1904.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 1168

the special session of the Legislature in 1901 in which
he was a member, having been elected in November
1899, the testimony shows that he and his wife had
separated and he therefore occupied the status of a
single man, that his position required him to be in
touch with the department and for that reason, he
stopped in Baltimore at the Maltby House for a day
or a right at a time but never longer than three days,
as he had stopped at other hotels throughout the State,
that he kept a trunk and clothing at the home of his
mother and single brother who lived together at the
old homestead, where he returned at least once in two
weeks and oftener in the summer when the train ser-
vice permitted. He was elected to this House in
November, 1901, and served during the session of 1902
and the short special session of the same year, having
resigned his government position when nominated as
he again did in the fall of last year when for the third
time, he was nominated for this House and returned
elected.

Mr. Smoot has voted in the Fifth District of Charles
county every since he became of age; he soon received
an appointment from Governor Brown in the Tabacco
Warehouse and went to Baltimore to assume the duties
thereof, he filled that position about four years, when
he returned to Charles county and conducted a store for
about a year, living with his father until he received
an appointment in the Baltimore postoffice about seven
years ago and returned to Baltimore where he remained
until a few weeks before the election last fall, when he
resigned his position and went to the home of his father
in Charles county; he says he visited the county once
in two weeks during his stay in Baltimore; though
witnesses familiar with his neighborhood, say they
seldom saw him except on election day. In 1900, he
applied for a marriage license from the Clerk of the
Court of Common Pleas of Baltimore, and is recorded
as having sworn that he was a resident of Baltimore
city, and signed the application containing that state-
ment, after his marriage he rented a fiat, and later a
house in Baltimore, which he furnished and there re-
sided with his wife, and there his child was born. Dr.
Smoot, the father of the contestee, testified that he