The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-10
CHATTER VIII.
THE DOOR OF HADES.


come four or five times what it was now.
The money would obtain many things, but
would not obtain the satisfaction OF soul
that his seat in the Senate gave him. How
ever, all these things were not very rele-
want TO the discussion with himself, and be
went to The heart of the matter 1t took
him three days-or the parts Of days that
ne was at home-to discover that his wife
got more satisfaction from the position
than he himself did, and that she would
no: exchange il for any position in private
life paying twenty times the salary. That
decided the question for him. and he began
to look closely after politics at home. His
State was particularly interested in an irri-
CATION BILL and that bill finally became
law after more narrow escapes than Shack
Iett and its originators liked to recall. This
success, where others had failed. made the
outlying State his partisans beyond danger.
but there was coming up a cloud over his
own home city which was rapidly growing
too large to be covered by one mans hand
or diverted by one mans power His wife
called the Office seekers grasshoppers, and
Shacklett felt that his grasshoppers were
coming home TO roost in his own favorite
fields and In a cloud that looked ominous
was worse. everybody out home except
Shacklett and some people who did not
count wanted him to have t. Shacklett
knew that Turner without n peer as
rascal in politics. but he knew some other
men i'm the same category. He determined
not 10 recommend Turner if he could help
il, but was not sure whether he could help
II would have to succumb 20 the inevita-
IL he for
weeks while the papers in the case con-
tinued TO pour in, and then came telegram
stating that six of the right people were
coming TO Washington TO see him about it.
Shacklett tore the telegram into pieces in
an distracted way. but his eyes were shin
ing, and his mouth had the same old smile
CT hard lines which was not seen so often
lately as a few years before. That inter-
view would be something tangible, and it
would be battle royal. in which he hoped
the best man would win-the best man, of
course, being Senator Shacklett. Shaeklett
received the party from home in his COM
mittee room, and in half an hour of social
chat and joviality, which all forced, he
managed to discern that all of them were
desperately in earnest, and that Colonel
Baker was to do most of the talking. He
himself opened the topic which had brought
them there, and his first move was in the
words:
THAT reminds me. colonel of the time
the reform element carried the city because
things got so rotten in our party that they
wouldn't hang together any more You
remember that campaign, don't you?"
Yes replied the colonel, "and it re-
minds me of something too, which is that
the same trick won't work twice in the
same town. If l thought it would I'd go
home and start a reform movement and
land in the Senate. but IL WON'T
Everybody laughed with the colonel, who
was sitting on the edge of chair in front
of Shacklett. with his hat, held between his
knees and his round face fairly radiant
with good humor. He leaned forward a
little more, reduced his smile by a large
fraction, but kept a tone of great good
humor as he continued:
Now, senator, I'm going TO talk TO you
IN new way. Your best friends don't
know you we'll yet out at home but I do.
Since you've been on the other side of the
case you haven't changed a bit-since you
used to work Governors and senators at
Springfield in the old days long before
either of us ever thought of going on
chase after the star of empire. You used
TO be the frankest man that ever argued
for an appointment, and I'm going to be
the frankest man you've ever heard ask
you for an appointment since you've been
handing them round instead of scheming
to get another fellow to make them. You
know I'm your best friend, and anything
may say can't eradicate that from your
mind. I'm going to prove to you that you
must give that postofice to Turner. and
I've taken the contract to succeed"
But, John. you"
Now. let me talk till quit, and then.
If you have any butts or ifs III put in a
rejoinder. Just now I've got a mandamus
to file, you see
Senator Shacklett smiled and then set
tied back in his chair and allowed his face
to relax until it took or the absolutely i'm
mobile, expressionless features that made
somebody at home once say it looked like
a sandbar just after the river went down,
and indicated about as much as a field of
wheat stubble. He pulled his cigar with
= th| regularity of an engine, although every
other man in the group was rapidly breath
ing out masses of smoke and trying to flake
invisible ashes upon the floor with little
finger that sometimes missed the end of
the cigar half an inch.
Besides Colonel Baker, there were two
members of the lower house who were
nearest to the Governor, the chairman of
the state central committee and two others
OF Shacklett's closest political friends OF
them all Shacklett secretly liked Colonel
Baker best, and he knew that the colonel
was the most persistent and successful
campaigner In the State The opening
words upon the business at hand meant
that Senator Shacklett had bad half hour
before him, and he himself knew that IL
was 10 be the crucial half hour of his
whole life. He intended 10 hold out against
the devil in the last ditch. but he felt that
ditch is, after all, a difficult earthwork
TO defend. The colonel's reference to the
old days was the first shot that hit Shack
let's intrenehments. for in those days he
had persistently refused to recognize that
there was a stopping place. OF late years
he had decided that there are depths into
which even he would not descend, and
which he would avoid at any cost; so that
as the colonel talked on. Senator Shacklett
reinforced his low redoubt. and was as
calm as big night always made him feel.
Its exactly this way" continued the
colonel, "and you and / both know IL. The
other man Is a gentleman and an honest
man, and against him no man can say a
word except that he never carried more