The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-02

she was wofully disappointed. for it must
be remembered that the success or failure
OF a man sometimes means more to his
mother, or his wife, thansto himself.
When election day came Shacklett went
over into one of the distant townships, and
from there directly to the county seat.
where he arrived about midnight. 1t was
nearly o'clock in the morning when the
returns began to come in, the central COM
mitteeman generally bringing in the unof-
| fetal figures himself. Before o'clock all
were in but two. and since these were not
the largest townships their delay indicated
much scratching ;hera, making it longer
task to count the ballots Blue Ridge was
the first of the two to arrive. and showed
that Scott and Thompson had each run
ahead of their respective tickets 10 votes,
giving Thompson a majority over his OPP
ponent of nearly two hundred in the county
and putting Scott to the good by forty less.
| Perry was normally on their side, and
! could in the nature of things only increase
Thompson's lead, while it would not in the
course of human events give enough of a
majority for ShackIett to overcome the
heavy vote with which Scott had come
down to its boundary line. Shacklett was
| quietly standing over by the bookcase in
the law office in which the party leaders
were gathered. Thompson was back in the
shadow, from which it was impossible to
lure him, and by this time a dozen people
! had saluted him as Judge Thompson. To
| the first of these he had shaken his head.
| and to the latter ones he said:
Don't get too fast. I'm not elected yet.
| and I amt sure 1 will be. If / get in it'll
be by scratch
At this the committeeman from Blue
| Ridge beckoned the chairman of the county
| central committee out into the hall, and
said:
THAT settles 1t in my mind about Thomp-
| son. He's lettin' on as though he amt con-
| fident jest to run bluff agin his tradin'
Shacklett off In my township. If he had
| clear conscience he'd be smilin' an sendin'
| out fer the seegars on the quiet by this
| time. Shacklett amt sayin' enough to
| make any prospect Of peace fer ten years.
| His friends'll knife Thompson's friends an
| our township till the cows come home, an
what'n you say agin 1t? You want to look
| out for these quiet people that have the
| right to be mad"
A quick step came up the stairs, and both
| men entered the room with the committee
man from Perry township Nobody could
| speak. but the looks Of inquiry bored into
| the brain of the last committeeman to re-
| port. He looked queerly at the rest as he
| said clearly:
| About ninety for the ticket Shacklett a
| hundred and seventy three. and''-in a low
er tone-"Thompson showed under by two
hundred and twelve"
Everybody was paralyzed except the men
most concerned-Shacklett and Thompson
Shacklett quickly walked over in front of
Thompson. and said earnestly:
THAT looks bad for me, Thompson, but 1
give you my word of honor L never traded
| you off for a single vote in the county, and
| / don't care how the figures in Perry look;
/ swear / worked as hard for you there as
| 1 did for myself" And he searched Thomp-
| sons face for sign that he was believed
| Thompson threw away a cigar stub, and
| taking a pace toward the middle of the
room which brought him out into the circle
of the lamplight for the first time. held out
his hand to Shacklett and replied:
ST knew all about it last week You
| couldn't help it. It's them damned Meth
odists down in Perry that done it,.
Nobody smiled. 1t was with unusual dig
nifty and heartiness that all the men in the
| room congratulated Shacklett. They had
the feeling that comes over college stu
dents when a substitute on the varsity
eleven makes long end run, executes a
new trip on the man that gets in his way,
and spurts to a touchdown that wins the
| game, and does it after the timekeepers
have called two minutes to play" There
was not the exuberance of students, be-
cause every one of the old county politi-
clans there felt that Noel Shacklett was in
the senior class, and they but sophomores
in the college of practical politics.
Noel hurried home to tell his mother. The
next day he wrote to Mary Stoddard HUI
morous account of his campaign, and of
how badly frightened he was by trick of
the opposition. which she would hardly I'M
derstand, but which failed by pure good
luck.