Diversions at the picnic. Athletics and games. There was fun aplenty. There always is at these Sullivan clan outings. There was plenty to eat, for one thing, and plenty to drink. It was a hungry and thirsty crowd which swarmed into the big dining hall and fell to on the green corn, roast beef, and pie, all they wanted of it. This meal was early in the afternoon. The real dinner came later, after everybody had been satisfied with the frolic or watching athletic stunts. It was a big job feeding that hungry Sullivan clan. The Sullivans themselves and their close friends did not sit at the general tables. They were otherwise occupied most of the day. There were numerous poker parties in the little private rooms about the grove. In fact, several poker parties were organized on board the steamboats as soon as they left the pier, and the players resumed juggling the chips at the grove. On the athletic field there was a lot of fun. There are many fair athletes on the Bowery and throughout the Sullivans' district. But some of the stunts that had been arranged did not require athletic skill. For instance, the pie-eating contest. In this there were forty entries. There were a hundred or more juicy huckleberry pies. The rule was, "Eat half a pie, run 200 yards, eat a whole pie." The man who did this in the shortest time received a gold medal. He was Mike Sautinoli, time, 7 minutes. At the finish Mike's face looked like the inside of a pie itself. The obstacle race provoked much mirth. The contestants had to hop some hurdles, skip over a lot of beer kegs, then some nets, and finally a collection of beer kegs, barrels, and tables. Anthony Bonanti won this race. He got a gold medal. The horse race had thirty-six starters. Each man rode a stage horse. Jim Marino won the race and got a gold medal. About 100 of the clan took part in the shoe race. They stripped off their shoes, and the shoes were forthwith mixed up. The racers ran 100 yards, returned, and after picking out their own shoes from the pile, put them on. John Russo won out and got a gold medal. Frank Burns won the running backward race. The fat men's race was great sport. Peter Burns, the old prizefighter, finally was de clared victor, but three heats were run. There was another man, an Irishman, who won the first two heats, but the judges decided that he did not weigh quite 200 pounds. Burns got a gold medal. There was also a baseball game. The order had gone out before the start that no "dicers," or silk hats, were to be allowed at the outing. The clan obeyed. There was only one dicer to be seen. It was worn by Assemblyman James E. Oliver, "Paradise Park Jimmie," as he is known to the Sullivan clan. Charles F. Murphy visited the grove late in the afternoon. Many other well-known Tammany Hall politicians of note were also there at one time of the day or another. It was a grand day for the Sullivan clan, and they all voted it a big success. In winter as well as in summer, Mr. Sullivan remembers his constituents. This account is from the Times of February 7, 1908: More than 5000 pairs of shoes and warm stockings were distributed yesterday afternoon and last night among the poor men and boys of the East Side by the Timothy D. Sullivan Association. The distribution was made at 207 Bowery, and no worthy man was turned away while a pair of shoes was left. The word had gone forth that it was the Sullivan "shoe day," and from every nook came the army of near-shoeless. And the shoes were handed out right and left without question. The association took every man's word for it that he was in dire need of the charity. When the time came to begin the distribution the line of shivering men and boys extended from 207 three blocks down the Bowery to Grand Street. Another extended over to Rivington Street and around to Chrystie. In the long lines were scores whose footgear was a mere excuse. Boys there were who were so nearly barefoot that none could doubt the grim necessity for a charitable substitute for what they wore. Vagrant toes would The free distribution of shoes. The repeating of nonresidents. get out in the snow despite the most valiant efforts of their owners. Scores of the unfortunates hardly waited to get into the street before they began shucking their tatters and replacing them with the warm stockings and serviceable shoes. Although the time fixed for the beginning of the work was 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon, the lines were well started hours before. Nearly every man and boy was armed with a ticket. These were given out at the annual Christmas dinner given by the association. Many others were passed out to worthy sufferers yesterday in the Bowery lodging houses. The shoes and stockings were in big boxes that were stacked up in regular order so as to facilitate the work of distributing them. The sizes were generous, so that no foot might find itself barred out. Many of the ticket holders found themselves equipped with number tens, when a six would have been ample, but this little discrepancy apparently gave the recipients no great concern. Ill-fits were better, obviously, than no fits at all. ... Mike Summers, brother-in-law of "Big Tim," stood by the long table behind which were piled the shoes. As Jamsie, the janitor, and Election District Captains called out the sizes John White, Treasurer of the Association, and Harry Applebaum, Secretary to "Big Tim," handed out the shoes. 227. Some Primitive Election Devices These are interesting accounts of some election methods, unhappily not entirely obsolete, which were formerly quite common in American politics: I was a resident of Kansas. I went one day to a town in an adjoining county, not knowing that they had had a county seat election there the day before, though if I had known it would not have prevented me from going there. However, I had not more than landed from the train, when the probate judge of that county met me; he looked astonished and astonished me by remarking "My God, Spooner, what are you doing here?" I told him the business that had called me there, when he asked me to get right out on the first train. I asked him why and he answered, "Why, man, you only voted thirty-two times here yesterday." I thought it was time to get out of that town, and when I inquired later I found that they had voted, religiously and constantly, as many times as possible, every man whose name they knew in any county of the State. Those were the days when in county seat elections and railroad Checkmating an bond elections the number of votes cast in a county sometimes election exceeded the population of the State. We had a railroad bond count. election in my own county, and from the adjoining rival town watchers came down. Neither town wanted bonds to go through for the benefit of the other town. So these watchers came down and watched our election. They were primitive in their method of checks and safeguards - they were farmers - and the chairman of that committee had his left-hand overcoat pocket full of corn; as fast as a vote was polled he transferred a grain of corn from that pocket to the right-hand pocket. One of our residents caught sight of the color of the corn, was gone a few minutes, came back with his pockets suspiciously full, and then stood for some time very close to the watching chairman, who soon found that his right-hand pocket was full and could not understand how it had happened. He lost his count. A political worker in New York City thus describes his experience with a packed convention several years ago: How the I attended as a delegate an Assembly district convention, which was composed of 93 delegates. Sixty-four of those delegates, duly certified, with their credentials in their hands, were known to be vention. in opposition to what was understood to be the controlling power of the organization in the city (New York) - the county committee. Twenty-nine were in its favor. The man who was designated by the county committee to call that convention to order stood upon a narrow platform, with a police captain directly in front of him, The list The state committee. called for nominations for temporary chairman, refused every demand for a call of the roll, would not permit a standing vote, but simply called for a viva voce vote on the nominations made, and declared that one elected who was favored by the minority of the convention, claiming to base his declaration on his perception of volume of sound. The one so declared elected chairman was immediately inducted into office, the police captain standing in front protecting him in the retention of his place upon the platform, and that man in presiding over that convention never once allowed a call of the roll or a standing vote, but decided everything, even to his declaring the close of the convention, on his perception of volume of sound-recognized no appeal or any objection or protest whatsoever. The real majority of that convention, retaining their places on the floor, were obliged to organize the convention and conduct its proceedings without a platform for the real chairman to occupy. 228. State Control of Party Organization The extent to which state legislation has gone in controlling party organization, and attempting to prevent boss rule is indicated by this extract from the recent primary law of Illinois :1 SEC. 8. The following committees shall constitute the central or managing committees of each political party, viz.: A state central committee; a congressional committee for each congressional district; a senatorial committee for each senatorial district; a county central committee for each county; a city central committee for each city or village; and a precinct committee for each precinct. Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent a political party from electing or appointing in accordance with its practice other committees. SEC. 9. (1) The State central committee shall be composed of 1 While these pages were passing through the press this law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Illinois, but the extract given here still serves its original purpose, that of illustrating an important tendency in state legislation controlling political parties. |