The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-11-02

EEse was the prosperity thus aruesIed mere Iy the crumbs from the table of thriv- ing Plumville. It was all New Chel- seas own, and it had come by the ave nue of Stephen Hampden's specula- tion, for the coal company, despite the rules of the game, was success for all concerned. Already it was paying dividends.
 But a great deal more than boom" can happen in four years That num- ber of cycles saw William Murchelfs power shaken, totter and crash to the earth Most people credited this to the craft of Mark Sherrod, state treas urer and the new minister, and his able lieutenant, Governor Parrott. Murchelf would have placed the credit or blame elsewhere. Had he had the habit of discussing his mistakes he would have added year to our caicu-i lation and said that the initial blow had been struck at his power when on a certain June day, in company with Jim Sheehan, he had sought to press bright faced young man into his service.
 ! resident of New Chelsea at that time you will remember how John Dun meade appeared when he was thirty fve-a grave, quiet'man looking older than his years, as carelessly dressed as men are apt to be who are dreaming of big things. His hair was beginning to thin at the temples He walked i, with a slight stopp and with less spring-the long, slow stride of a man who thinks much on his feet.
 He made 1t a point, however un- happily his cause was progressing. never to seem downcast. You would leave him, probably thinking it pity that such an attractive man should be so impractical and the object of so many bitter and powerful enmities. If the truth must be told, New Chelsea was more. than little disappointed in John Dunmeade.
 His health was not always good. He had suffered a serious illness dur ing one winter and, between the duties of office, the cares of growing pri- vate practice and the, incessant labors of politics, his body had been sadly overtaxed- He was still district at torney, last trophy of the reform wave that had swept over the shattered I Greene, an ex-gambler and former lieu tenant of Sheehan. less obviously the brute and far shrewder than the de posed boss, the Plumville organization had risen from it's ashes He had re- captured all the county offices. except when John, candidate for reelection, had won through personal popularity 1 and by scant margin
 Politics is a hard taskmasfer. John found poor compensation in the fact | that he had become well known | throughout the state The year after the Benton county reform he had join | ed himself to the cause of Judge Gray ] an honest and capable lawyer who {, dared to ask the old party nomina- ton for governor against the organiza- lions choice. With the judge John made vigorous stumping campaign in every county of the state. He was new, he was enthusiastic, he was dar- ing People listened. Parrott was nomi- mated easily according to the slate Judge Dunmeade was not nominated to the supreme court that year; hence l the breach of a lifelong friendship, in- creased bitterness against his son and many I-told-you-sos from Miss Roberta. i But John preached on. He did more l than attack. He devised and proffered remedies with naive disregard of the conservative habit of the American mind that melted mirth in some, ap- prehension in others and bewilderment {. in still others. It is not necessary here to enumeraIe his remedies. They have since become respectable.
 l He learned in common with othel | young iconoclasts something of the ex 1 iStence and character and aims of the personal government which lay behind the formal and of the marveiOusly woven system by which the dominant personalities twisted the form of gov ernment to their purpose. Being z ] young man who thought himself in l Spired, he was aghast and the more de 1 termined to destroy that system No wholly lacking a sense of proportion he realized the femerity of him wht 1 undertook such wholesale destruction
 But his youthful optimism and faitl in the people had not failed His taSl
 was to expound the machine to th'
 people of his state. Always he say
 victory just one year ahead.
 In those days-to be exact, thre
 years after the destruction of tht
 Sheehan machine-there was strife il
 the organizations of both parties. Upol
 the devoted heads of AIurcheIl an
 Duffy, the respective bosses, hurtle'
 abuse from strange quarters Anxiou
 cries rang from the deck of the shi
 Murchell had steered so long. The
 the storm burst
 The biennial election of state treas
 urer was at hand. There appeared t
 John one daS a plausible gentleman