Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05

|
! courtship was undsturbed. Then. in the
| spring. when fortune was at its coolest
and love at Its most feversh, her father
| accepted call TO church In Boston.
St@ miles away
To go to see her was impossible; how
could the money be spared-nfty dollars. at
| the least? Once-when they had been gone
| about four months-Sny mother insisted that
| | must. But refused and | do not know
| whether ii is to my credit or not, for my
| refusal gave her only pain. whereas the
| sacrifices She would have had to make had
| gone, would have given her only pleasure.
| had no fear that Betty would change in
| our separation. There some people YOU
| hope are stanch and some people YOU
| think will be stanch. If, and then there are
! those. many women and few men, whom
| IL is impossible to think OF false or
| even faltering. l did not fully appreciate
| that quality then. for my memory was
not then dotted with the graves Of false
! friendships and Uttered with the rubbish
| of broken promises: but | did appreciate
| II enough to build securely upon It.
| Build? No. that is not the word. There
may be those who are stimulated to
achievement by being in love. though I
doubt 1t. AT any rate | was not one OF
| them. My love for her absorbed my
thoughts. and paraiyzed my courage. or
the qualities that have contributed to what
success l may have had | put In the first
rank disposition to see the glooniest side
of the future. But II has not helped to
| make my life happier. invaluable though
II has been in preventing misadventure
from catching me mapping.
| SO another year passed. Then came hard
| times-real hard times / had some clients
enough to insure mother and myself a liv-
Ing, with the interest on mortgage and note
| kept down But my clients were poor. and
| poor pay and slow pay. Nobody was doing
well but the note-shavers / How mother
| fought to keep the front brave and bright
not her front, for that was bright by ma
ture. Ike the sky beyond the clouds; but
| our front, my front.-the front of our af-
| fairs. No one must that We're pinch
| ing,-so l must be the most obviously pros
porous young lawyer in Pulaski. What
that struggle cost her l did not then real
| ize; no, could not realize until | looked at
her face for the last time, looked and turn
ed away and thought on the meaning OF
the lines and the hollows over which death
had spread his procla ton OF eternal
peace. have heard it said of those mark
ngs in human faces, How ugly But
IL seems to that, to any one with eyes
and imagination. line and wrinkle and hol-
low always have the somher grandeur OF
| tragedy / remember my mother when her
face was smooth and had the shallow
beauty that the shallow dote on. But her
face wherein was written the story of fear
! lessness, sacrifice and love-that is the face
| beautiful of my mother for me.
| In the midst of those times OF trial,
when she had ceased to smie-for she had
rome of that hypocrtical cheerfulness which
depresses and is mere vanity to make
| silly onlookers cry Brave" when there IS
no true bravery-just when were at our
lowest ebb, came an offer from Bill Dom
mick to put me into politics
| l had been interested in politics ev
since l was seven years old. 1 recall d;-
! tinctly the beginning:
| On November afternoon-t must have
been November, though | remember that
1t was summer-warm. with all the WIN
dows open and many men in the streets in
| shirt sleeves-at any rate, l on my
way home from school. AS I neared the
court house l saw a crowd In the yard
and was reminded that it election day,
and that my father was running for re-
election to the state senate; so, I bolted
IN la fYynn In, In n,S of
the Masonic Temple, across the street from
| the court house.
!, He was at the window and was looking at
! the polling place so intently that he took
no notice of me / stood beside him.
know not why he absorbed and why
his face was stern and sad / shut
my eyes and the court house yard, the
long line OF men going up to vote. single
file. each man calling out his name he
handed In his ballot. and Tom Weldon
who shot an escaping prisoner when he
was deputy sheriff-repeating the name in
loud voice. Each oncoming voter in that
curiously regular and compact file
holding out his right arm stiff so that
the hand was about foot clear of the
thigh: and in every one of those thus con-
spicuous hands was a conspicuous bit OF
, ! white paper-a ballot. AS each man reach
ed the polling window and gave IN his
name, he swung that hand round with a
stiff-armed. circular motion that kept II
clear of the body and in full view until
the bit of paper disappeared in the slit
In the ballot box.
1 wished to ask my father what this
strange spectacle meant; but, as l glanced
up at him to begin my question. l knew I
must not, for felt that was seeing some
thing which shocked him so profoundly that
he would take me away II reminded him
OF my presence. ! know now that ! was
witnessing the crude beginnings of the
I money machne in politics-the beginnings
of the downfall OF parties-the beginnings of
the overthrow of the people the political
power. Those stiff-armed men were the
floating voters of that ward of Pulaski.
They had been bought up by a rich candi-
date of the opposition party, which was
! less scrupulous than our party. then in the
: flush OF devotion to principles and led by
such old-fashioned men as my father with
( old-fashioued notions of honor and hon
esty. Those "hoaters' had to keep the
ballot in full view from the time they got
s 1t of the agent OF their purchaser until
they had deposited it beyond the possibility
l of substitution-he must see them deliver
the goods"
My father was defeated He saw that.
I in politics, the day Of the public servant OF
public interests was over, and that the
night of the private servant of private in
terests had begun. He resigned the lead
, ership into the dexterous hands of poll
tican. Soon afterward he died. mutterng:
Prosperity has ruined my countryr'
2 From that election day my interest In
l politics grew, and but for my mothers bit
ter prejudice I should have been an active
politician. perhaps before / was out of
college
Pulaski. indeed all that section OF my
state was strongly of my party. Therefore
Dominick, its local boss was absolute. At
the last county election, four years before
the time of which ! am writing there had
, been a spasmodic attempt to GUST him.
He had grown so insolent. and had put
his prices for political and political COM
mercal "favors'' to our leading citizens so
, high. that the best element" In our party
reluctantly broke from its allegiance. To
, save himself he had been forced to order
! fragrant cheating on the tally sheets; his
!, ally and fellow conspirator. M'Coskrey. the
, opposition boss, was caught and was in
: dicted by the grand jury. Tho reformers
made such stir that Ben Glass; the county
, prosecutor, though a Dominick man. dis
, obeyed his master and tried and convicted
MCoskrey. OF course. following the Gus
tom in of yielding to pressure from
public sentiment, he made the trial errors
necessary to insure reversal In the higher
court; and he finally gave Do1ninick's Judge
I the opportunity TO quash the Indictment.
But the boss relentless-Cass had been
disobedient, and had put upon my friend