Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1913-08-22

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SG2. lower Clark street, light
~ looked like ground glass.
'eeAS30 black and sticky with
dead flies, shreds Of It's
s,e naper futtered, relics of some
boisterous fete an Italian society
bad given there long ago. The
Acor was damp in arabesque wrought
nv a sprinkling- for the janitor
bsd sprayed water there to lay the
dvst he was too Indifferent to remove
perhaps hundred chairs We're set in
ar,phitheatrical order, and before
chem stood a kitchen table, on which
WAS a white water pitcher, fanked by
a glass, thickened by various sedi-
mentary deposits within.
in the saloon below, at 8 o'clock,
scores of delegates were already shut
fling in the sawdust that covered the
floor. holding huge schooners of beer
In their hairy fists, gorging grossly at
tbe free lunch table, with bologna,
rank onions and rye bread. The foam
of the beer chung to their mustaches,
which, after each sip, they sucked be-
tween their lips. Most of them man
aged, at the same time they were eat
Ing and drinking, by dexterous
sleight-of-hand, to smoke cheap do
nestle cigars, and cloud of white
smoke rolled along the low ceiling.
Each new arrival was greeted with
some obscene but endearing epithet,
and the room rang with laughter and
profanity A key of beer had been
provided by one of Conway's man.
ayers, and the bartender, wiping his
hands on a dirty towel, was rid, so
long as the key lasted, of the RESPONSE
bility of keeping account of drinks,
and of ringing up the change on the
cash register At II o'clock the key
was empty, the free lunch table aban-
doned to the flies, and the delegates
scuffled up the dingy stairs to the
hall. Half an hour later the chairman
of the senatorial district committee
of a broken chair, and shouted:
"The convention will be in ORDER
This declaration made no impress
sion upon the babel of voices, the
laughter, the profanity, the noise of
shuffling feet and scraping chairs.
Finally the chairman of the commit
tee, growing impatient, split the table
with his club and yelled:
Damn it all, boys, come to order!"
And then, eager to resign such diff
ficult command, he fastened to an
nounce:
THE committee has named Honor
able John P. Muldoon to act as
temp'ry chairman"
He handed the chair leg to John P.
Muldoon, who, stroking back his curly
hair from his brow, began to beat the
table impartially
All this while Underwood stood
against the wall, looking on. The
question that had been agitating him
for weeks was about to be decided,
but now that the ordeal was actually
upon him, the consciousness beat
numbly against his brain, so that the
whole scene lacked reality, almost In
terest. He was dazed. He was about
to take his baptism of political fire,
and he trembled like a white noviti-
ate
Underwood belonged to one Of the
Oldest families of Chicago-the name
had been known there before the fire.
His father, who had lately taken him
into his law firm, continued to cling
IN his conservatism to an old stone
house in Michigan avenue long after
MS neighbors had abandoned their
mansions to uncertain boarders, and
either retreated farther south or adj
Vanced to the North Side. John I'm
0erWood had come out of Harvard
with a young lawyers ambition in
politics, an ambition that had the
United States senate merely as q be-
ginning of its home stretch, and when
the year rolled around in which state
senator's were to be elected in the
odd numbered districts he decided
mat 1t was time to begin.
Inc newspapers had scented the
sensation that lurked in the candida
lure OF young man like Underwood
IN the district like the First, and be-
cause he went into what is called So
Gety, promptly dubbed him reform
ct, and thus weighted he had set out
upon his race for the nomination. He
Hked to see his name ia the newspa-
pers' liked to think OF himself as q
teormer, though he was embarrassed
III this attitude by the fascinating hg-
ure OF the political boss he had hoped
10 oecome-a well-dressed, gentleman
~ BOSS, OF course, who, while at home
~ those saloons where he permitted
Tue convivial familiarity of the boys,
nevertheless took his luncheons at his
auo. He fell into a way of speaking
.. the First as my district" spoke
" II, in fact, as if he, instead OF
malachi Nolan and "Cinch" Conway,
owned it, and when certain ward poll
ueians in the first days of the cam
p0Ash called upon him. Underwood
"a