The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-04-22

and still survive, and even go Tar
But IL he lose belief in character as {
force, he is damned. He could mo-
survive in a community OF scoun
dreIs.
Burbank sat motionless and with
closed eyes for long time.
watched the people in the throng OF
carriages-hundreds OF faces al
turned toward him, all showing that
mingled admiration, envy and awe
which humanity gives its exalted
great. The PRESIDENT The presi
dent," i heard every few yards in
excited undertones. And hats were
lifted, and once a crowd of enthus
1Astic paFtizans raised . cheer.
THE PRESIDENT" I thought. with
mournful irony. And I glanced Al
him
Suddenly he was transformed by an
expression the most frightful I have
ever SEEN II was the look OF a de
spairing. weak. vicious thing. cor
nsred, giving battle for fits life-like
o fox at bay before q pack of huge
dogs. u was not Burbank-no, he
was wholly unlike that. II was Bur
banks ambition, interrupted at Its
meal BY the relentless, sure-aiming
hunter, Fate.
For Gods sake, Burbank" I ex-
claimed. "All these people are
watching u.s.
ITO hell with them." he ground
out. 'T tell you, Sayler, 1 will be
nominated And elected too, by God.
I will not be thrown aside like an
emptied orange-skin. will Snow them
that I am president"
Those words, said by some men. in
some tones, would have thrilled me.
Said by him and In that tone and with
that look they made me shudder and
shrink. Neither of us spoke again.
When he dropped me at my hotel we
touched hands and smiled formally for
appearances before the gaping, peep
ing. peering crowd. And as he drove
away. how they cheered him-the
man risen high above 100000.
alone on the mountain-peak, in the
glorious sunshine of success. The
president.
The next seven months were
months OF turmoil in the party and in
the country turmoil of which was
q silent spectator. conspicuous by my
silence. Burbank, the deepest pas
sions of his nature rampant, had
burst through the meshes of partisan
ship and the meshes OF social and per-
eonal intimacies in which he, as
good party man" and as the father
of children with social aspirations
and as the worshiper of wealth and
responsibility, was entangled and
bound down; with the desperate cour-
age that comes from fear Of destruc-
ton. he was trying to save himself.
But his only available instruments
were all either Goodrich men or other
kinds of machine-men: they owed
nothing to him. they had moth
ing to fear from him-a falling
king is a fallen king. Every project
ne devised for striking down his
traitor friends and making himself
popular was subtly turned by his
cabinet or by the senate or by the
press or by all three into something
futile and ridiculous or contemplate
1t was q complete demonstration OF
the sifiinsas OF the fiction that the
president could be an autocrat II he
chose. Even had Burbank seen
through the fawnings and the fiat
teries of the traitors round him, and
dismissed his cabinet, whatever men
he might have put into 1t would not
have attached themselves TO his lost
cause. but would have used their posi-
tons to ingratiate themselves with
the power that had used and exhaust
ed and discarded him.
IL h. 10
to proceed always with caution and
safe legality and so to avoid impeach-
ment and degradation. His chief at
tempts were. naturally, upon monop-
oily: they were slyly baked by his sly
attorney general. and their failure was
called by the press. and was believed
by the people. the cause Of the hard
times which were just beginning to
be acute. What made him such an
easy victim 60 his ffeutenants was not
their craft. but the fact that he haf
lost his sense OF right and wrong
A man Of Affairs may not. indeed vii
not always steer by that compass
but he must have II aboard. Witho'
it he cannot know how far OF Il
course he Is, or how to get back to
No ship ever reached any port exec
that Of failure and Disgrace, Nnle
Il, in spite of all It's tackings befc
the cross-winds Of practical life. Ike
in the main to the compass aid to I;
course.
His last stagger was-or seemed
be-an attempt to involve us in av
with Germany. l say seemed to !
because hesitate to ascribe a prof
as infamous to him, even when
balanced by despair. The hrst ue
dispatch he ordered his Goodri
secretary of state 10 send. somehc
leaked TO the newspapers batore
could be put into cipher for tran
mission. II Was not sent-sor froI |
the press of the entire country rose
clamor against deliberate provoca |
ION Of nation with which we