Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-30

come home merely because her husband
abused her. or because she was tired of
her surroundings-if he copld achieve this
much 1t would be the best he could ex-
pect.
Gerald. too: he had hoped so much from
the boys glittering New York connections.
his sons more recent behavior had in a
slight measure softened the hurt to pa .e--
nal pride and hope. yet the hurt itself.
caleb knew, must always remain. And that
dead.
The Railroader was not In any sense a ie-
ligious devotee. For appearance sake, how
ever and to add still further force t. his
liberal gifts to the Catholic clergy, he senli-
occasionally attended mass at the cathedral.
He also, for other reasons. occupied now
and then. with Lefty. his higher priced pew
In the Episcopal church of st. Simeon Sty-
Htes. religious rendezvous of Granite 8
smart set.
At one of these two places Of worship-he
could not now remember which-and, after
all, 1t didn't matter-he had heard, some
time recently, a Scripture reading that had
held his attention more closely than did
most passages Of the sort. 1t was a story
OF some mamie could not remember whom
the recital Of whose continued and I'M
merited ill-luck had stamped itself on the
hearers mind. The man had been rich.
prosperous. happy. Then one day four mes
sengers had come to him In swift success
sion, with tales Of disaster to goods and
fortunes than had its predecessor. And the
fourth had left It's recipient stripped Of
wealth and family.
In quaint twist of thought Conover. as
he lay staring up into the dark and listen
ing to the noisy rage of the storm, fell to
fitting the biblical story to his own case.
The first message 1 got" he reflected
becoming grimly entertained in his own
analogy. knocked over my plans for Jerry.
Then the second stole from me the only
square woman l ever knew and all my
chances of campaign walkover The third
smashed my idees for Blanche. and for
making a hit in society. The fourth-well,
l guess the fourth amt showed up yet. VIII
1t clear me out when it does come, l Won
der, like it die the Teller in the Bible? Let
see he had a whiny fool for wife. If l re-
member 1t straight Yes, there's a whole
lot OF points in common between me and
him. l wonder If he ever run for any
office. How was it all those messages Of
his wound up? And .and only am escap I'd
alone to tell thee That was it,
Il wonder was he the same chap that had
all those devils cast out of him. l don't
just remember, but whoever 1t was that
had EN- cast out, I'd like to "a known him.
for he was a man. Most FOLKS natures
amt big enough to hold a single half-size
devil let alone a whole crowd of EN-. If
that Bible chap had all those it showed he
was man enough to hold 'em. And If
only one of 'em had been cast out ito a
been bigger thing he did than 1t would be
for a dozen ordinary men to turn into
saints Maybe I'm little bit like that fell
Ter, too
After which plunge into the theological
exegesis-the first and last whereof he ever
was guilty - Caleb Conover turned his
thoughts to the morrow's election, and thus
communed with himself till dawn caught
him open-eyed and unsleepy, his splendid
strength and energy in nowlse diminished
by forty-eight hours of wakefulness.
1t was tattered. desolate world that met
the Railroader's eyes as he gazed down
frnyr, tc fr1 Ia ln h~Na IL
and over the city that lay at their foot
The wind had fallen, and a pink gray light
was filling the ciean-swept sky Nature
seemed ashamed to look on the results OF
her own violence, for the dawnllght crept
timidly over the sleeping houses.
Everywhere were strewn signs of the hur-
ricane. Tree branches, toppled chimneys
unroofed shanties, swaths of telegraph and
telephone wires. overturned fences; these
and thousand other proofs of the gale's
brief power lay broadcast throughout Gran.
lies streets.
And. with the first glimmers in the east
the people of city and state were afoot. fol-
| history was to be made. Election day had
begun.
Midnight had again come around The
election long since over yet the city
such affairs. For the result was not yet
known. The storm Of tie previous night
had cut off telegraph and telephone com
munication in twenty parts of the Noun
Hundreds of mechanics were at work re-
pairing the various lines of broken wire
and replacing overthrown poles But the
work had not yet sufficiently progressed
to allow the full transmission of election
returns from the upstate counties
Train service remained unimpaired save
for an occasional broken trestle on one or
two of the minor branches of the c. G. and
X. And since nightfall some of the re-
turns had been brought to Granite by rail,
but these merely proved the closeness of
the conflict and gave no true hint to
the actual outcome. The Granite vote was
all in, hours ago From the sums and the
dark places of the citys underworld the
long-trained servants of the machine had
swarmed to the polls, overwhelming all OPP
position from the smaller and more respect
able element, and had carried Granite tu-
multuously for Conover.
The Railroader, with dozen more
men-diStrict leaders, ward captains and
picked adherents of his own-sat about the
big center table of his study, an Arthur,
somewhat changed in the undermining and
surrounded by equally altered Paladns A
telegraph operator sat at an instrument In
a far corner of the room, jotting down
and carrying to the table such few dis
patches were at last beginning to trickle
in. At Conover's left a ticker purred forth
infrequent lengths of message-laden tape.
The table wGs Uttered with papers, yell
low sheets of .'flimsy," bottles, glasses and
open cigar boxes. The henchmen lounged
about, drinking and smoking in nervous
suspense, fighting over again the days
battle, and hazarding innumerable diverse
opinions on the bearing each new dispatch
would have on the general result All were
in a greater or less state of tension, and re-
lieved it by frequent recourse to the battal-
ion Of bottles that dotted the board.
Conover, alone of them all, touched no
liquor Before him was a big cup of black
coffee, which a noiseless- threading footman
entered the room every few minutes to
renew.
Amt that lrble to keep you awake to-
night, boss?" asked Shevlin. as he watched
the fourth cupful vanish ats swallow.
1T don't bother me any more" returned
Caleb I'm too used to it. But / can re-
member when a single cup of it at Sunday
morning breakfast would make me so I
couldn't sleep wink all church time I'd
toss from one end of my pew to the other
the whole morning. l couldn't seem to
browse no matter how long Father Healy' 8
sermon was. Mother county heard from %
as the operator laid a message before him.
Read it, Billy"
Delayed In transmission" spelled Shev-
lin. Jericho county, with two precincts
missing. gives Conover 1929, Standsh, 4,
$685."
A yell went around the table. Bourke
scrubbed hurriedly on a pad, then an
nounced
THAT offsets the Standish lead In Hal
dane by $50. Two to one you've got Bow