A Crepe-Draped Cleveland and the Custom-House Deal
Port Townsend Democrats gather amid patronage bargains, a sacrificed ally, and a prank that put the president's portrait in mourning.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
PORT TOWNSEND, Sept. 14.—[Special.]—Donald McInnis, Hugh Wallace's nominee for joint senator, is in the city and had a long conference with Collector Saunders at the custom house. Saunders' office was crowded all day with delegates anxious to hear his views as to the availability of certain nominees who are to come before the Democratic convention tomorrow. In accordance with the statement in today's Post-Intelligencer, R. W. Jennings, heretofore Mr. Saunders' strongest friend, is to be relegated to private life—sacrificed in honor of Kuhn and Tibbals' capitulation to the Tacoma Tammany organization. In compliance with Mr. Saunders' agreement, Judge Kuhn will be rewarded with the nomination for the legislature. Following is the custom-house ticket as it stands this evening: auditor, J. S. Rogers; sheriff, F. B. Terry; clerk, C. A. Dyer; county attorney, W. F. Rupert; treasurer, C. H. Fink or A. Walker; assessor, John Sheehan.
The Armory has been neatly decorated for tomorrow's convention. Saunders kindly lent the convention the only life-size picture of Cleveland in town. Some practical joker this afternoon turned the face to the wall and hung a piece of crepe on the frame. One of the custom-house employees replaced the picture and hung the crepe on the chairman's (H. L. Tibbals) desk.
“Some practical joker this afternoon turned the face to the wall and hung a piece of crepe on the frame.”
The 1894 convention shows how federal patronage—custom-house jobs and a collector's influence—could shape local tickets before voters had a say, an ancestor of today's party endorsement fights. The crepe on Cleveland's portrait is a reminder that political stagecraft and petty sabotage are old tools. Port Townsend's waterfront custom house still marks the ground where that machine politics played out.
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