Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-01-20

YOU'D Better Let Me Bargain for the
Furniture and the Big Sign
No one must see that we were pinch
ing-so | must be the most obviously
prosperous young lawyer in Pulaski
What that struggle cost her | did not
then realize: no, could not realize UNI
til | 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 etcr-
nal peace. | 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
| remember my mother when her face
was smooth and had the shallow
beauty that the shallow dote
on But her face Whereon was writ
ten the story of fearlessness sacri-
flee and love-that is the face beauti.
full of my mother Cor me.
In the midst OF hose 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 onlookers
cry "Brave!" when there is ne true
brayery-just when we were at our
lowest ebb, came an offer from Biz
Dominick to put me into politics.
l had been interested in politics
ever since | was seven years old. |
recall distinctly the uaginning:
On a November alanoon--it must
have been November though | re-
member that 1t was summer warm,
with all the windows open and many
men In the streets in shirt-sleeves-
at any rate, was on my way home
from school. AS | neared the court
house l saw 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,
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.
ly that he took no notice OF me as !
stood beside him. | know now why he
was absorbed and why his face was
stern and sad. | 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 sheriff -repeat-
ing the name in loud voice Each
OncOming voter in that curiously reg
ular and compact file was holding out
his right arm stiff so that the hand
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-
and in full view until the bit of pa
per disappeared in the slit In the bal
lot box
| wished to ask my father what this
strange spectacle meant; but, as |
danced up at him to begin my ques
ton, | knew | must not, for | felt
that | was seeing something which
shocked him SO profoundly that he
would take me away If | reminded
him of my presence. / know now
that | 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 stiff-armed men we're
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 lea by
such old-fashioned men as my father
with oldfashioned notions of honor
and honesty Those "foaters" had to
keep the ballot In full view from the
time they got it of the agent of their
purchaser until they had deposited it
beyond the possibility Of substitution
he must see them deliver the
goods"
My father was defeated He saw
that, in politics, the day of the public
servant of public interests was over
and that the night OF the private
servant OF private interests had be.
gun. He resigned his leadership into
the dextrous hands of a politician
Soon afterward he died, muttering