The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-26
CHAPTER vi.
Under THE DOME.

CHAPTER vi.
UNDER THE DOME.
Shacklett, in half stupor accepted after
a fashion, and wrote his mother about IL
and that he would not be home for two
weeks because he wanted TO spend the Sun
day recess at Springfield to learn.
The stenographer to the committee did all
the desk work. and Shacklett learned so
rapidly, from the simple formula Of fetch
er. that before the session was half over
he was well known TO all the lobbyists and
half the corporation lawyers in the State.
1t was as simple an evolution as that of a
doctor, a minister, or an educator. He
took in the situation in two conversations
in which the appropriations committee
clerk did 80 per cent. of the talking; the
application of common sense to the condi-
tions as he found them was the rest of it
from his own viewpoint; ii seemed to take
the same kind of ability as swapping
horses and selling hogs to stock buyers,
and it was a much more pleasant life than
farming. Some inexperienced people seem
welded to the idea that lobbyists and the
other end of their business transactions
are thrown into the gulf of wickedness -
much like society throws into perdition the
girl who has her bill for the establishment
of home smothered with kisses in COM
mittee. Somebody once wrote pretty pic
ture of fine, wholesome, pious, genuinely
good boy who never swore or fought ct
school, who went to the state capital and
fell among thieves by the road, and dwelt
witk the money changers in the temple of
republican institutions. and was entirely
metamorphosed into a member of the third
house in the same way that a dove might
be changed into a tiger of the Jungle; but
Somebody was better acquainted with good
tcys in Sunday school than with the smart
men who make the laws the people think
the legislature enacts-these latter pilots Of
the ship of state have been born to the
wild sea of practical craftsmanship, and
really there is nothing interesting to tell
about how they begin their work at ;he
wheel OF on the bridge. When there were
but three weeks Of the session left Senator
Fletcher said that Noel Shacklett was
smarter than his father ever was, and
Shacklett himself began to dread going
back to the farm and preparations for an
other corn crop.
He was saying this to his most intimate
acquaintance in his committee room one
day, and supplemented it with some re-
marks about his deficiency of schooling,
which he called lack of education.
"If only fellow knew just what to take
in while he's getting an education" growled
the visitor, with his feet on the table and
his hat on the back of his head, ''he'd be
lot better off. Now. I dug out Greek
roots when 1 ought to have been grubbing
stumps. and practiced German diphthongs
II .
in the bin. Here 1 am. with muscles good
enough TO have the intercollegiate cup in
track athletics, and brains enough to have
the profs. at Knox still talking about my
mathematical honors for the benefit of the
freshmen, and lose fifteen hundred year
because 1 don't know the difference be-
tween No. 2 and No. wheat. There's
something the matter with our educational
system when a man who needs it as badly
as do has TO pass up a thing like that
81 could finish my law and be right in the
way of the legal lights hunting for junior
partners. and could get right next TO the
only rich aunt have, bat can't because
don't know weevil from a weaver It's
hard lines, especially when there's no one
TO blame, unless it's the old man, and it
doesn't seem just right TO blame him be-
cause he didn't make me pillow corn instead
| of sending to school"
You're more emphatic than lucid, and
more melancholy than your present situa-
tion seems TO warrant" said Shacklett, the
| host. Here's the boX-they're not Fetch
! er's cigars. never fear-and don't see how
! I'm to make minutes Of this meeting read
with any connection If you don't finish the
report OF your subcommittee, whatever
| IL is"
Mckee laughed as he reached for the
box and took long time 10 let the match
burn 10 exactly the proper blaze before
lighting the cigar He was the clerk of the
committee on appropriations and had
sauntered into the room of the judiciary
committee half all hour before to find
Shaeklett working over some papers which
Mckee had thrown 10 one side before he
sat down.
THE bill OF particulars is this" continued
Mckee. with his face heightened again:
there is a sinecure with the railroad and
warehouse commission worth fifteen hun
dred and trimmings that's going 10 be open
about the time the session closes. | want
| il. / can't take IL because a man has 10
know the difference between wheat and
barley when he sees them. l don't. Some
| other fellow will get the place because ne
does. Ergo. I'm not in ii. and the legisla-
| ture about TO die on my hands. Say. do
you think you can teach me how TO tell No
3 spring from No l winter in three weeks
| II boned for il and made II worth while %
Shacklett smiled and shook his head
Not any more than you could teach me
how TO engineer railroad in the same
time" he said. I'm sorry. Mckee, but