The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-03-27

Furniture and the Big Sign.
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 l 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. I have heard it said Of
those markings in human faces: How
ugly" But it 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 whereon 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
cheerfulness which depresses and Is
a 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
Dominick to put me into politics.
l had been interested in politics
ever since I was seven years old.
secall distinctly the beginning:
On a November afternoon-it must
have been November, though | re
member that it 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 cour
house l saw a crowd in the yard, ant
was reminded that it was election
day, and that my father was runnini
for reelection to the state senate; sc
l bolted for his law Office in the sec
ond story of the Masonic temple
across the street from the cour
house.
He was at the window and wa
looking at the polling place so inten
" that he took no notice Of me as
stood beside him. / know now why b
, was absorbed and why his face wa
stern and sad / shut my eyes an
: see that court house yard, the Ion
line of men going to vote, single FL
: each man calling out his name as b
handed in his ballot, and Tow Wee
: op-who shot an escaping prisont
l when he was deputv sherif-repea
ing the aame in ALOUD voice. Fac
oncoming voter in that cufiOusly re
2 ular and compact file was holding OF
/ HIS right arm stiff so that the ha1
was about foot clear of the thigh
and In every one of those thus co
o spicuous hands was conspicuous b
g OF white paper-a ballot AS eac
/ man reached the polling window al
y gave his NAME he swung that mar
3 round with stiff armed, circular m
/ ton that kept it clear Of the Doc
IL and in full view until the bit of
j. per disappeared in the slit In the b;
T. lot box.
. I wished to ask my father what tn
= strange spectacle meant; but, as
- glanced up at him to begin my que
ton, 1 knew I must not, for 1 fl
!, that l was seeing something viii
~ shocked him so profoundly that
II would take me away if l remind
: him of my presence. l know NJ
" that | was witnessing the crude
" ginnings of the money-machiRe in p
70 itics-the beginnings of the downf
g of paTties-the beginnings Of the ov
throw of the people as the polite
~ power. Those stiff-armed men We
" the floating voters Of that ward
N Pulaski. They had been bought
re by a rich candidate of the oppo
nK ton party, which was less scrupulC
re than our party, then in the flush
eW devotion to principles" and led
nix such old-fashionsd men as my fati
III with old-fashioned notions Of hoI
"A, ITO Be Continued