“RIOTING AND DRUNKENNESS.”
The above heading seems fitly to express the condition of things in St. Louis during the Republican national convention, according to a reporter of the New York Voice. It will probably be about the same in Chicago during the Democratic convention now in session. The pith of the Voice article may be seen in the following extracts:— “It has been a big drunk. Fights were frequent, women were insulted, and the most nauseating immorality was indulged in.” “It is estimated by a conservative that $200,000 was spent by the delegates and other visitors for liquor. One saloon on Broadway, which could serve 150 people in its barroom and several side rooms, not including the restaurant, took in about $5,000 a day.” “Hundreds were howling drunk every night, and some were seen who had been on a spree all the week. The Southern Hotel bar, a half block long, kept ten barkeepers busy all day and all night. Early Tuesday morning there was a pitched battle in the rotunda of this hotel. It was the first real fight of the convention. Drunken men pummeled each other like wild savages.” “The fight became so dangerous that the proprietor turned in a riot call. This became known, and the rioters fled from the hotel temporarily, and when twenty-five policemen appeared on the scene, they saw nothing but wrecked banners and torn pictures on the marble floor.”},{