Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1889 — QUAY’S PECULIAR BOX. [ARTICLE]

QUAY’S PECULIAR BOX.

IT WAS CONTRIVED TO CHEAT HONEST VOTERS. 5 Though It Is Now Introduced to JProve Democratic Frauds It Was in Possession • of tile Republican Trickster Long Reiore Election. [Washington special.] A peculiar discovery has been made which fittingly illustrates the kind of tactics which the Democrats will have to combat during the next Congress while the contested election cases are under consideration. There has been filed with the clerk of the Committee on Elections a large mass of matter, tome of which is evidence and a large proportion is not. Papers and pictures constitute the bulk of this material, while a good-sized tin box for receiving ballots is an object of some curiosity in the collection. This box is fitted on the top with a raised slot, through which the tickets are supposed to be introduced to the interior of the box. Over this slot can be fitted at will a harmless-looking covering, by means of which a ballot inserted in the slot can be diverted in its descent and caused to drop on the outside out of view of the vote - , who confidently believes his ballot has been safely deposited. This neat contrivance bears a large label setting forth the fact that the box was duly submitted in evidence in the contested election case of Cate vs. Featherstone, from the First Arkansas District, and that it was used by the Democrats in the election last fall. The presence of this box is considered to be a strong piece of evidence in proof of the wicked means whereby Mr. Cate, the Democratic candidate, was enabled to secure the certificate of election, and to furnish a good reason why Mr. Featherßtone, the Republican candidate, received no more votes than he did. But unfortunately for the parties who furnished this important piece of evidence, a box exactly similar in design and appearance had been on exhibition in the rooms of the Republican League in this city for a week or two preceding the election, during all the time the election was in progress, and right up to the moment when the league gave up its quarters .and moved out to make room for the National Republican Committee. When the league packed up its traps this specimen ballotbox disappeared. Now there is ample proof, and a gentleman who had seen and handled the box at the league headquarters, and whoJfias also seen the one filed as evidence with the clerk of Elections Committee, is willing to make affidavit to the fact that these boxes are one and the same. He says he noticed it particularly when he first saw it, and recognized it immediately when it was shown in the Elections Committee room. When the clerk told him that it had been used in Arkansas during the election he expressed surprise that it could have been done there at the same time that he had been handling it up here in Washington. The same marks, he says, are on this box which he noticed on the other, and ho could not be mistaken. Inquiry to-day at the rooms formerly occupied by the Republican League developed the fact that the ballot-box which had formerly been on exhibition there had been carried off by Senator Quay, and what became of it afterward was not known. The inquirer was directed to either Mr. Quay or Mr. Dudley for further information, but as both these gentlemen are out of town nothing further could be learned of the fate of the missing contrivance.