JOURNALISTS AND POLITICIANS.

On the Saturday preceding the first of May everything was in a state of bewildering uncertainty. The Davis delegates were sincerely confident of success, and the Brown delegates professed equal serenity of faith. But the ordinary observer was simply bewildered by the scarcity of facts, and the abundance of possibilities. Only fragments of delegations about whom hung shreds of politicians were in the city. There were rumors of the expected presence of many persons of distinction.

It was expected that the inherent modesty of Democratic politicians would keep them at a distance from a meeting in which they had not been invited to participate. Force of habit was too strong with a few. Belmont, eager in the support of Adams, like a tethered horse, moved about Cincinnati as a pivot. One day report had him snipshooting in southern Indiana, and the next transferred him to the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, where he gave himself up to the purchase of blooded horses with such a degree of absorption, that it seemed impossible he would ever condescend to politics again. About the time of the assembling of the convention, he went back to New York, and ceased temporarily to be a theme of newspaper

comment.

Anna Dickinson was said to have engaged rooms at the Carlyle House, but she failed to make an appearance. Horace White, of the Chicago

Tribune, reached Cincinnati on Saturday morning, making a strong accession to the Free Trade element already present. The Saturday night trains added large numbers to the floating population, and on Sunday things began to gather shape; the chaos commenced slowly rounding into form.

THE TARIFF QUESTION.

The leaders in the liberal movement had from the first recognized that the real rock in their path, on which their bark was in danger of shipwreck, was the tariff question. They therefore approached it warily, and with an attempt at skillful pilotage. The free-trade men, being first upon the ground in force, had the preliminary shaping of the business. The first meeting to consider the question was held in the ladies' parlor of the St. James Hotel, at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, April 28th. Not an avowed Protectionist was in the room. There were present Mahlon Sands, Henry D. Lloyd and Illinois Prime, all paid employees of the National Free Trade League, and all pledged, of course, to every possible effort to get the free trade question in some desirable shape into the platform. Atkinson and Bird, of Boston, were there, quiet, well-bred, earnest. Judge Hoadley formed a segment of the circle into which the party was formed-restless in manner, and looked at askance by the others, as a sort of political bull in the liberal china shop.

The bland face of David A. Wells, almost as placid and moonlike as the visage of his great op

ponent in the matter of revenue from customs, Horace Greeley, illumined the ring, and near it the pale, distressed features of | Horace White attracted general attention. Carl Schurz, who had arrived during the previous night, was in the little assembly, quietly observant, and plainly studying how not to say it. General J. D. Cox occupied the chair. There were present, besides, at the services of this holy Sabbath occasion, Mr. Dorsheimer, of Buffalo, General Brinkerhoff, General Burnett and Colonel George Ward Nichols, of Cincinnati, and one or two others even less noteworthy than these last.

The discussion was informal, and only indicated the preferences and predilections of each in regard to the points in debate. Judge Hoadley was pronounced in favor of a vigorous free trade plank in the platform, and had drafted a resolution looking to that end, which he presented to the meeting. He was supported by General Burnett. Horace White preferred that free trade should not be made needlessly prominent in the platform; free trade was only a matter of degree; as for absolute free trade, it was not a question of the present, but an issue of the future.

Schurz favored some negative declaration in regard to it. The sentiments of the meeting were divided, and those in attendance separated with expressed wishes for conciliation and harmony, to meet again the next day at the same hour and in the same apartment. But the apple of discord had