Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-07-28

liNu' us otu hotlon OF my Jealousy re.
| vived And | saw, too, that contact
with and use of and subservience to
corruption had so corrupted him that
he had no longer any faith In any
method not corrupt. In an instant I
realized the full folly of what was
doing felt confident that By pursu-
Ing the line | had indicated he could
| so change the situation in the next
few months that he would make II i'm.
| possible for them to refuse to renom.
mate MIN, might make 1t possible for
him to be elected But even II he
had the wisdom TO listen, where
would he get the courage and the
steadfastness to act? gave him
up finally and forever.
A man may lose his own character
and still survive and even go far.
But If he lose belief In character as a
force, he is damned. He could not
survive In a community of scoun
drels.
Burbank sat motionless and with
closed eyes for long time. |
watched the people in the throng of
carriages-hundreds of faces all
turned toward him, all showing that
mingled admiration, envy and awe
which humanity gives it's exalted
great. THE president! The presi.
dent" l heard every few yards in
excited undertones. And hats We're
lifted, and once a crowd of enthus-
iastic partizans raised a cheer.
The PRESIDENT" thought. with
mournful irony. And I glanced at
him.
Suddenly he was transformed by an
expression the most frightful | have
ever seen, 1t was the look of de
spairing, weak, vicious thing. cor
nered, giving battle for its life--like
fox at bay before a pack of huge
dogs. 1t was not Burbank-no he
was wholly unlike that. 1t was Bur
banks ambition, interrupted at its
meal by the relentless, sure-aiming
hunter. Fate
For Gods sake. Burbank" ex-
claimed "All these people are
watching u.s."
ITO hell with them!" he ground
out Il tell you, Sayler will be
nominated! And elected too, by God.
! will not be thrown aside like an
emptied orange-skin. | will show them
that l 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 10000 900
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-a turmoil of which was
a silent spectator conspicuous by my
silence Burbank, the deepest pas
burst through the meshes of partisan
ship and the meshes of social and per
sOnal intimacies in which he, as a
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 fallen king Every projeC
he devised for striking down hi
traitor friends and making himself
popular was subtIy4 turned by his
cabinet or by the senate or by the
press or by all three into somethn'
futile and ridiculous or contemplate
He had the wisdom, or the timidity
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 We're slyly baked by his sly
attorney general, and their failure wa
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 to his lieutenants was not
their craft. but the fact that he had
lost his sense of right and wrong
A man of affairs may not, indeed viii
not always steer by that compass
but he must have 1t aboard Withou
it he cannot know how far off the
course he Is, or how to get back TO It
His last stagger was-or seemed 10
bean attempt to involve us in wa.
with Germany. | say seemed to be
because | hesitate to ascribe a projeC
as infamous to him, even when u
balanced by despair. The first u2l}
dispatch he ordered his Good rio,
secretary of state to send, someho
leaked to the newspapers before +
could be put into cipher for trans