FLORIDA. 



FOG AND CLOUDS, GENESIS OF. 275 



A considerable excitement was aroused by 

 the publication, by the Democratic National 

 Committee, of copies of telegrams signed by 

 the chairman of the Republican National Com- 

 mittee, one of which, dated at New York, Oc- 

 tober 12th, and addressed to the collector at 

 Key West, contained the words "City of Dal- 

 las took 150, City of Texas 100, Colorado 100 

 for Key West," which were presumed by the 

 Democrats to signify that fraudulent negro vo- 

 ters were being imported into the State, but 

 which were explained by the Republicans to 

 be a warning against men suspected of being 

 Democratic repeaters. 



In counting the vote, "tissue-ballots" and 

 ballots in small form, known as " little jokers," 

 were discovered to have found their way into 

 the boxes in several precincts, though not in 

 numbers sufficient to have changed the issue. 

 In some instances the inspectors defeated the 

 fraud by the device of tightly compressing 

 and slightly twisting with their fingers every 

 ballot before dropping it in the box; so that 

 the multiple ballots were found inclosed in the 

 larger one which concealed them when the 

 vote was canvassed, in which cases no vote 

 was counted. A number of Democratic bal- 

 lots were found enwrapped in Republican ones, 

 and both were cast out in the canvas-? ; these 

 were supposed to have been deposited by ne- 

 gro voters who had promised and intended to 

 vote for the Democratic ticket, but were close- 

 ly watched by their own people, of whom the 

 vast majority are intolerant partisans, who re- 

 sent with anger any defection from the Repub- 

 lican party among the people of their own 

 race, and were therefore afraid to vote as they 

 desired, but secretly inclosed the Democratic 

 voting slips within Republican tickets. Great 

 complaints were made on the part of the Dem- 

 ocrats of the terrorism and petty persecutions 

 to which colored citizens were subjected by 

 their own race for abandoning the Republican 

 party. After the election a large number of 

 arrests were made by United States marshals 

 for illegal voting. At Madison a number of 

 prisoners, in charge of a deputy-marshal, were 

 forcibly released while entering a railroad train, 

 apparently against their own will, by a band 

 of masked and armed men. The arrested par- 

 ties protested against the interference, and 

 took the next train for Jacksonville, and there 

 delivered themselves up to the United States 

 authorities, publishing a statement in the 

 newspapers denouncing the act of their self- 

 constituted protectors as hurtful to the State 

 at large, and unkind to themselves. 



In the election for Governor, Bloxham re- 

 ceived 28,378 votes, and Conover 23,297, giv- 

 ing Bloxham a majority of 5,081. In the first 

 Congressional district Davidson was elected 

 Representative by 14,971 votes, against 11,082 

 cast^for Witherspoon; in the second, Finley 

 received 13,105 votes, and was elected, Bisbee 

 polling 11,953. At the same election the bal- 

 lot was taken on the question of calling a con- 



vention for the revision of the Constitution, in 

 accordance with the terms of a joint resolution 

 by the Legislature, approved March 4, 1879. 

 The vote of the people on the Constitutional 

 Convention was adverse, 14,713 votes being 

 cast in favor of holding one, and 23,281 against. 



The total population of the State of Florida, 

 according to the schedules returned to the cen- 

 sus-office by the enumerators, is 266,566. Of 

 this number 134,951 are males, 131, 615 females, 

 256,871 native, and 9,695 foreign born; 141,- 

 219 white and 125,317 colored. This shows a 

 white preponderance over colored of 16,032. 

 The increase over the population of 1870 is 78,- 

 818, or about 42 per cent. The population of 

 the city of St. Augustine is given in the pre- 

 liminary returns as 20,350, against 11,750 in 

 1870. 



FOG AND CLOUDS, GENESIS OF. A the- 

 ory of the formation of clouds and mists has 

 been propounded by John Aitken, a Scotch 

 physicist, who offers strong experimental evi- 

 dence to support it. He considers the con- 

 densation of watery vapor into the minute 

 drops which make up clouds and fogs to be 

 due to the presence of dust-motes in the at- 

 mosphere, and that without dust there would 

 be no mists or clouds, and probably no rain. 

 That particles of water-vapor do not combine 

 to form a cloud-particle unless they find a nu- 

 cleus of solid matter upon which to condense 

 was proved by experiments. Steam was ad- 

 mitted into two receivers, one filled with com- 

 mon air, and the other with air from which 

 all dusty impurities had been removed by filter- 

 ing through cotton-wool. In the first the well- 

 known cloudy form of condensation took place, 

 while in the other there was no condensation 

 and no mist, the air becoming supersaturated 

 and remaining perfectly transparent. Vapor 

 in pure air consequently does not condense, 

 but the air becomes supersaturated; and, if 

 there were no floating dust in the atmosphere, 

 condensation could only take place on the sur- 

 face of solid bodies on the earth. Every ob- 

 ject would then become a condenser which 

 would be constantly covered with the water 

 deposited by the supersaturated air. When 

 there is much dust in the atmosphere but a 

 small quantity of water condenses on each, 

 and they float easily in the air ; but when the 

 air is very free from dust each particle receives 

 a greater quantity of moisture, and becomes 

 heavier and more quickly acted upon by gravi- 

 tation. The dusty state of the atmosphere is 

 revealed by the mist formed by the breath in 

 frosty weather, and by the cloudy appearance 

 of steam when escaping into the air. The par- 

 ticles necessary for the accumulation of vapor 

 may be finer than those visible in a sunbeam, 

 as air in which the visible motes had been de- 

 stroyed by burning was still found to be capa- 

 ble of giving a mist. The blue color of the sky 

 is supposed to be due to these excessively fine 

 particles. The sources of this cloud-generating 

 dust are probably many. Anything capable 



