Baltimore Evening Sun (8 November 1912): 6.

The official Hot Towel upon the Gross laudanum ordinance, now before the Job Hounds:

In his argument Mr. Gross said that he had recently learned that laudanum was used as a narcotic drug.

An affecting evidence of the speed with which Councilmen acquire information.

THE ACCOLADE.

I regret particularly that the South Baltimore bridge loan did not pass. * * * Its defeat was largely contributed to by Steffens and Denny.--The Archangel Harry.

Well, Woodrow has been elected three days now, but so far nobody ain’t heard nothing of no beefsteaks being no cheaper.--Adv.

The Archangel Harry, with charactertatic fatuity, issues a proclamation to the stoneheads comparing the vote be received in 1911 to the vote received by Woodrow last Tuesday. What the aim of this comparison may be I don’t know, but its obvious effect is to cast considerable doubt (a) upon the sincerity of the organization’s support of Woodrow, and (b) upon the authenticity of Harry’s majority. In brief, it shows that Harry got suspiciously fewer votes than Woodrow in the independent wards, and suspictously more than Woodrow in most of the organization wards. Which explanation best explains? Was Woodrow deliberately cut, or was Harry counted in?

Meanwhile, the hon. gent. also tries to show that the passage of the conduit loan was a victory for him, though in the same breath he admits that it was carried by the News, thus handing a merited rebuke to the unchristian Sunpaper. The truth is, of course, that the conduit loan was carried because it alone, of the three propositions before the voters, exhaled no aroma of old-fashioned chicane. The sewer rents and the bridge loan were defeated for the simple reason that the plain people suspected the motives behind them. The virtue in them was far from apparent and the arguments advanced were insulting to the intelligence, and so they were slaughtered.

The Hon. Mr. Preston, having long since forfeited the respect of the intelligent members of his own party, has confined himself, of late, to exhorting the rabble. Every appeal he has made for a year past has been an appeal to prejudice and ignorance. He has sought assiduously to array class against class, and to dispose of all criticism by whooping und bellowing. But the plain people, unluckily for his jehad, are considerably less stupid than he has constantly assumed, and the result is that he finds himself, for the third time in one year, a badly beaten and highly ridiculous man.

Thank goodness, the theatre-censors are at the bat again. Mlle. Gaby Deslys is the first target of their virtuous indignation, which insures a good week for Gaby. Let them stick to their benign work. The people of Baltimore can’t depend on the newspapers to warn them of salty things. I myself miss many racy and stimulating shows through ignorance. I hear of them, perhaps, a week after they have left town–and then tear my hair in a rage.

According to Henry Edward Warner, the way Harry carried the bridge loan reminds him of the Japanese pastime of harrycarry, so to speak.--Adv.

The varying strength of the minor parties in Baltimore since 1893:

Note how the Socialists have slowly but surely moved forward, and how the Prohibitionists, by the same token, have slowly slipped down hill. The Prohibition party in Baltimore is now practically extinct: any crank candidate, however preposterous his platform, should be able to poll an many votes as Wet Hope Chafin polled on Tuesday. So passes a virtuous frenzy. The Prohibition movement, not only here but in nearly every other city and State, has been swallowed up by the Local Option movement, the essential feature of which is a frank recognition of the rights of the enemy.

Meanwhile, the Socialists are making progress in Baltimore. At Tuesday’s election they were handicapped by the fact that both Woodrow and Theodore had stolen most of their thunder, but in future contests they promise to show a disconcerting strength. The day is not far distant, indeed, when their Presidential candidate will poll well over 1,000,000 votes, and when that day comes they will have to be reckoned with.

The extravagant guarantees of Woodrow give the red brothers assurance of pleasant pickings in 1916. Most of those guarantees, of course, are impossible of execution, and so vast discontent will begin to inflame the plain people about 1915. Then they will be ripe for Socialist oratory.

The sweet, sad music of the platitudinarians:

A good road brings travel.–The Hon. Norman M. Parratt. Advertising brings bustness.–The Hon. Noman M. Parratt.

Meanwhile, the Hon. William H. Anderson is probably glad he didn’t come out against Woodrow.

Among the minor results of the late plebiscite, none is more benign than the downfall of the niggero as politician. On the one hand, he faces four years of Democratic rule, with a Southerner at the head of the State, and on the other hand he is menaced by Colonel Roosevelt’s probable seizure of the Republican organization. Whatever the Colonel’s affability toward niggeroes of decency and attainment, he is now a sworn foe to the niggero jobseeker, and if he goes into office in 1916 the chances are that he will make a strenuous effort to purge his party of that curse forevermore.

The present political situation offers a splendid opportunity to undo the evils done by the Fifteenth amendment. That amendment was passed sentimentally, at a time of great popular passion, and I daresay that nine-tenths of all thoughtful Americans have always been against it. Why not repeal it? The House and Senate will be safety Democratic and most of the State Legislatures will be of the same complexion. Is it altogsther out of the question to hope for the necessary two-thirds majority in Congress, and the consent of three-fourths of the Legislatures? I don’t know, but at any rate the thing should be worth testing.