Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-18

Numbered while every one. friends and foes
alike, gaZed at Cooper with condemnation
in their hearts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of what
your politics may be- or whether you came
here today as the friends of the man whom
1 shall presently accuse or not wish to
tell you that it is your duty as good citi-
zens to refuse your franchise to him who
would perpetrate such contemplate and
petty cheat,'
His voice rose in his excitement, and
rang out, loud, condemning, blasting.
1T would disgrace this district to send
such a man to Congress-"
Cooper gasped Betsey was watching
him, and she pitied him.
Fellow citizens shouted the parson,
after he had worked the feeling against
Cooper up TO boiling point, even among
his friends, DO we want such man as
Caleb Cooper as our representative in Con-
gress?"
There was a laundering cry of mol"
many of the shouters being men who had
worked hard and earnestly for Cooper and
h id been his lifelong friends.
The parson paused After the tumult had
subsidized, for the first time since he had
risen, he smiled upon the crowd.
That's were l disagree with you," he
said
The crowd, again surprised, gazed at him
in establishment.
I'VE do want him! We-must-have him!"
Befoggled and silent, the listeners to this
extraordinary speech could only look at
each other and wonder what the Rev. Ham
ilton Frye could mean.
You ask me why?" he said, now drop
ping his voice, almost to conversational
tones You ask me why? Well, l will tell
gou."
And he did
BEFORE he finished Jacob Musser fed,
without waiting for the joint debate.
And that was fortunate for him, for the
parson finished up with an eloquent denuh-
citation which would have much confused
TO Ecta
Jerseymen are not noted above the resi-
dents of other states for their hotheaaeo-
ness, disasters might have fallen upon MUS
ser if he had not scuttled from the grounds.
And Cooper When he reached the top
of the path leading from the beach group
of arms reached out for him, and their own
ers bore him to the speakers PLATFORM on
. their shoulders, hatless, coatless, sui Win
a clam clasped automatically IN edch as
tonished palm but capable of talking 10
that crowd quite as 1t wished 10 near
candidate crate.
But not once in all his ten minutes on
the platform did he refer TO CLANS or MUS
CHAPTER XIV.
Musser went straight from the picnic
grounds to his own house. More than one
anxious member of his party knocked dl ms
door intending to demand an explanation
of the events Of the day; but they raped
in vain.
He held communication with no human
leisurely along the street He did not know
Hubbard Intimately-no one debut ne had
long suspected that the man hated SeIklrk
almost as much as he did, although he had
not the least suspicion of the reason Tor
it. At any rate, his anxiety to know what
happened at the picnic after he had !eft
was acute. and he felt that Hubbard's ha-
bitual aloofness from his fellows made him
one from whom he might get fair state
ment. He called him in.
But Hubbard had not been at the picnic
and no one had told him what had hap
pened there. So Musser, letting his hrst
rage change into self pity, gave him his
version of il. He did not know all that
had really happened. for he was quite ig-
norant of the occurrences in the baby tent
after he had been so sadly led astray there
by Betsey Robin; but he was full of the
defeat which he had suffered at Bull $
Reach. This he told Hubbard about in
choice language, badly denying that he
had anything to do with planting the clans.
He said that the story had been cooked UP
to hurt him.
Hubbard neither believed nor disbelieved
his story. He found it hard to take the
matter seriously. But when, after they
had been talking for a time, had imbibed
more or less freely of Musser's whisky,
and Musser began to attack Selkirk, Hub
bard had just enough whisky In him TO
make him break his habitual silence and tell
Musser in confidence that he considered
Selkirk puppy. A mutual bond of inter-
est was thus established, and they became
more intimate In their talk- more uQuor
increased their fellow feeling, and finally
Musser said that If there had been man
like Hubbard In charge of the paper in
Toms River there never would have been
such support of an incompetent, good-na-
tured old fool like Cooper. Hubbard, who
had pretty well lost even his hard head by
this time-for the bottle was nearly empty
said what he knew to be a le that he did
not believe Selkirk would have been so
crazy to marry Cooper's daughter had It
not been necessary for him to make con-
nection with capital In some way In order
| to save his newspaper.
This was fresh news to Musser, who, for
q wonder. know nothing whatever about