Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24
RAILROADER.

awake and hearkening eagerly to the voice
| of the man who had reused it from its Rip
Van Wrinkle slumbers.
, Mortified, wholly aghast, the Conover lieu
| tenants had heard their masters decree
| that the press gag was to be removed, and
other customary tactics of the sort aban-
doned None dared to protest: And, after
| the first shock the majority, in their sub
| lime faith, read in the mandate some mys-
| FERROUS new maneuver Of the Railroader s
| which time would triumphantly justify.
Meantime, CONQUER was working as never
before. The very difficulty of the task in
hand evoked all his fighting blood. He
would have preferred to win without so
| much labor But since his ordinary moves
were barred, his soul secretly rejoiced in
the prospect of fair and furious battle. That
he would conquer, as always before, he did
not at first doubt. When he had made his
| bargain with Anice Lanier, he had done SO
confident in his power to sweep all opposi-
ton from his path; and he had secretly
despised the girl for allowing herself to be
duped
He, on his part. knew he must forego the
"landside'' he had once so confidently
hoped for. But in the stress of later crises,
this ambition had grown quite subservient
to his greater and ever-augmentive longing
for election at any terms and on any ma
jority. The strengthening intensity of this
ambition surprised Conover himself. At
first mere pride had urged him to the office
he sought But as time went on and new
obstacles arose between him and his goal
that goal waxed daily more desirable, until
at last it filled the whole vista of his
future.
His fingers ever on the pulse of the state.
Caleb therefore noted with annoyance then
with something akin to dread, the swelling
onrush of Gives popularity. To offset it
the Railroader threw himself bodily into the
fight, personally directing and executing
where of old he had only transmitted
orders; toilng like any ward politician; de-
vising each day new and brilliant. tactics
for use against the enemy.
He stuck TO the letter of his pledge to
Anice Its spirit he had never regarded.
He was everywhere and at all hours; now
quarter where 1t would do most good; now
propping up some doubtful corner of the
political edifice he had reared, and again
lending the fierce impetus Of his Individual
ity at points where his followers seemed
inclined to lag.
Little as he spared himself, Caleb spared
his henchmen still less. With deadly literal
ness he saw to the carrying out of his
earlier order that every one, from Congress
man to bootblack, must put his shoulder to
the wheel The ward heelers, the privileged
officials in the machine, alike, were drH en-
as never before. No stone was left I'M
turned, no chance ignored. Nor was this
all. Forth went the call to all the hun
dreds, rich and poor, whom Conover at vari-
GUS times had privately aided.
The capitalist whose doubtful bill he had
showed through the assembly; the coal
HEAVIER whose wife's funeral expenses he
had paid; the Italian peddler whose family
he had saved from eviction; the countless
poor" whom his secretly donated coal
clothes and food had tided over hard win
tiers; the struggling farmer whose mort
gage he had paid; the bartender he had
saved from a murderers fate; all these
beneficiarieS and more were commanded
in this hour of stress, to remember the
boss generosity, and to pay the debt by
working for his election.
Checks of vast proportions drawn osten-
sibly for railroad expenses) were cashed by
Shevlin, Bourke and the rest, and the pro-
ceedS hurled into every crevice vulner-
able spot ip the voting phalanx. The pick
of the Atlantic seaboard's orators were
stoned to sway the people to the machines
cause. Conover even had wild thoughts of
winning favor with his home-city's cultured
classes by identifying GRANTEES public gar
dens with the erecting of heroic marble
statue of Ibid (who, he declared, was his
favorite poet, and had more sense than all
the rest of the Famous Quotation authors
put together). When at length he was re-
luetantly convinced as to "Ibids'' real
meaning, the railroader ordered the papers
to suppress the proposed announcement and
to substitute one to the effect that he in
tended to donate colossal figure of blind
justice for the summit of the city hall.
On waged the fight. DISTINGUISHED out
siders beyond the scope of the machines at
traction were daily drawn, by hundreds into
the Standish camp. In the country districts
his strength grew steadily and rapidly The
people at large were aroused, not to the
usual pitch of Illogical hysteria incident on
movement of the sort, but to a calm
resolute jealousy of their own public rights
Which latter state every politician knows
to be immeasurably the more dangerous of
the two.
already bearing fruit. His tireless energy
backed by his genius and the perfection of