Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-05-11

No one must see that we were pinch
ing-so ] must be the most obviously
prosperous young lawyer In Pulaski.
What that struggle cost her / did not
then realize; no, could not realize I'M
til | looked at her face for the last
time, looked and turned away and
thought on the meaning of the lines
and the hollows over which Death
had spread his proclamation of eter-
nal peace. / have heard 1t said of
those markings in human faces: How
ugly" But 1t seems to me that. to
any one with eyes and imagination,
line and wrinkle and hollow always
have the somber 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 writ
ten the story of fearlessness. sacri-
fee and love-that is the face beauti-
full of my mother for me.
In the midst of those times of trial,
when she had ceased to smile-for
she had none of that hypocritical
cheerfplness which depresses and is
mere vanity to make silly onlookers
cry "Brave!" when there is no true
bravery-just when we were at our
lowest ebb, came an offer from Bill
pomjniek to put me into politics
l had been interested in politics
ever since l was seven years old. l
recall distinctly the 6sgi1nrnahing
On a November aft5rnoon-it must
have been November. though ! re-
member that IL was summer-warm,
with all the windows open and many
men in the streets in shirt-sleeves--
at any rate, was on my way home
from school, AS | neared the court
house saw a crowd in the yard, and
was reminded that 1t was election
day, and that my father was running
for reelection to the state senate, SO,
/ bolted for his law Office IN the sec
ond story of the Masonic temple,
across the street from the court
house.
He was at the window and was
| looking at the polling place so intent.
| ly that he took no notice of me as l
stood beside him. l know now why he
was absorbed and why his face was
stern and sad. l shut my eyes and
see that court house yard, the long
line of men going to vote, single file,
each man calling out his name as he
handed in his ballot, and Tow Weed
on-who shot an escaping prisoner
when he was deputy sheriff-rel eat
ing the name in loud voice. Each
oncoming voter in that curiously reg
| ular and compact file was holding out
his right arm stiff so that the hand
was about a 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 reached the polling window and
gave his name, he swung that hand
round with stiff armed, circular mo-
ton that kept 1t clear of the body
and in full view until the bit OF pa.
per disappeared in the slit in the bal.
lot box.
/
strange spectacle meant; but. as
glanced up at him to begin my Ques.
ton, knew l must not, for | felt
that was seeing something which
shocked him so profoundly that he
would take me away II l reminded
him OF my presence. ! know nov
that | was witnessing the crude be
ginnings OF the moneymachine in pol
itics-the beginnings of the downfall
of parties--the beginnings of the over
throw of the people as the politica,
power Those stiff-armed men were
the floating voters of that ward OF
Pulaski They had been bought NJ
by rich candidate Of the opposi
ton party, which was less scrupulous
than our party, then in the flush o.
devotion to principles" and led by
! such old-fashoned men as my father
with old-fashioned melons of homo
,'-us-es,