Ballots Pour In - A Bloody Melee
8 DEC 1885. Austin Daily Statesman.
CITY ELECTION. BOTH SIDES WORKED HARD TO WIN. COL. J.W. ROBERTSON ELECTED MAYOR, LEADING MR. NALLE THIRTY-FOUR VOTES.
Early yesterday morning when the average man yawns and stretches and turns comfortably to tuck himself under the blankets for another morning snooze the leaders of the contending parties for the mayorship were out marshaling their posts for the day’s conflict. A dense fog enveloped the city and the gas lights drearily flickering in the mist shed a ghostly glare upon the damp, slippery sidewalks. Ever and anon a captain of one or the other candidates, closely, muffled up, for it was nipping cold at that hour, would suddenly emerge from the fog, hurry by and rapidly disappear in search of his lieutenants and ticket circulators.
By 8 o’clock the fog lifted and drifted away and the judges threw open the polls, and soon thereafter the ballots began to pour in, and from then until night all was bustle and excitement. The friends of the candidates were everywhere, watching and working at if everything depended on their individual efforts. Hacks, loaded down with voters, hurriedly deposited their loads at the polling places and whirled off after others. During the live-long day the contest waxed hot, and ebbed and flowed with a varying and ticklish capriciousness which was vexatious and trying in the extreme.
At times victory seemed to smile upon Col. Robertson, and his followers would be jubilant and his opponents correspondingly dismal. Then it seemed about to perch upon the banners of Capt. Nalle, and his followers would be joyous, while his opponents would put on sack cloth and ashes. Thus it was, and thus were men buffeted about, and their souls tried by fickle fortune. Never before in the history of the city was there such a contest, and never before did men strive and work for their candidates.
A BLOODY AFFRAY IN WHICH TWO MEN ARE BADLY USED UP.
Yesterday, down in the first ward, in a house kept by Blanche Dumont, Bob Marshan and Walter Morgan engaged in a bloody melee which lasted some minutes, and in which both were severely cut about the face and head. From all that could be learned Marshan was the aggressor. The fight occurred in a room of the house and wash bowls, pitchers, looking glasses and chairs were freely used by the two men. Officer Henderson, who was in the neighborhood, hearing the racket, hurried to the premises and arrested the men, and possibly prevented a murder. Bleeding freely, they were carried to the police station, where they were searched and a villainous knife, with a blade about ten inches long found concealed in the shoe of Walter Morgan. They will have a hearing this morning before Recorder Johns.
