The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-18
NEW hooks.
s,nrie, Of Practical Politics.


tho Arena" Mcclure, Phillips & Coz, Boss
co-qe,t. the hero Of the first tale, affords
M. Tho opportuniiy for this particular thank
nIra.e Farwe,l Knowles assailed Boss
f.-rge,t Farwel was all alive for virtue
We was an independent journalist and
,otorner. He was in possession of facts
presumably potent to send the Boss to the
noritentiary As he was about to present
these damning facts TO candid world, the
po.. cont an enissary to him The ennis
.sry submitted TO Farwell that he the
rsformerl. a married man, had been seen
lssng Bella Buskirk, daughter of Gen
Ruskirk. and unmarried on her father
front doorstep. lnasmuch as this was
true. and innsmuch IA the Boss had three
witnesses to IT, Farwell had TO come down.
ve f,it that he was wronged. 1t had been
.s-,ers caress, he said. 1t had been
..ltss but he understood the difficulty
~ milking the public understand these
r.ca distinctions He despaired OF his
VIE. ability to take broad and judicial
,sw Of the matter, should she ever come
TO hear of t.
H WAS when he @crawled" to the Boss
ba, the great heart OF that leader Of men
slowed itself The Boss, without eation,
said TO him. among other things
There you went talking about the Grand
,rry and stripes and so on stirring up
r,ssions and ugly feelings. And want to
tell Won that the man who can afford to do
tha, has 10 he mighty immaculate himself
TIC only way to play politics, whatever
you're Tor is 20 learn the game first. Then
vosVl know how far you can go and what
yopr own record will stand There amt
man alive whose record will stand too
uuob Mr. Knowles
Here in the interest OF philosophy we
mu., pause n moment to say that nothing
viii stand too much. The Boss meant that
nj, Of Us, the best of us, have right" to
look out for boomerangs when we are
esyly discharging missiles at our neigh
bor,. Farwell had thought that the
manifestations of his soul were exempt
from political scrutiny. Not So The Boss.
poHeriul logcan, set him right. Said
TIA Boss:
y suppose you think it's mighty hard
that your private character should be used
against you in political question by
man YOU call public corruptionist. But
n, in a position where | can't take any
chances against an antagonist that won't
play the game my way. had to find your
vulnerable point 10 defend myself and. in
finding IT, I find that there's no need to
defend myself any longer. because 1t makes
all your weapons ineffective. believe the
trouble with you, Mr. Knowles, Is that
you've never realized that politicians are
human beings But we are; we breathe
and laugh and like to do right. like other
folks And, like most men. you've thought
YOU we're different from other men, and
You aren't"
1t may be that political virtue has prop
erly nothing to do with anybody's kissin g
Of ANYBODY; at the same time we must
recognize the fact Of power, and accept it
In all its established ramifcations. The
victim wept, The great heart OF the Boss
dissolved. as he contemplated bis adver-
sary's tears. The story says in moving
conclusion:
-Gorgett sat looking at him for a good
while; and then his fat chin began to tremble
little. and saw his eyes shining In the
shadow under his old hat brim. He got
up and went over to Farwell with slow
steps and put his hand gently on his
shoulder.
Go home to your wife he said. In
low voice that was the saddest 1 ever heard.
y don't bear you any III will in the world.
Nobody's going to give you away"
Another Of the stories, called -The Aliens
tells Of Petro, the chestnut vender; OF
Bertha. his sweetheart, and OF Pixley, dis
trict leader on the Republican side. We
shall never believe that italian Pietro or
German Bertha ever employed quite the
dialect attributed TO them here; but that
is probably matter Of less Importance
than the plot OF the tale. Petro was a
faithful partisan and a thrifty merchant
His undertaking political warory was:
'Hoor-r-ra! Vote Republican! Dana
Democrat At the time when PiIley.
for reasons OF high policy, wished to have
the Republican voters that he looked after
vote the Democratic ticket, Pietro had
$500 Of savings from his chestnut business
pinned in the pockets Of his corduroy vest.
He and Bertha were on the eve Of being
married They had picked out room
and bought a canary bird
II Pietro. at this vital time. had been less
inheKlble in his politics, he and Bertha
might have been happy. Pixley was very
patient with Pietro. He was at much
pains to explain to him that it was just now
case Follow the leaderl' rather than
NOps hspuDlCdu4 IltlIO duu nlA Oluei
Italian voters seemed unable TO ccmpre-
bend this, Pixley offered them $40 and a
box OF cigars. In vain. Pixley was forced
to extreme measures. If they wouldn't
follow the loader at least they shouldn't
vote Republican. On the eve of election
day. which was also to be Pietro's wedding
day. he caused the seven intraotable Italians
% be exposed TO smallpox and TO be locked
up in quarantine. He had outlined this
precious plan to a friendly policeman.
I'm gon' 10 quarantine them Dagoes fer
fourteen days he said. They'll learn
come politics before l git through with
them, Maybe they'll know enough United
States language to foller their leader next
time!'
We are not told how much Pietro's COM
panions we're instructed by their experience.
II Petro himself learned anything he was
not to profit by 1t. He caught the small
roS and died; and we must say that we
think the author had something OF the
cruelty Of Pirley himself TO bring him to
such an end.
There are siI Of the stories. and We leave
T. 10 the reader to Judge from what we have
afforded whether they are merely enter
n tai La yrkashar .bav rao liam