The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15
A POLITICIANS DAUGHTER

vol that I have helped him. It does not seem fair that you should blame him without blaming mel am sharing his success. Don't you understand that honesty demands that I share his shame as well?'
 He opened his lips to speak. but she stopped him.
 Let me go on," she said T want to tell you that I think you are a little hard in your Judgments Perhaps you might make allowances if you had ever felt as we have felt-if you had sprung from common stock and seen the real sordid- ness of poverty, the shrieking, squalid, shirt-sleeve sort, the kind in which my grandfather lived and died, and which fathers line has been struggle to keep from falling back into. He managed by hard work to get some sort of an edu- cation. He was reasonably successful in his business ventures and he gave me all the advantages that a girl could ask. My father. was civilized by my mother long before I knew him. If my mother had lived l might have been different. but my father was a strong man and l, unreservedly, accepted his viewpoint. When he first went into politics he wanted to enter the legislature. His cleo tion depended upon his being nominated by the vote of the majority of a few delegates. This nomination was equiv alent to an election. At the primary election they were evenly divided That afternoon father found that one of his delegates had been bought by the other side. That evening at a ball met two of the opposing delegates and l bought them before the evening was over. I had $500 of my own in the bank, and I gave them s250 apiece. Father won the po- litical leadership-I began my political career
 Shortly after this a syndicate of which father was a member wanted to lease the water works of the city. Ut was not honest, for 1t was passing public property over to private indi- viduals without giving the citizens any return. For weeks I worked among our opponents. l gave theatre parties and lunches to their wives and their daughters. Four or five of the young, unmarried councilmen fell in love with me, and I persuaded them to vote against their convictions. My natural frankness has always deceived people. Because I say half that I mean I am counted candid. That night before the bill was passed I went to the town hall to a meeting that was being held to protest against the bill. I don't know why I went. Sometimes my mo- tives are beyond me. One frail look ing man was on the platform and his address was eloquent. He said that every man who voted for that bill would be branded before God for bribery. I left the hall feeling like a criminal, but when I found that the passage of that bill meant a fortune for my father my remorse waned. Now you know me-" she said, bending her head as If to meet a storm of re- proach. Now you know me-" And as one of the logs on the brass andirons snapped In two. scattering the fugi- tive flames, he saw that her long lashe es were wet with tears.
 Why did you tell me this?" he asked, and he had a vague wish that she had remained silent.
 hy?-because Minnie has made me ashamed of myself. She has all the sweetness and beauty of a sheltered flower nourished In a healthful soil while I am like some sort of an exotic, out of place, living on air. I feel now that I have been fair to my father. You will think more of him, less of me-"
 And if it has the opposite effect?"
 She half dropped her lids In way peculiar to herself and looked at him quizzically.
 How" she asked "You sthink he cares for me only as far as he can use me?"
 T think your father is a hard man." he said, feeling again the impossibility of framing an evasive reply. T think he would sacrifice everything for polit ical preferment-I think if man loves woman rightly he hires others to do his lobbying
 For some moments there was silence in the gloomy room. The rain battered harshly against the diamond. -paned windows and the fire flung heavy cba ha txUo ing them in a narrow circle of light.
 It was not until Philip heard Min nies footsteps coming down the hall that he returned to his conventional attitude of formality.
 T don't know why you sh ould com pei such candor" he said humbly. T feel that I have been unpardonably rude--I wonder if you can forgive me-"
 She did not have time to reply, for Minnie came in to announce luncheon, and, taking Eileen's hand, she led the way into the dining room.
 They made a gay party around the lunch table, and Eileen had difficulty in believing that her enthusiastic, hos pitable host was the world-weary man she had seen pursuing his languid way in Washington. He was more like a school boy home for holiday, and she found herself, in spite of their conversation and her remorse in the library, entering into his glad mood. She told inimitable stories of the celeb rites she had met; she mimicked some of the society types she knew with such realistic verity' that Philip, laughing, cried out his recognition; she related some of her own experiences with dry Irish wit he had not sus- pected.
 When the time came for parting with Eileen Mrs Kerwin said, with sweet, motherly warmth:
 Your visit has done me so much good, dear. I wish we might steal you