The Daily Ardmoreite

THE REPUBLICAN WAY.
Negroes Ruled the Roost in Wagoner County Convention.
(Contributed.)
The republicans of Wagoner, Wagoner county, held their convention and nominated their county ticket last Friday at Coweta. Ellis Childers, part Indian and part negro blood, negro wife for a number of years, and who served two years in the penitentiary for assisting in a deal to swindle his own people out of $400, acted as chairman of the meeting. Two of the blackest negroes in the county acted as secretary and assistant secretary.
Judge L. L. Mosher of Wagoner, who was imported from Iowa about 18 months ago to take the position of United States commissioner at this place, and who has been acting as commissioner here since that time, was a candidate before the convention for the nomination of county judge. The majority of the delegates to that convention were negroes, and each delegation had its leader whose business it was to find out from what candidate they could get the most money for their votes. The Honorable Judge Mosher had things going his way until about 15 minutes before he was to be nominated before the convention. Jim Harris of Wagoner was opposed to this federal office holder and was supporting Mr. Drake of Wagoner. Just a short time before the judge's name was to be presented Jim Harris secured from several different negroes a number of checks, amounting to about $500, which the judge had had a friend of his to give these negroes for their support. He took these checks to Mosher and his political managers and demanded of Mosher that he have one of his political managers go before the convention and withdraw his name at once or he (Jim Harris) would go before the convention and exhibit the checks and expose the whole business. Mosher, of course, withdrew at once. It is a known fact by more than a hundred people, who were in Coweta that day, that the negroes named the entire ticket and the majority of the candidates bought their nominations. Henry Furman happened to be in Coweta that day so he attended the convention and saw a great deal that he can talk about during this campaign. The only negro nominated on the ticket was one county commissioner, but there were more than one white man nominated that the better element of white republicans will not support. It is now believed that the democrats will carry the county.