Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-08-09

tie m D lively cut
the end from a fresh cigar and said:
But I'm not so sure, after all. My
experience with the Bailey bill shook
my faith In that proposition"
The two other men in the salon
looked up with startled eyes.
Baldwin had been driven over from
his Michigan Avenue home and caught
the Alton Limited when it made the
station stop at Twenty-third Street,
where he boarded the last OF Its cur
tanned Pullmans. This coach was the
political institution known to Illinois
craftsmanship as the Springfield
sleeper, and Baldwin and his two com
panions, Jennings, the secretary OF
state. and Denny Hesly, canal COM
missioner, had the capsulated coziness
of fits smoking compartment all 10
themselves Down by Dwight they
had fallen into a desultory discussion
of the old question as to whether or
not every man has his price. the
question could hardly interest these
men long, for, after many years con-
slant contemplation, under the gray
dome Of the state house, Of the weak
nesses of men, they had come to an
acceptance Of the doctrine now grown
frank enough to have no lingering
faint Of cynicism. Jennings, indeed,
had Just dismissed the subject by de-
claring:
"All men air fer sale, an most Of
'em damn cheap"
And so the subject might have
lapsed had it not been for Baldwin's
heterodoxy. That George r. Baldwin
of. all men should doubt the first max
i'm of their profession was beyond
comprehension. Though he played
his part in life with suite of law
Offices in skyscraper as a back
ground, his serious business was lob
bying bills through the Legislature.
His friends. who were many, boosted
that he always stood by them, right
or wrong Which he did, indeed, and
as they were generally wrong, the
value of such friendship. or his opin-
ions on practical politics, could hardly
be overestimated. The day had been
a hot one in Chicago, but now colo
draft of smoky air was sucking
through the narrow window-screen, on
which the cinders hailed as the Linn
tied plunged southwark.
Smoke and dirt had long since be-
grimed the dark and sweaty face OF
Jennings, who, with waistcoat opened
IA the comfort dear to the Egyptian,
was sprawling his shanks on the
cushion opposite him, while Healy.
doomed by corpulence to an attitude
more erect, sitting with his chubby
knees far apart, as the fat will. his
paunch resting on the edge OF the
seat he filed, now and then brushed
a fat palm over his red scalp and
sighed, as he pulled his domestic
cigar. But Baldwin sat and smiled,
showing his excellent teeth beneath
his reddish mustache. and visibly ex-
banded. They could hear, as an un-
dertone to their talking, the dull roll
of the Pullman's paper wheels, and
now and then they we're interrupted
by the whistles long and lonesome
note at a country road-crossfng. Out
through the double windows, against
which Healy sometimes pressed his
forehead because the glass cooled 1t,
the dark fields wheeled past in an
endless belt of darkness, save where
an occasional bunch of sparks from
the engine burrowed under the right
of-way fence, and then, in the mo-
mentary glow of light, they could
catch sight Of a tossing plume OF corn,
which told them they were out on the
prairies Of central Illinois.
When the train paused for the Big
Four crossing at Gardner, they heard
In the sudden flood Of silence the snor-
Ing of a sensible fare-paying passen-
ger who had gone to bed. The stri-
dent noise Of the crickets and the
frogs outside was noted only as an
effect of the silence. The three men
had no thought of retiring until they
reached Pontiac at two o'clock, fol
the lives they led were such that they
could not sleep until that hour, and
then not very well.
Baldwin had lighted his imported
cigar, the superior aroma Of which
perceptible even in an atmosphere
choked with coal gases and the fumes
of the domestic cigars Jennings ant
Healy were smoking, indicated faintl,
the height Of cultivation to which h
had brought his appetites, when Jen
nings, fecking his ashes on the hool
of the salon Just as he would have
done on his own parlor carpet. said
Well, 60 on with the story"
"One session there was an old mai
named Henderson In the house. VIII
had come up from Greene County
Henderson of Greene. everybody cal
ed him. to distinguish him from Ton
Henderson, of En1ngham. He was
queer figure was Henderson Of Greene
tall and gaunt, with stoop in hi
shoulders. He always wore hickor
shirt, opened at red and wrinkle
throat. and his hair was Just stubbl
bleached by harvest suns. The oil
man was a riddle to everybody /
Springfield that winter. He was a
ways in his seat, even on Monda
evenings. when no one else was there
He voted always with his party, an
he voted consistently as well, like