Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEWIS #099 2:1:51
liewis: Just that they didn't - just as I say, now over in
the tenth ward Sonny hahone and Curran
where there was a big Catholic settlement. See, that4 s
how part of Baltimore was. Was Catholic, and they all
stuck to ether down there. They tried to hire fellows out
here to try to get Democrat votes out here. Just like anybody,
they tried to get people to work in different neighborhoods
for them, but Sonny Mahone and them fellows, you got a jab in
the city - like in those days, was horse and wagon driving a
cart and stuff like that, you had to have their approval.
And . . .
Harvey: Well, did the Catholics in Hampden tend to be Demo-
crats?
Lewis: Mostly all, mostly all.
Harvey: HOW do you think the Republican power - say, up
until the First World War into the twenties, how did it
dissipate?
Lewis: Well, it went down for the simple reason that these
people coming up from the south were Protestants and all
were Democrat because they were southerners, You see, if
you go back and study history, England backed the South,
They had all them slaves, all of them. And that was it.
Of course, Maryland was a Catholic settlement to begin with.
But there were different sections; over in the old tenth
ward Protestants didn't go over in the old tenth ward over
around Greenmount Avenue down below North Avenue over there.
Hawes: But the Catholics here were Democrats and the