The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-21
CHAPTER III.
FOLLowING HIS FATHER.

The week after Noel became OF legal age
he attended the township convention Of his
party which selected delegates TO the coun-
q convention The Sugar Greek township
convention was held in the schOoihouse,
and the attendance was large because the
township had candidate for county treas
urer-that is 10 say, there were almost
score of men in the room. The formality
was Of that adamahtine kind that is found
only when a number of near neighbors OF
Southern ancestry meet for a business pur-
pose. The township member OF the county
committee called the meeting to order. and
as soon as he had stated the object Of the
meeting his nearest neighbOr arose, and in
an orOtund tone said:
81 make a motion that Mart Saunders be
chairman"
Mart Saunders was always chairman Of
these meetings. and almost always was
nominated by the same neighbor. AS soon
as he had taken the seat by the teachers
desk the man whose perpetual part it was
to do so arose to his feet and slowly and
with much impressiveness said:
Mr.. Chairman, 1 move you, sir. that the
chair appoint a committee Of three to Sc
lect delegates"
The man who offered this simple motion
did so because he was the township boss
or the equivalent OF a boss in that primi-
tive state of pOlitics-and he this boss
because he always made this motion. 1t
put him on the committee to select dele
gates. and that gave him control OF that
delegation. which in its after results made
him the most important parsonage who
was expected to make so important a mo-
h. Tt frrI IN, Ire
circular simplicity, but in the aggregate of
the townships il had some important re-
suits in the county including several en-
bezzlements and the determination Of the
strata of a later aristocracy.
The chairman appointed Noel Shacklett
as another member of the committee be-
cause the speaking of the name OF Sugar
Creek township made him think of NOels
accident The committee soon brought in
its report, for out of the fifteen delegates
TO which the township was entitled twelve
had already been selected and handed TO
the boss by Dickinson, the candidate for
treasurer, and the other three were the
committee which the unnitiated supposed
selected the entire list. The end of it was
that Noel Shacllett attended the county
convention ten days later. and in the in
term was visited by every candidate for
nomination for county Office from one end
of the ticket TO the other. In fact. he
rode TO town 10 the symposium of his
party in Davis county he felt little i'm
portant, and with this feeling came a sense
OF power and ability TO accomplish things
which was unusual as a concrete feeling
although it was an important character
istic of his father, the old-time sheriff.
All interest conferred in the convention
at the courthouse that day. The county
seat had that air Of being a prosperous
town which came to il but four times in
the year-when Circuit Court met in Feb
ruary and in August. and when the county
conventions assembled in June.
Nobody knew or cared about the delega-
lions to the state and congressional con-
VentiOns. Those names had been chosen
the night before in the office of Doc
Watson, and just before the convention
adjourned would be brought in on a slip
Of paper by a committee appointed by the
chairman. on motion of the man from
Pleasant Ridge township, who got his turn
in the center of the stage for brief mo-
ment for this purpose.
But the nomination of a county treas
was matter that had been the talk of
all the people for weeks. Each candidate
for place on the ticket had driven over
all the townships to the farmhOuses by
day, and had slipped out on secret expedi-
lions at night to unholy councils with the
men who set up the delegations from the
outlying precincts. One was a good fellow
whose barn had burned just after he had
to pay $500 security on a note, and he
needed the place; another had been school
director road supervisor and county COM
missioner in turn, and had demonstrated
his extraordinary power 10 attract the
votes of the opposition party; one of the
rest had held the Office for four terms, and
IL was impertinent for a little whipper-snap-
per school teacher TO try to dislodge him
from his place after he had given the best
years OF his life to the service of his fel-
low-citizens.
In the courtroom. on the second floor,
the wooden benches were partly filled with
delegates, who felt somewhat overcome by
the Importance of their first official at
tendance at a county convention; and
around the walls and sauntering through
the aisles were the delegates who had been
there before and composed the sophomore
class in that school of politics. Up in
front, around the bench and desks of the
clerk and sheriff. were the men who man
aged the whole affair surely but not unob-
trusively.
The tramp of feet was heard on the
stairs outside, and nifty men pushed their
way into the room and filled il to the
walls. There were a noisy changing of
seats each delegation grouped itself to-
gether each township in the portion OF
the room which had been allotted to il by
precedent for thirty years. The chairman
of the county central committee was vel
UP behind the judges desk, and stood pa
tiently waiting for the comparative silence
that came after two or three minutes He
used his most orotund voice as ne said:
Gentlemen, the convention Will please
come 10 order. What is your pleasure?'
The county committee chairman always
used these identical words on such occa.
sions. just as he always said: mo. 1 dom
wish for any" in declining the butter al
the hotel dinner table.
About two-thirds of the way back on tn,
right-hand side. sat the delegation OF fif
teen from Sugar Greek township. They
were there TO nominate Dickinson fer coun.
y treasurer, and how they would vote fol
the candidates for other Offices depended
entirely upon the exigencies Of the situa
ton at the moment Next the aisle wa.
their chairman, Noel Shacklett, who haC
been doing some confidential work for nick