The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-03-24

No one must see that we were pinch
ing-so 1 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 1 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. 1 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.
I remember my mother when her face
was smooth and had the shallow
beauty that the shallow dote
on. But her face whereon was writ
fee and Iove-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 on1ookers
cry "Bravei" 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.
/ had been interested in politics
ever since l was seven years old. 1
recall distinctly the beginning:
On a November afternoon-it must
have been November, though 1 re-
member that 1t was summer-warm.
with all the windows open and many
men in the streets In shirt-sleeves-
at any rate, I was on my way home
from school. AS I 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,
1 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
~ that he took no notice of me as
stood beside him. I 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 sherir-repeat-
ing the name In loud voice. Each
oncoming voter in that curiously reg
ular and compact ile WAS holding out
r L. oh at &hAk ~
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 it clear OF the body
and in full view until the bit Of pa
per disappeared in the slit in the bal
lot box
l wished to ask my father what this
strange spectacle meant; but, as I
glanced up at him to begin my Ques-
ton, / knew I must not, for I felt
that 1 was seeing something which
shocked him so profoundly that he
would take me away if 1 reminded
him of my presence. 1 know now
that I was witnessing the crude be-
ginnings of the money-machine in pol
itics-the beginnings of the downfall
of parties-the beginnings of the over
throw of the people as the political
power Those stin-armed men were
the floating voters" of that ward Of
Pulaski They had been bought up
BY a rich candidate OF the opposi-
ton party. which was less scrupulous
than our party, then in the flush OF
devotion to principles" and led by
such old-fashioned men as my father
with old-faslrie ned notions of hopfar