The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-12

| ference, at Judge Briscoe's. She plan
ned it with careful diplomacy, and ar
| ranged the details with fine sense
| of the dramatic. There was a sugges-
| ton she desired to have made in this
/ meeting, which she wished should en-
| anate from the Amo and Gaines coun-
| ty people, instead of proceeding from
! Carlow-for she thought it better to
make the outsiders believe her idea an
| inspiration of their own-so she made
! little comedy and provided for Bris-
/ GOES entrance at an effective moment.
| The judge was a substantial influence,
strong in the councils of his party
| when he chose to be; and though of
late years he had contented himself
with voting at the polls, every one
| knew what weight he carried when he
saw fit to bestir himself.
| When he entered the parlor, he found
| the politicians in a state of subdued
| excitement. Helen sat by the window,
| blushing, and talking eagerly to old
| Fisbee. One of the gentlemen from
Gaines county was walking about the
| room exclaiming, "A glorious concep-
| ton! A glorious conception" address,
ing the bric-a- brac, apparently (l1e
thought the conception his own.) Mr..
| Martin was Juggling at his beard and
whispering to Lands and Horner, and
the two Amo men were consulting in
a corner, but as the judge came in,
one of them turned and said loudly,
That's the man."
What man am I, Keating?" asked
Briscoe cheerily.
I'VE better explain, I guess" an
swered the other; and turning to his
compatriot: You tell him, Boswell"
"Well-it's this Way" said Boswell,
and came at once to an awkward
pause, turning aside sheepishly and
unable to proceed.
8 l..
the old gentleman.
Helen laughed cheerfully, and looked
about her with a courageous and en-
couraging eye. 1T is embarrassing,
she said. Judge Briscoe, we are con-
templating "a piece of the blacklist
treachery and chicanery.' We are go
| ing to give Mr.. Holloway the-the go
by!" The embarrassment fell away,
and everybody began to talk at once.
Hold on a minute said the judge;
let's get at it straight. What do you
want with me?'
TN tell YOU" volunteered Heating.
You see, the boys are getting in line
again for this convention. They are
the old file that used to rule the rooSt
before the Herald got too strong for
them, and they rely on Mr.. Harkless'
being sick to beat Hedge Holloway
with that Gaines county man, Nc
Cune. Now, none of us here want Rod
McCune, | guess. We had trouble
enough once with him and his heelers,
and now that Mr.. HAIRLESS is down,
. they've taken advantage of it to raise
! revolution; Rod McCune for Con-
gress! He's a dirty-harted swindler-I
hope Miss Sherwood win pardon the
strong expression - and everybody
, thought the Herald had driven him
out of politics, though it never told
/, how it did it, but he's up on top again.
, Now, the question is to beat him. We
! | hold the committees, but the boys have
been fighting the committees-call 'em
the 'Harkless Ring, and never under
stood that the Herald would have
turned us down in a second if it
thought we weren't straight. Well,
we saw a week ago that Hedge HALO
way was going to lose to McCune; we
figured it out pretty exactly and there
amt a ray of hope for Hedge. We
. wrote to Mr.. Harkless about it and
asked him to come down--if he'd been
| on the ground last Monday and had be-
gun to work, l don't say but that his
personal influence might have saved
| Halloway-but friend of his where
he's staying, answered the letter; said
Mr.. HAIRLESS was down with a relapse
2 and was very fretful; and he'd taken
r the liberty of reading the letter ard
J temporarily suppressing it under doc
! tors orders: they were afraid he'd
come, sick as he was, from sense of
duty, and asked us TO withdraw the
letter. and referred us to Mr.. Hark-
less representative on the Herald So
we applied here to Miss Sherwood and
that's why we had this meeting Now,
| Holloway is honest-everybody knows
/ | that-and l don't say but what he's
been the best available material Mr..
Harkless had to send to Washingt On
! but he amt any too bright"
Mr.. Martin interrupted the speaker.
| 1seIF aNvlNA hNsa nd
| that lecture of his on the Past, Pres
ent and Future?'"
Besides that" Heating continued,
Holloway has had it long enough, and
he's got enough glory out of it, and,
except for getting beat by Rod Nc
Cune, l believe he'd almost as soon
| give it up. Well, we discussed all this
and that, and couldn't come TO any
conclusion. We didn't want to keep
on with losing fight if there was
? any way to put up winner, though
| of course, we all recognized that Mr..
Harkless would want US TO support
Hedge to the death, and that's what
he'd do If he was on the ground. But
Miss Sherwood mentioned that she'd
had one note since his last illness be-
| gan, and he'd entrusted her and her
associates on the paper with the entire
policy, and she would take the respon-
sibility for anything we determined
|
do was to give up Holloway and get a
man that could beat McCune; Hedge
would recognize it himself, that that
was the only thing to do, and he could
retire gracefully. Miss Sherwood said
she was still more or less Il stranger,
and asked what man we could find who
was strong enough to do it by popu-
larity alone, and who was also man
we wanted; somebody that had work
ed a good deal, but had never had any
office. 1t was to such a man she could
promise the Herald's' support, as for
time the paper was being operated
almost Independently. it might be said
of Mr.. Harkless. Well, 1 expect IL
came to all of us at the same time but
it was Mr.. Bence here that said II
first"
Mr.. Bence was the gentleman who
had walked about saying "A glorious
conception" and he now thrust one
hand into his breast and extended the
: other in a wide gesture. and looked as
impressive as a very young man with
white eyebrows can look.