by Henry S. Wyer

31 Humors of Election Day in Old Nantucket

by Henry S. Wyer

AS A RULE election day is devoid of great excitement, except among the few candidates and their zealous followers. But it happens occasionally that the day is enlivened by the strenuous efforts of opposing candidates for Representative to the General Court. At such times many vehicles, attached to more or less weary steeds, flit about town in search of aged, decrepit or lazy voters who are supposed to be unequal to the effort of ten minutes' walk to the polling place. In passing, it may be observed that these venerable voters are not always to be depended on to "vote right", once they reach the seclusion of a stall, with the Australian ballot before them.

On one election day many years since an estimable lady was sitting by her front window, "seeing the pass", as the vernacular has it, when suddenly a team of raw-boned horses, attached to Lisha Pinkham's ancient hack, whirled around the Ocean House corner at an unwonted pace (funerals being their usual specialty). As this imposing turnout came within the vision of the lady at the window, her attention was drawn to a placard attached to the side of the hack bearing the inscription, "Vote for D. C. for Representative". A second later the "amiable warming pan" face of Uncle Steve Hussey, the veteran cobbler, appeared at the window of the hack, his mouth drawn in an expansive though tight-lipped smile, indicative of his vast enjoyment of his wild ride. As the hack came opposite the lady's house, a dark object — in fact, two dark objects — were seen to fly out from its windows, as though projected from a mortar. As they landed on the sidewalk, it became evident that they were nothing more or less than a pair of lady's shoes, newly soled and heeled, which the lady at the window at once recognized as her own. The hack sped on its way, bearing Uncle Steve in triumph to his home up North Shore.

A newly-wedded couple who, being off-islanders, were unaccustomed to local usages, saw a pair of shoes land on the sidewalk, but not preceiving whence they came, stood amazed at the strange spectacle. "0 look, dearie," says the bride. "It rains shoes out of a clear sky in Nantucket!"

(From "Spun-Yarn From Old Nantucket)