The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1913-07-15

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 1t 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.
panlons. Jennings. the secretary OF
state. and Denny Healy. q canal com.
missioner, had the capsulated coziness
OF Its smoking compartment all to
themselves. Down by Dwight they
had fallen into 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 10 have no lingering
faint Of cynicism. Jennings, indeed,
had just dismissed the subject by de.
claring:
IAN 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 a suite Of law
offices In a skyscraper as 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
us 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 cold
draft OF smoky air was sucking
through the narrow window.screen. on
which the cinders hailed as the Lin
tied plunged southwark.
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 and
Iiealy were smoking, indicated family
the height of cultivation to which he
had brought his appetites, when Jen-
nings, tlecking his ashes on the floor
Of the salon just as he would have
done on his own parlor carpet, said:
Well go on with the story"
Zone session there was an old man
named Henderson in the house. who
had come up from Greene County;
Henderson OF Greene, everybody call
ed him, to distinguish him from Tom
Henderson, OF Eflngham. He was a
queer figure was Henderson OF Greene.
tall and gaunt with q stoop in his
shoulders. He always wore q hickory
shirt. opened at red and wrinkted
throat. and his hair was just o stubble
bleached by harvest suns. The old
Springfield that winter. He was al
ways in his seat, even on Monday
evenings, when no one else was there.
He voted always with his party, and
he voted consistently as we'll, like a
good country member, against all the
Chicago legislation. But he was a
silent man, who stood apart from his
fellows, looking with eyes that peered
from under his shaggy, sun burned
brows with an expression no one
could fathom. He never made a
speech, he never introduced bill, he
never offered resolution, he never
even presented petition, and when
the speaker made his committee as.
signments, he placed the old man on
the committees on History, Geology
and Science and on Civil Service Re-
form, and he did not even look disap-
pointed"
The two politicians chuckled.
"As for me-" continued Baldwin II
never spoke to him, and never knew
any one who did. The speaker him
self only addressed him-and then us
the gentleman from Greene-when
they were verifying roll.calls. No one
ever knew where he boarded. The
herd book gave him paragraph. say.
ing that he had been born in Indiana
along In 49, and moved to this state
sometime in the fifties. Left an or
phan early. with no education. he had
been day laborer all his life. work.
ing at anything he could get, mostly
on farms. He never had held office
before. and none knew how he broke
into the egislature--the tidal wave. |
suppose. Every one knew he never
would como back again.
well. we got down TO the last
night Of the session. The hands OF
the clock had been turned back in
that vain old attempt to stay the re.
morseless hours, but ITS pale and I'M
passive face was impotent as a grave
stone to stay dissolution and oblivion.
WILL NOT BE APPOINTED.
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