Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-12-20

State Chairman, called the convent
to order. He had judiciously dill }
tributed punches of his best trained
shouters where they would do the
most good. They cheered when he
named the secretaries and assistant
secretaries who would act until the
permanent organization had been eff
fected And between times they
cheered for the joy of cheering.
Both sides knew that the first and
last test of strength would come upon
the selection of Committee on Creden-
| tials, since it was to this committee
that the contests of the six larger
counties for the right to sit in the
convention would go for settlement.
| Previous conventions had always de-
cided that delegates whose seats were
contested should not be allowed to sit
as members of the Committee on
Contested Seats. Give Standish in
nocently supposed this rule would be
adhered to by this convention. He
was wrong. Conover had no Quixotic
notion of giving his rival any such ad-
vantage. The night before he had de-
creed that the chairman should rule
| that this Committee on Contests
should consist of three members from,
each county, and that these members
should be chosen by the sitting dele
gates from each county. This meant
that the committee would stand
eighteen delegates for Conover and
six for Standish. And so it was.
Chairman Bourke ruled exactly as
Conover had dictated.
When the convention understood
the purport of it all the maddest up
roar broke out. All semblance of or
| der was lost. A dozen fist fights
started simultaneously. A longshore-
man-Conover district captain from
one of the railroad" wards of Gran
! ite-wittily spat in the face of vo-
ciferating little farmer from Wills
County, and then stepped back with
a below of laughter at his own pow
ers of repartee. But others understood
| the gentle art of "retort courteous"
almost as we'll as he. Losing for once
his inherited New England calm, Karl
Ansel drove his big gnarled fist flush
into the grinning face of the dock-rat,
and sent him whirling backward amid
splintering of broken seats.
Ansel, smarting and past all con-
troll, ploughed his way down the main
aisle. and hating below the stage,
shook his clenched fist at Caleb Con-
overs crayon likeness.
1--WE seen forty pictures of Judas
Isdcariot in my time," he Numbered,
apostrophizing the portrait i'm a nasal
voice that rose high above the clamor,
land no two of them looked alike.
But by the Eternal, they all were the
living image of YOUR
Then he went down under an ava
| lanche of Conover rowdies, giving and
! taking blows as he was borne head
! long to the floor. At the cost of a
brief interim of ruthless rioting the
Machine at last had its way. Stan
dish had but six members on the COM
mittee.
The contest was over.
The Standish delegates offered but
perfunctory opposition to the work
of choosing the Committees on Organ
ization and Platform. This much hav-
ing been done, the convention took
the usual recess, leaving the commit
tees to go into session in separate
rooms back of the stage.
The delegates filed out, the men
from Wills and Matawan angry and
silent in their shamed defeat, those
from the six victorious counties crow
ing exhuberant glee at their easy tri-
umph.
The adjournment announced, Give
slipped out of the Convention Hall by
rear entrance, and went across to
his private office at the League
rooms. He wanted to be alone-away
from even the staunchest friends-in
this black hour. Against all counsel
and experience, against hope itself, he
had hoped to the last. His bulldog
pluck, his faith in his mission, had up
held him above other, colder, saner
reason. Even the repeated warnings
of Ansel had left him unconvinced.
Up to the very moment Conover's
final successful move was made Stan
dish had hoped. And now hope was
dead.
He was beaten. Hopelessly, utter
ly, starkly beaten. From the outset
Conover had played with him and his
plans as a giant might play with a
child. 1t had been no question of
open battle, with the weaker antag-
onist battered to earth by the greater.