Shoving a peanut up Broadway with a crowbar, and other election wagers

The 1916 Presidential election was a nail-biter. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic incumbent, faced a stiff challenge from Republican Evans Hughes.

The early results on election night suggested that Hughes would pull off an upset. It wasn't until two days later that Wilson clinched the electoral college after winning California by only 3,773 votes.

Voters back then didn't have social media as an outlet for trash talking while awaiting the results, but they did have another way to show their party allegiance: election wagers. The losers of these bets would have to perform embarrassing spectacles in public.

The Weekly Tribune newspaper of Cape Girardeau reported at least four instances of bets placed on the Wilson-Hughes outcome.

The first was by high school student Inez Paar. According to the newspaper, she "created a commotion on Broadway as she made her way along the sidewalk with a clanging, banging, rattling, harsh-voiced sheep bell tied to her ankle." The story noted, "If it was a liquidation of a freak election bet, hers is the first of that character to be paid in the Cape."

Next was Fritz Vorweg who placed this bet with Fred Hartle: "If Hughes is elected, you wheel me about the city in a wheelbarrow, and if Wilson gets over the plate, I'll shove you over the city."

The newspaper stated that Vorweg intended to honor the bet on Nov. 17, but it's unclear if the wheelbarrow "joyride" was actually delivered.

We do know that another bet was successfully paid: Joseph Price shaved his head after losing to a friend who wished to remain anonymous.

The newspaper reported that "when it became apparent that Mr. Hughes had only been fooling the country, Joseph H. Price remembered that he had an appointment to organize a lodge up in Perry County. From that county he traveled to Jefferson County, organizing fraternal lodges and trying to forget that he had ever been a friend of Mr. Hughes."

When Price finally returned to Cape, his friend tracked him down and "escorted" him to a barber shop. Proclaimed the newspaper, "When (Price) climbed out of the tonsorialist's chair he was as barren of hair as a bald eagle."

The final election wager was by Gene "Skinner" Speak, leader of the young Republicans' league in Cape. After losing a bet to Marcella Temple, he was obligated to "don a plug hat and full evening dress scenery, take a crowbar in hand and roll a nut up Broadway from Main street to Lorimier."

Speak initially tried to stall, saying that he wanted to wait for the official count to be announced first. Then he said that he would "enter into diplomatic negotiations in an effort to get permission to use a whiskbroom instead of the crowbar in 'goosing' the peanut up the hill."

I couldn't find any mention in later editions of the newspaper about whether the peanut- shoving stunt was actually performed, but it must have been quite a scene if it was.