CHAPTER IX 
     
    
   
   
    
     COUNTRY AND LOCAL AFFAIRS 
     
    
   
   
    
     It may be of interest to tell how public and local duties were per- 
     
     formed, if it may be properly termed “performed.” 
     
    
   
   
    
     . How Elections Were Conducted 
     
    
   
   
    
     Elections were generally wild times. These were about the only 
     
     times neighbours got into fights; this was caused, for the most part, 
     
     by liquor. Rum was free on these occasions. Without plenty of rum 
     
     a candidate’s chances for success were very poor, however good he or 
     
     his party or platform might be. Each candidate supplied the rum for 
     
     his supporters. It was kept at a booth, where they could drink all 
     
     they desired; and some of them had large desires. One time the bar- 
     
     rel supplied by a candidate was all drunk early in the day. The can- 
     
     didate was at another polling place several miles away. A. messenger 
     
     was sent with all possible haste, to have him send another barrel of 
     
     rum. The situation was desperate and he was informed that unless 
     
     he sent another barrel at once he would not get another vote. The rum 
     
     was sent immediately and it and the votes poured in like a river and 
     
     carried the candidate to a glorious victory. Most of the voters drank, 
     
     but not many got very drunk. It was a bad system. The voting was 
     
     open; the voter would go up to the place where votes were recorded, 
     
     and give his name and the one for whom he voted. There was no 
     
     secret about it. There was much ill-will engendered by political dif- 
     
     ferences among the people. But they began to see its unreasonable- 
     
     ness, and good feeling toward one another was soon restored. ‘If the 
     
     rum were kept away there would be very little trouble. The rum did 
     
     great harm, not only at elections, but at all times, and all over the 
     
     Island. Nearly every principal crossroad had a rum shop. Much 
     
     poverty and great misery and many deaths were caused by this bad 
     
    
   
   
    
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