Charlevoix county herald., 1913-11-15

me. III HOt OIllO liC
frills and fashions. But give me a
chance, and I'll learn as easy as
Chinaman. 4 came to me all of a
sudden to say what I've got to
say, right here and now, even II
it's at the expense OF little ell
ouet e. I've asked you here to-
night, mainly, of course, for the
pleasure of entertaining you, and
/ hope you're all having real
good time. But | had another
reason, too
The men at the tables looked
perpleXed. Was this the Caleb
ConoVer they had met and cring-
ed to in the outer world, this gar
rulous, rambling man with the
flushed face?
"You see, Pve come to be kind
of a feature of this city OF ours
and of the State, too. I'm here
to stay. And / want that my
towns-folks and my fellow-resi,,
dents of the Mountain State should
know me. Many of 'em do. There's
a full half-million folks in tins
city and State that know all a
bout Caleb Conover. They know
he's on the square, that he'll look
after their interests, that he's
white man. They know he's a
man they can trust in their pub
lie life and welcome in their homes:
And, as 1 said, there's a lot OF
these people here tonight.
"But there's a lot OF other folks
here who only know me by what
SANDER and jokes they've picked
IN around town or in the out-ot-
State newspapers. It's these latter
folks I'm talking to now. 1 want
tnem TO know the real me not the
uneducated crook and illiterate TEL
Ter my plitical enemies have MADE
me out. They can't think Pm all
bad. or they wouldn't be my
guests. Would they now? And
a little frankness ought. TO 90
the rest.
"Some people say I've risen
from the gutter. Well I've risen
from it, haven't !? a lot of men
ON Pom ton Avenue and in the
big clubs are just where they
were born. Not step III advance
OF whore their fathers left EN-.
swell chance they'd have had II
their parents had started EN- IN
tne gutter as mine did, wouldn't
they? Whered they be now?
"What does the start amount to?
The finish lines where the score
counted. Gutter or palace.
GA mans a man for a that
says poet by the name OIL n;
Burns. And be was right even II
ne did waste his time on verse
stringing. Only il always seemed
said by someone bigger II a meas
Nv Doet Someone whose name
carried weight and whose words
would be quoted more. Because
tnen more folks might hear OF II
and believe it. l don't suppose
one person in fifty's ever heard OF
this II. Burns person. Il never ana
myself, till | bought Famous
f6uotation book TO use in one oil
my campaigns. That's how l got
familiar with the writings OF Il.
Burns and Ibid and Byron and all
those rhymer people, Now, II
some public character like Tom
Platt, or Matt Quay, or someone
else that eVerybody's heard OF,
had said that quotation about
man being a mali
Caleb paused TO gather up the
loose threads of his discourse.
Tbis caused him moment of dull
bewilderment, Tor he was not &C
customed to digress, either in
mind or talk, and the phenome-
non puzzled him. He rallied and
went on:
"But that isn't the point. was
telling you about myself. l started
in the gutter, just as the knock
ers' say / did. Or down by the
freight yards, aud that's about the
same thing. My mother took In
washing when she could get 1t.
My father went to the penitentiary
for freight-lifting when l was
ten-he was a stevedore-and he
died there. | was brought up on
street where the feller-man or
boy-who couldn't fight had to
STAY indoors. And indoors was
one place / never stayed. | began
as, coal boy in the G. G.. & y. ele-
Nators then / got a job firing on
a fast freight, and from that took
TO braking on a local passenger
run. Then l was yardmaster, ana
then in the superintendent Office,
and then came the job OF suprin-
tendent and after that general
manager, and | worked my way up
till | ran the G. g. & Y. road sim
gle-handed. Meantime l was
looking after your city's interest.
Three times as Alderman and then
once as Mayor, Tor the boys knew
they could bank on me. | got hold
of interests here and interests
there. Cheap, rundown interests
they were. for the most part but
iG:it 'em up, Take thg {. >
y. for instance. Biggest road an
the State to-day. How'd it get SO?
/ made il. 1t was all run down,
and on its last legs when | took
hold. acquired IT and"
He paused once more, lighting
back that queer tendency TO let
slip his grasp on his subject. y
81 remember that c. q. x Y. deal
whispered Greer to his wife. They
juggled shares and pulled wires
and spread calamity rumors till
he was able to smash the stock
down to a dollar-ten per. He
scared out all the other big hold