Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1896 — REAL ROTTEN. [ARTICLE]

REAL ROTTEN.

Was the Tenth District Congressional Convention at Michigan City. Hanley Went Down Because They Don’t Have Pure Politics in >he Teith—The Rankest Affair We Ever Attended. Fountain county don’t belong to the 10th congressional district and thank God for it. That district held its Coir ressional convention Thursday in picturesque Michigan City, and the price of admission was entirely too cheap. It was worth twice the price, in fact it was the crowning chapter in the history of the conventions that we have attended, which is not a few. tis not necessary to tell our readers much abou* the contestants. J. Frank Hanley, who is d eservingly admir* ed by everyone in this part of the State, was a candidate for renomination, though the late legislature in its desperate attempt made a district that reached from our county line to three-quarters of a mile this side of Chicago, and mixes up a lot of people as much alike as a Chinaman and a muk. J udge Crumpacker, of Valparaiso, was his opponent and he was backed by the mules. Tney have had a bitter fight, it has waged warm and things have been stirred well until it got so ripe that many feared it would spoil before it could be plucked. Thursday was set apart to gather in the fruit and the actions showed that the wheel in their head politicians had all been fencd into one good sized slice ,of Hoosierdom, and it was named the Tentn Congressional District. We have censured genial Gus Landis

j for putting a hump on our back I and thereby sliding out of his old district We now eulogize Gus and humbly ! 'eg his pardon for what we have said. It would be much more agreeable to be tied onto the first district of Texas than the Tenth of Indiana. But to say more of the convention and les: of our opinion will perhaps please the reader. We attended because our people keel a deep interest m Frank Hanley, and while the result conn s him out “It is better to be right than President of the United States” and Frank Hanley is the kind that always does right. Wednesday saw quite a crowd in Michigan City,' all working like beavers for their 1 choice. This was Kept up all of i tha* ni"ht and on Thursday until j 1:30 o’clock when the convention ( assembled in what we considered a poor excuse for an opera hcuse for such a beautiful city. There was considerable delay in getting the wheels to lubniug, caused, we presume, from the remarks of “De Boss” who said to one of his faithful,| “Where’s the preacher that’s to do the praying act. The preacher,‘though, didn’t get there, and we didn’t blame him

for a nreacher would be as much out of his place in such a conven tion as an Irishman at an A. P. A. banquet. Finally it was decided not to have any praying and Tom McCoy, the district chairman, called the meeting to order. We were deceived in Tom, hfviug never seen lim before, and would have wade a ten to one shot that he was a Democrat. * * * * * * * He didn’t tarry ong until the committee reported and Judge John H. Gillett, of Hammond, was named as chairman, with J. B. Vanßuren secretary. While the rules of the 54th congress were selected to govern the convention, Judge Gillett, in taking the chair, attempted to talk and caught the “buck ager” before he reached the quarter. He then read a chapter that was as full of interest as the X’s in the dictionary, concluding by assuring them that if he made mistakes t would be of the head and not of the heart. Subsequent ptoceedings proved that the Judge was ladly off in the head. The committee on resolutions then reported and a fellow who had a sponge in his throat itead to himself for about fifteen minutes and then made a motion to adopt ’em, and they were passed up. NominaK’ohs were iu order and J. WYouche, of Hammond, named Judge Crumpacker in a fairly good speech, by appealing for harmony with a capital H. Col. Dick DeHart nominated Hanley in the best nominating speech we ever listened to. It was the effort of the life ol this able and honored Hoosier. — Hj was encored budly, the Harney people being able to make the most noise, even if they did not land the game. A call of the counties was made and the first shot at Ft. Sumter struck a delegate from LaPorte county by the name of Crumpacker The air got blue and what then ocs curred we would have considered enough to call out seven regiments. Peace was finally restored, and blood was hanging on each and every eye ball. Porte, county bobbed up with a scrap that they who were used to it would say, now its getting natural. A delegate voted for Hanley, they called him a D... .n traitor, and they didn’t whisper in saying it. He tried to talk, they hissed, they cussed, they shook their fists, and came near running over one or two of the sawed- off Policemen wno were on duty as thick as flies at a sugar barrel. His nam - was C. K.Maik and he was able to takcjcare of himself. They demanded thathis vote should not count, as he was instructed otherwise. He claimed that the ring was throttling the people’s lights, that delegates had been bought and that the ring if they were allowed to continue, would ruin the republican partvj nor this is not all he said; nor what they said. It was a general mixed up, disgraceful row. But his vote went. When the voting started again it passed to the end, without more than ten men being called liars and sellers. The result was soon figured up, Crumpacker receiving 122 76-100, Hanley 122 24-100. Majority 50-200 of a vote The assembly was iu general confusion and as noisy as a lot of Hoodlums. Ela Stans ury asked in behalf of W arr eii county to be heard. A motion w s made to adjourn, and while the chairman co’d not hear Stansbury, who was standing at his feet, he did hear the mo tion, and made a vote on it. Eve-

' ryone yelled, and it was worse than la herd of geese. Stansbury wa--1 trying to tee heard,and he was just« !ly hot under the collar. It had j been a bulldozing affair, and loudly he proclaimed, “Gentlemen, this ' convention must not adjourn with--1 out hearing from Warren c >untv.” A delegate from LaPoite yelled, “to h—l with Warren county,” a delegate from Porter county jumped up and ye.led at the top of his I voice. “Hurrah for Compacker, □— d— m-,” and the convention I adjourned without hearing from j Warren, though it took fifteen minutes and seven more quarreis ‘to get a vote on the question. The convention was a barbarous, bull--1 lozing sort of an affair, everything had to be conceded to the ring > leaders in the north par. of the district. It looked and we truly believe that they would have bolted the convention, had their man been defeated. They worked and and acted, as if th. re was only one resuF to be reached, and that was to nominate Crumpacker. It was a cuckoo. Our conventions are as quiet as funerals in comparison to it.

CONVENTIONALITIES. A Lafayette delegate said we will be heard at the elec ion. Stansbury was twice as angry as Will Reed was two years ago. The call of the convention was never read. It said that it took 123 votes to nominate, and that was the point of order raised by Stansbury, but a point of order in a tenth district convention is like a grain of sand on the Hoosier Slide. There came near being a ;other convention, which was only prevented by Hanley’s objection. As it stands there is a pretty mess, and it was only by the honorable principle of that noble fellow, Frank Hanley, that the district was not left in the same condition that it was two years ago. It was a common thing for ’em to call each other traitors a d liars. They openly read each others records and face to face accused eacii other of sellingout. One man told anotner that he got §3OO in cold cash, and the promise of his local post office, if he would vote for Crumpacker, ana he did not deny the charge. It was a dead rotten deal all the way through; a bulldoz.ng scheme of a lot of ring politicians who are going to rule cr ruin. Hanley had the record, the just light for renomination, but he was backed by a pure class of politicians, and pure, honest, houoicble methods don’t go in the Tenth. The Warren county papers must not attempt to smooth things over for policy sake, unless they are willing to be sat upon, uutil they are able to get out of the unfortunate position in which they bave been forced. Tell the truth, boys; you have no reason to be aahamed of the clean campaign you made. Nothing is ever gained in politics by smooth ing over such a monkey and par rot session as was forced upon you.