Daily "Norwalk Gazette.
\VEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1890.
INTERPRETING THE BALLOT ACT]
The esteemed Palladium has this able
legal treatise upon Connecticut’s unique
political situation.
from the pen of Judge Harrison. It
say’s :
The decision of Judge Hall of the
superior court in the East Lyme con-
tested election case is most important.
It supplements the ruling of the su—
preme court in the Hartford case and
together they form a very helpful body
of precedents, which will direct politi—
cal parties in conducting elections here-
after and stimulate the individual voter
to exercise great care in assuring him-
self of the validity of the ballots he
casts. It is not improbable that hedged
about by these decisions and possibly
others to follow, the law will be found
most effective in operation.
Judge Hall’s decision is written in
lucid, vigorous English. His opinions
as expressed indicate the unfaltering
conclusions of his own mind. His per-
sonal knowledge of the history of the
act and objects it was designed to attain
gave him exceptional advantages in the
cousideration of tlie subject. What-
ever may be the practical outcome of
the decision as effecting politicalparties
in this state, no one can question the
great ability and judicial fairness, dis-
played in Judge Hall’s opinion.
Certain democratic journals, without
giving the opinion any study, have
reached the superficial conclusion that
it greatly favors their party and ulti-
mately must result in a conceded ma-
jority for Judge Morris. The Palla-
dium questions this. It is simply a
part of the programme of brag and
bluster by which the democratic lead-
ers have endeavored to shout Judge
Morris into office. The eagerness with
which they hail an opportunity to in-
crease his apparent majority of twenty-
six shows how troubled they are by
fears of» its genuineness ; while their
readiness now to “go behind the re-
turns,” notwithstanding they have
steadily maintained the moderators’
action to be final, puts the democrats
in a very amusing light.
It is true that Judge Hall holds that
ballots on which was printed no name
of a candidate for judge of probate, the
space being filled with a pastor or a
name being written therein, is illegal
as to that candidate. Well and good.
While it remains to be seen whether
the supreme court will substantiate this
finding, it certainly looks like good
law. If it is, let it stand, whatever the
results may be, or whatever party’s
prospects are brightened.
But while it is true that under this
decision prohibition votes which are
needed to make up General Merwin’s
successful total may be hold to be ille-
gal by reason of no name being print-
ed under the title of the judge of pro-
bate, it is also true that over the state
Were cast democratic ballots, ‘probably
5,000 in number, similarly defective.
An investigation to find the prohibition
votes will reveal the faulty democratic
ballots. The republican managers a
few weeks before the November elec-
tion suspected the possibility of votes
being vitiated by neglect to print the
names of candidates for all oflices, and
issued orders to local authorities to be
on the safe side. The democrats, on
the other hand, sent out thousands of
ballots defective under such a decision
(should the legislature invite interpre-
.tation of the courts as to the state offi-
cers, and Judge Hall’s position be sub-
stantiated). Corection of results would
therefore strip Judge Morris of a great
number of votes, probably effecting his
defeat even with the prohibition votes
lost to General Merwin. Moreover, a
recount ,might unseat two, perhaps
three congressmen; possibly change
the complexion of the senate, and work
havoc elsewhere. If Judge Hall’s de-
cision be a democratic windfall, it isn’t
at the republicans’ expense.
3111011 of Judge Hall’s reasoning 'is
intensely Practical. _ He shows that by
tolerating 1‘siniss and designing breach—
es of strict observance, the law can be
broken down and the object of secrecy
lost. As to the blank on the prohibi-
tion votes, the declaration of the su-
preme (30111“t leaves no question as to
its illegality. “What is the ballot? It
consists not merely oi the paper of the
required size and quality, but also the
required printing thereon, No part-
may be. omitted. If the heme 0f the,
party may be omitted, so may the name
of thezcandidate or oflice._ If either of
the last. two is left out its valiqity as a
ballot is destroyed.”
Nor does the insertion of a name by
inserting in writing over 'one or more
of the blanks make the ballot lkqal.
Even by the strictest constructionxof
the Connecticut or Australian, any sq-
cret ballot law, in fact, is not possible
to wholly preclude the identification of
purchased ballots by the announée-
ment in the count of a certain number
of votes for “RichardeRoe” or other
fictitious candidate, voted for by the
purchased voter in evidence that
he did as he agreed.
Should then the courts concede that bal—
lots may have any number of blanks.
‘ upon them, to be filled in with pastors,
the'evil of identification would be great-
ly increased: and the law become a farce
in its attempt to break off relations be-
tween venal voters and their purchasers.
It is presumably _
Certainly the intention of the act as to
what liberties independent voters may
take with a ballot legal in "its make-up,
is perfectly clear : “Any voter may al-
ter or change his ballot by erasing any
name thereon in writing or' by a pastor
the name of any person for any office to
be voted for thereon, other than the
person thereon named for such office.”
Judge Hall’s decision does not settle
the question of the validity of the
Bridgeport “ ink-specked ballots or of
the ballots containing the word “ For.”
These points lie' outside the discussion
of the East Lyme case. The judge takes
occasion to say, however, that ink specks
and unnecessary words inadvertently
printed on the ballot fail to vitiate the
ballot unless it can be proved that they .
were designed to identify voters or could
be so used, and thus effect an evasion of
the law.
Judge Hall’s Viinding in relation to
folded ballots is important as showing
the judicial intention of strict con-
struction. Eight republican ballots,
with corners turned down alike, the
whole then folded diagonally, and again
through the center—each ballotthusbe-
ing folded one and three—quarter inches
square—were declared illegal on the
ground that the effect of these striking-
ly unusual folds was a distinguishing
mark. XVhile the act does not in terms
regulate the voter as to the folding of a
ballot, it is prescribed that “If any en-
velope or ballot shall contain any mark
or device so that thesame may be iden-
tified in such a manner as to indicate
who might have cast the same, it shall
not be counted.” The judge well says
of the folding of ballots in an unusual
way, “This novel and ingenious device
to evade the law cannot be permitted to
succeed.”
Judge Hall has construed the law,not
liberally, but strictly. The decision of
thesdpreme court in the matter of the
“citizen’s ticket” in Hartford undoubt-
edly guided him and until that tribunal
indicates a moderate interpretation of
the new ballot act interpretations of
its requirements will be along the same
line of strict construction. As to the
effect in deciding what men are to man
the state government next year, the
republicans have reason to believe the
decision favors rather than hurts their
prospects. Their position, however, is
unchanged. They believe, as from the
first of the controversy, that local
moderators are not the final judges in
interpreting a new ballot law. Bepub- .
licans’ faces still turn- toward the su-
preme court and the democrats, too,
are inclined that way. \Ve believe the
decision has done much .to pave the Way
fora legislative inquiry into the re-
turns and a judicial interpretation of
the statute.
--4———— -— ~ woo». - ....__
LUNCH.
GREAT MEN AT
Each One of Them Has His Fad and Pat»
sues It. Nearly Every Day.
That great men eat. lunch just as ordi-
nary mortals is conceded to be a. fact.
But who has ever taken the trouble to ob-
serve them at lunch? And yet the lunch
oft proclaims the man.
Close study will reveal that your great
man in no wise differs from his humbler
brother in suffering his essential charac-
teristics to stand forth in his way of lunch-
ing. l have often watched with interest
this unconscious cerebration as its phe-
nomena disclose themselves.
Several years ago the Rev. Dr. Morgan
Dix, rector of Trinity church, was a. regu-
lar patron of the rotunda. He always ap-
peared f or his luncheon at preciser the
same hour every day, and invariably
mounted the same stool with impressive
dignity. I noted that he ordered a bowl of
soup four days out of five, withcn unal:
terable preference for mullagatziwnysoup.
Having demolished his soup he would de-
scend from the high stool and go his way
as quietly as he came.
After this I had occasion to form this
generalization, viz., that all men Whose
vocation demands the display of constant
dignity and whose pursuits are sedentary
eat soup for. lunch. I saw that Judge La-
combe, of the United States circuit court,
was very partial to soup as a lunch, and
that other high judicial officers possessed
the same weakness, or, let me say, Sign Of
moral strength. Men of this stamp eat
their soup deliberately and appear to be
vwholly self contained. ‘
Governor Leon Abbott, of New Jersey,
on the other hand, always appears to be in
a hurry. He enters the rotunda withhis
hat tilted back on his head and his over-
coat unbuttoncd. ' He, too, always selects
a certain stool, but mounts it vabstractedly.
The first thing he does is to tie a napkin
around his neck, after the manner of an
infan t’s bib. Then he plunges into his
lunch like a man who has no time to lose;
He eats a roast or an entree and rounds of!
with dessert.
Orator Daniel Daugherty is one of the
rotunda’s most delightful lunchers. He
saunters in as if he had the whole day be-
fore him and seats himself before the gray
haired artist who carves the roast beef. Of
course the carver and the eloquent Phila-
delphian are on good terms, and neither
suffers in the general dicker.
Police Justice
walks up to the lunch counter as if he had
a. disagreeable duty to perform. He will
glance over the bill of fare as though .it
were Fox’s “Book of Martyrs,” and after
he has ordered a luncheon fit for a police
captain usually throws off a few genial
nphorisms to the waiter. . .
But all these great ones are no circum-
stance to the great American crank, who,
begins with a cocktail and ends by attack-
ing the whole catalogue to sweets—New
York Herald.
“evolution in Diamond Mining.
A writer on the subject of the dimond
Stoply of the world, which is steadily in-
?msing. and which can be regarded as an
lndcx of how much of its surplus earnings
'1‘ can aflTord to spénd yearly in this pal-tic
“1311me of luxury, says that the romance
0f alam'md mining is all 'gone. It is now
a matter if excavating vast beds of blue
clay by mtehinerv, washing itnnd sifting
out the d‘unonds, which. after being:
msghly some for size, aresold in bulk by
weight. The men who doe-the work are
mere laborers, ind. their pay. is proportion.
atell’ small—1M“, York Commercial Ad-
vertiser.
rmnonuorrolv.
' ‘ _....._.
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SERJ EANT-TRU M PETERS. '
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POLKA—MARCH. , . .
Published through The American Press Association.
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By CECIL RAY.
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RED HUSSllR'WlLlZ-SONG.
Arranged from The Song of the Regiment (Steady, Boys 2‘)
Published througk The American Press Association, by perm-twice of M. Lead} (6 6b., 18 East
Seventeenth. St, New York.
. By B. F. CANPIGLIO.
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Patrick Gavan Duffy _
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of the Reg -'
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” A co'u‘Nr'a’v sci-loci. ' House.
It Costs $4,500 and Seats Fifty-two
, , Pupils.
[Copyright by American Press Association]
Until recently very little attention has
been given to the arrangement and con-
. struction of ,school houses. Happily there
is a tendency toward reform in these mat-
ters which must result in great improve-
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. .i::;-f//I-I-IIIEL cl
.VV/I ' 71'
:5» “if-sa-
ment in the education of the future youth
of our country. The drawings here given
represent the design of 'a' schoolhouse suit~
able fer a small village or country town.
It is situated in the middle of a plot
of ground 100 feet in width by 200 feet
in depth. The. dimensions of the main
building are 34 feet by 56 feet, giving two
school rooms 27 feet by 32_ feet» 10 inches
each, suitable for the, accommodation of fif-
ty-two pupils, arranged in single desksnvith
the necessary aisles, etc, with large front
vestibule halls, lecture room, teacher-5’
room and cloak rooms. The school rooms
are separated by large sliding doors, ar-
ranged so that the two rooms may be
thrown into one large room as occasion
may require.
There is a cellar eight feet in the clear
under the entire building, well lighted and
ventilated. The foundation walls are of
stone laid in cement mortar. The level of
the main school room .floor‘ is four feet '
above the ground. The foundation walls
below the level of the ground are plastered
with cement, and covered with a damp
proof coating of-four layers hot asphaltiC‘
cement, and heavily coated with the same
material. This damp proof course one
tends through the walls six inches on the
inside at a level with the under side of the
cement or concrete floor. A concrete floor
Touhu‘ . '
Ruin. Truthu'Rcau.
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Girl" Schaotflwm.
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GROUND PLAN OF SCHOOL noose.
not less than three inches thick is put
down over the collar bottom and leveled.
Side wallsof basement furred off with one
inch fuming stripsjfor lathing and plaster--
mg.
All outside work except foundation
walls. are painted two coats. The side
walls and ceilings of basement and main
story are hard finished on two coats brown
mortar and well seaSonedlath. The sides
of the halls, cloak and school rooms and
play rooms in basement are wainscoted to
height of the window stools inside;
The doors are of white pine, floors of
Georgia pine, all other inside woodwork
of North Carolina pine. Sash of white
pine, glazed with double thick American
glass and balanced with weights and - best
cotton cord.
All locks, knobs, sash. locks and lifts,
butts, etc., of bronze.
.The furnace place is of terra cotta, car-
ried up with a large brick fine on each side
in the chimney for ventilating the school
rooms. The building is heated by a fur-
nacci
The same plancould be used for a two
story school house. The cost of the build-
ing is $4,500. The two story building,
$6,000. ‘3 D. W. KING.
A Japanese Sitting Room. -
This design is somewhat Japanese in '
character. The general color isa warm,
light chocolate brown, broken by small
touches of many harmonizing colors, The
high dado is a. dark chocolate, covered with
carelessly arranged cii‘cles of a. lighter,
shade, bearing different designs of the blue
lotus flowers and buds and plain salmon
lilies. The border between the dado and
' wall is decorated with the pink lotus, dull
purplish blue being worked in for accent.
The wall is very simple,'metallic flowers,
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A SITTING noon;
severely conventionalized on light tetra
cotta. ground, set of! with a few strong yel-
low lines. The narrow frieze 1310! the
same shade of'terra cottatcovered with
metallic blue lilies and gray green leaves.
The ceiling isin Strong Contrast, a lus-
trous bluegreen in three shades, set 05
here and there by crimson lines. The de-
sign of the carpets is in harmony, giving
to the whole a rich eflect. This style of
‘ decorating is also suitable for amorning
room, smoking room or dining mom.
' - D. W. :Kme.
William J. Brooks, or Sanford, Midland '
county; Mich, was a. soldier iu'three wars,
the Mexican. Central American and for
the Union. He received thirteen wounds,
and. carries in his body three bullets.
game call W3: brloke 0?:er enlisted.
, ;. 9.88117 .0 ecose. , rt
theit’ixnehe v'vas e‘“ i. “may: of
patehu,andhadmany'hairhreadth ' ‘
.one time having a ropezatound hian, _ to
caged.
bah , V.
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Norwalk Chronicler