One man, though a nominal supporter, was notoriously very shaky in his
allegiance. He was a railway guard and left the city daily on the 7.30
a.m. train, before the poll would open, returning by the fast train
from Dublin due at 7.40 p.m. He would thus on the polling day have had
ample time in which to record his vote. The change in his political
views was so well known that my nephew's Election Committee had
written off his vote as a hostile one, but they had reckoned without
the railway signalman. This signalman was a most ardent political
partisan and a strong adherent of my nephew's, and he was determined
to leave nothing to chance. Knowing perfectly how the land lay, he was
resolved to give the dubious guard no opportunity of recording a
possibly hostile vote, so, on his own initiative, he put his signals
against the Dublin train and kept her waiting for twenty-two minutes,
to the bewilderment of the passengers, until the striking of the
clocks announced the closing of the poll. Then he released her, and
the train rolled into the terminus at 8.5 p.m., so I fear that the
guard was unable to record his vote, hostile or otherwise. I think
that this is an example of _finesse_ in electioneering which would
never have occurred to an Englishman.
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