The Washington herald., 1913-09-07

| 10 tanner, 10 the property owners
our sort-the privilege of exploiting
others who can't help themselves. AND
a hoary tradition of the courts exist!
to defend the privilege The court" -
he checked himself, but hotly-"Harlar
come over to Earlville to dinner with
us Sunday night and meet this Nc
Bride, the chap who's organizing the
soft coal miners. He's a new article
] in this county-and he's behind me II
this fight against Hall. l want you tc
meet him"
Mcbride, the man who dehed the
Supreme Court last year and went to
jail for it,"
"Yes. I'm glad he did. He made
lot of people stop and thlnk-and
that's what we're after"
The Judges son smiled tolerantly
"All right. I'd like to see him. I'm
curious. But his friendship won't help
You, Wiley"
Wiley smiled in turn. But thus it
came about that Harlan and Arnes
! Vance came over to the seventy-hve-
cent table d'hote dinner al the Hotel
Metropole to meet Mike Mcbride. The
dining-room of the Hotel Metropole,
all excessively new and Earlvillian,
with a tapestried wall of stitf-necked
steeplechasers, gorgeous dogs in four
colors climbing a fence; while over a
bulging and lavender hill dashed a
motor car, the cloud of dust and the
ladies' wells forming a diaphanous
perspective in FIVE more colors, which,
with the Hunt Club dogs and the rid
,,,aIa +ha ~ len
Parsons above the Parsons House
mantel over in Rome seem old and
faded. You would understand at once
that it belonged in a town which had
an interurban, and an Elks' Club, and
pressed its trousers, along with other
cocky modernity. But neither Arne
Vance nor Wiley T. Curran let on to
being impressed. for they had dined
in number of the beplastered and
mulli-colored cafes OF ambitious West
ern cities. And Harlan, on his FIRST
visit to the Metropole, looked about
with a smile and then at Mcbride as
he stirred his demi-tasse-even the girl
walters said demi-tasSe-now in Earl
vile.
This is a live-wire town." Mcbride
was saying, and when it gets through
laying out parks and boosting factories
it's going after you fellows over in
Rome who've run the county so long"
He was short, thick, red-browed man
to whom one would rather break dis
agreeable news over the telephone. His
fingers were hard and stubby, and he
dug sugar out OF the bowl and dumped
it into his demi-tasse without so much
as a glance at the dogs done in four
colors. He went after local affairs like
man who could assimilate more sig
nihcant facts in week than all the
best people of the county could dis
cover in a lifetime. That county ring
has run things ever since the war, and
as long as the tax rate wasn't too high
the business people didn't growl, and
Tanner fixed every board to suit him.
Self-and hogged all the county work.
He's a good man, this Tanner-I like
his method-he gets things. But we
ought to get him. And a district at
torney who'd throw the gaff- The one
you got is a crook
Il agree" murmured Wiley-he felt
too amiable after his seventy-five cent
occasion, with dogs in four colorS, TO
be the zealot. New blood is needed.
But there's some good men on our
side the creek, also
Skunk" queried Mcbride.
"Sinsinawa."
Call it Skunk. Then we'll get down
TO brass tacks. always wanted to talk
with some OF you fellows from the
county seat. State labor is right with
the Governor in this progressive fight.
That's the reason I'm down here. I'm
here until this district is organized by
the Delroy crowd. The Governor
wants Fairchild's seat in the Senate,
and he wants Jim Halls scalp in Con-
gress, because he thinks Hall will get
the old crowds support for it if Fair
child can't win out So he and his
people are going to put Curran over
and I'm with 'em. ! amt no reformer,
but labor is going with 'em. But first
we ought to clean up this county"
Wiley unused. Arne. his black eyes
listened as if a fresh breath |
had come somewhere out of a fighting |
world Harlan wondered rather sa-
why an outsider should come |
down here and talk like a man of |
THE Catholic vote in them new
mines where the Poles and dagos have
come in, it'll be for Curran," went on
Mcbride. Father Doyle gives it to
ne straight. All that's good. And this
new Earlville contracting company,
which is sore over Tanner gobbling
al the work, is going to unload on the
I'D ring. Amt any reform going to
get far unless some one expects to
.1aa,, e1r,a+h,-rr fT,f.a -
We're going to elect Curran."
Harlan had listened more acutely.
He had begun to resent Wileys prob
ematical success. Mcbride was worse
han he had dreamed. His fathers
deals of politics had not encompassed
uch brute truth. Mcbride turned his
blue eyes under their red brows di-
ectly on him.
Are you the man they're talking of
or district attorney"
Harlan stared at him incredulously.
The easy ingratiating standards of his
ather'S sort of men around the court
louse, even the rustic geniality of the
.ounty board members, he felt equal
o, but this ruthless analysis and mill
ant directness of the man of new
onditions Jared him. He still stared
I Mcbride.
Come out" rasped Mcbride, eve
an put you over this year. l hear
QUILL do-Vance, Curran, here-put it
p that way"
Harlan turned to them with a laugh.
'ince when had Arne and Wiley and
few unknowns took it to themselves
D parcel out the county offices? These
udacious rebels, without authority,