurcs, having been onco returned by tho dead letter olllco to addresses contained con-tained therein, and, fulling of delivery, deliv-ery, wcro ngniu Rent to tho dead letter otlleo for final ulf.posltloii. Tho nnnilMT ot lutois cla-sed an tin mallublo oiiinprhu 1,141, containing articlca w'hleh w-uro not trniiMiiUvMhh In tlio mill-.; ii'.,i.ll wiie iltlur entire ly unpaid or p il.l luss than oiu( full rate and could not. thuiefom, l.e toriiarded 100,83'J woro eilhor dellclont or ml dreised to phiees not post ofia oi. or t-pohtolllcus t-pohtolllcus tvliloli had noexi.teni.i h tho stall) named, and wero el iucil tin dcr tlio (fenernl licad of "mikdireeted: 35,018 wire without any udilrowi what ever, nnd ,oio wtro classed an "ml cellaiieoiiK." There w cro alwi reeulvec. 63,210 unclaimed and unmalhiblo parcels par-cels of third and fourth-class matter, t |