Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-06-10
CALFBCONOVFR
Fl s ;;S s;,,;.:* T. RAlLROADER
rsiao Of 1us a STORY OF LOVE, POLITICS INTRIGUE.
eeos1t II or A RICH & POWERFUL BOSS
SE2ls AND AN INTREPID YOUNG .
tzSsEEaTsIgee REfORF1ER.
az IS MP BY ALBERT PAYSoN IERHUNE.
ALBERT 9ATsoH TESHUSx'

part of their moneys worth in decent
| service than it is to be bled just as
heavy by pack of measly amachoors
and get no service at all. So back
they come to the Boss, begging him
to get on the job again. Which he
does, being a self-sacrifcing sort of a
cuss, and glad to help the plain
people, Likewise himself
"The administration you describe
is the result of fanaticism, not real re-
form. It"
From where I sit, the difference be-
| tween the two amt SO great as to
| show to the undressed eye. You
speak of lawyers and country editors
being bought by my passes. Is there
any law making 'em accept those
passes if they don't want EN-? Could
| buy ONE of those men if he wasn't
for sale? There's just one thing more
and then your little lesson'll be over
and you can run home. All through
this delightful little reunion you've
kind of took the 'holier-than-thou' tone
that's such a pleasing trait of you re-
formers when you're dealing with
mere sane folks. Now, the best thing
you can do is to take that fool idea
out for walk and lose it, for you not
only amt any better than me, but
amt half the man, and never will be
half the man | am You were born
with a gold spoon in your mouth The
spoon was pulled out after you grew
up, but not till you had your education
and your profession. What did you do?
| You'd had the best advantages money
could buy you. And for all that, the
most you could rise to was measly
everyday law practice. That's all the
| dividends the tens of thousands OF
dollars invested in your future were
ever able to declare, or ever will be
able to. ] started life dead broke.
| No education, no pull, no cash, no
prospects. I don't know just how rich
l am to-day, but no ones going to call
you liar if you put it at forty mill
ions And Pm bossing bigger territory
| and bOssing with more pOWer-than
half the so-called high and mighty
kings of Yurrup Now, s'pose you'd
started where I did? Where'd you be
/ to-day? You'd be the honest young
| brakeman on the branch road, or at
best you'd be our genial and rising
young feller-townsman. the second
| deputy assistant passenger agent of
| the G. G.. & X. That's where you'd be.
| And you know it. Had you the brains
or the sand to get where | am? Not
you Any more than one of those
had the genius to win out the Napol
con job You're where you started
| I've kept on rising. And I'll rise to
| the White House before I'm done.
Now I ask you fair and square, which
of us two is the best man, and If you
oughtn't to be looking up to Caleb
| Conover instead of
"I am the better man." answered
Give quietly. "And so is any honest
man. And can look down on you
| for the same reason any square Amer
| lean can look down on a political Boss
Because we are honest and you are
| not"
"Well," vouchsafed Caleb, grudglng-
ly, chats an answer anyhow, and 1t
comes nearer being sense than any
thing you've said so far. But you're
wrong for all that. You talk about
honesty. What's honesty? The pious
| Pilgrim Fathers came here and swim
! died old Lo, the poor Indian, out OF
his country in blamed sight more
! raw fashion than I've ever bamboozled
the people of the Mountain State.
/ And the Mountain Staters were will
| ing while the Indian wasn't Yet the
old settlers are called nation builders
and martyrs and lot of other hot
air titles, and they get statues put up
to their memories. How about the
Uncle Sans buying a whole nation OF
Filipinos and coolly telling 'em: I'm
bossing your islands now. Listen to
me while l soften your rebelllous
hearts with the blessed gospel OF the
! gatIing gun. Yet Uncle Sans all
right. Sos John Bull, who done the
same trick, only worse, in India ana
Egypt. No ones going to call Ameri-
ca or England or the Pilgrim Fathers
dishonest and crooks, is there? Ihen
why do you call Caleb Conoyer dis
honest for doing the same thing, only
lot more squarely and mercifully?
The crook of to-day is the hero or TO-
morrow And I'm no crook at that.
Why, son, a hundred years from now
there's liable to be a statue stuck up
somewhere of Caleb ConoVer, Rail-
roader, Champion of the People,
Honesty. Ell? What you call hon
esty' is just sort of weakened ylr-
tue meaning lack of chance to be
something else. 'Honester than me-
means less chance than me- The
honestest community on earth, accord
ing to you reformers' way of think
inc. is in the State Penitentiary. Fer
not crime of any sorts committed
there from ones years end to the
other"
Conover chuckled softly to himself
then continued:
"And there's something else about