Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-12-06
CHAPTER TX.
The Grafton Opera House List.

The Grafton Opera House List.
The next five days witnessed practi-
cal repetitions of the foregoing eX-
periences. In almost every town the
local newspaper not only refused to
report a line Of Standish's speeches,
but would not accept his advertise
ments. Nor, in most places, could he
find job office willing to print hand
bills for him. His agent had nearly
everywhere been able to engage a
hall; but as no adequate preliminary
notice of the meeting had been pub
! lished, audiences were pitably slim.
In one or two towns, where the papers
did not belong to the machine" it
was discovered that every hall, lodge
room or other available meeting place
had been engaged in advance by some
mysterious competitor Give, at such
settlements, was forced to speak in
open air. Even then the police at
one town dispersed the gathering I'M
der excuse of fearing a riot; at two
others the mayor refused license to
hold an outdoor meeting, and at a
fourth, a gang of toughs, at long
range, pelted the audience with stones
and elderly eggs, the police refusing
to interfere.
At length Gives advance agent re-
turned to the candidate in abject des-
pair.
1--WE been doing this sort OF work
eight years." the man reported, "but
this time Pm cleaned stumped.
can't make any Roadway. The papers,
| 80
neutrality-suspicious. and the police
are all under Conover's thumb. It's
got so that as soon as | reach town
| can find out right away who is and
who isn't in the machines pay.
Where the papers aren't mHzzled-
and there are precious f. ( such
places-the halls are closed Z :, and
either the mayor or the p 4 will
stop the meeting. Where Il apers
are working for Conover, We D get
all the halls we want, bee. & the
/ Boss knows the news of your beech
can't circulate except by word of
mouth.
ooh, they've got us whipsawed in
grand SHAPED Pm wondering whatll
happen at Grafton Monday night.
That's the biggest city next to Gran
lite, and there's always been more or
less of kick there against Conover
rule. They've got a square man for
mayor, and one of their three news
papers is strong for you. | was able
to get the opera house, too. It's your
big chance of the campaign, and your
1 last chance on this tour. The rest
of the towns on your route | can't do
anything with. Pm waiting to see
what dirty game COnover will play at
! Grafton, now that he can't work his
usual tricks there. He'll be sure to
try something"
Billy Shevlin, who had also acted
! unexpectedly as unofficially) as ad-
vance agent of Give Standish's tour,
! had in three respects excelled the au-
! thoriZed agent: In the first place, he
had been as successful as the other
had been failure. In the second, he
had not turned back. Third, and last,
he was not in the very least discour-
aged. Nor had he need to be.
Yet even to him Grafton presented
the first serious problem. And to- it
he devoted much of his time and
more of his cleverness. AT last he
formed plan and saw that his plan
was good.
Give reached Grafton at noon of
the day he was scheduled to speak.
This was the second largest city in
the mountain state. Here, next to
Granite, must the chief battle of the
campaign be waged. On the effect of
his speech here hung a great per-
centage of Gives hopes for the COM
ing state convention as Grafton went,
so would Matawan county, whose
center it was. And Grafton, waver-
ing in fealty to Conover, might yet be
won to the Standish ranks by the
right sort of speech. So with the
glow of approaching struggle upon
him Give awaited the night. All he
asked was a fair hearing. This, pre-
sumably, was for once to be accorded
him.
At the hotel on his arrival he found
Karl Ansel waiting. The big, lean
New Highlander was in a state Of
white-hot wrath.
You got my telegram and the no.
tice of the caucuses, ] Supposed he
growled as Give met him.
mo, / ordered all mail forwarded
here, and kilograms, too. | broke
away from the route Saturday, when
7 found / couldn't get hall at Smith
field. / cancelled my date there and
vent over to Deene, leaving word for
everything to be sent on to Grafton.
Then, yesterday"
Never mind that. We're done !
Beatl Trickedw
What do you mean ?"
"The county conventions-the eau
cuses! In every-nearly every one Of
he eight counties COnover worked
ne hlackguardisw To some he
sent kilograms that you backed out.
.oor' act And ! rote you how
.hey'd snapped the dates and caught
rs unready. Then"
Give recalled the anonymous letter