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The
Tory party in Birmingham had been indiscreet enough to contest the
borough. They selected a very unlikely man to succeed--Mr. A.G.
Stapleton--and they failed utterly, the Liberals polling more than two
to one. The Conservatives had their head-quarters at the Royal Hotel
in Temple Row. Crowds of excited people surrounded the hotel day
by day and evening after evening. One night something unusual had
exasperated them, and they attacked the hotel. There were no police
in Birmingham then, and the mob had things pretty much their own way.
Showers of heavy stones soon smashed the windows to atoms, and so
damaged the building as to make it necessary to erect a scaffold
covering the whole frontage before the necessary repairs could be
completed. When I first saw it, it was in a wretched plight, and it
took many weeks to repair the damage done by the rioters. The portico
now standing in front of the building--which is now used as the Eye
Hospital--was built at this time, the doorway up to then not having
that protection.


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