The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1913-11-28

N ~ looked like ground glass
o From the chandeliers
black and sticky with
dead flies, shreds OF tbs
sue paper f1uttered, relics OF some
boisterous fete an Italian society
had given there long ago. The
floor was damp in arabesQue wrought
by sprinkling-can, for the janitor
had sprayed water there to lay the
dust he was too Indifferent to remove
Perhaps a hundred chairs were set in
amphitheatrical order, and before
them stood a kitchen table, on which
was white water pitcher, fianked by
a glass, thickened by various sedi-
mentary deposits within.
In the saloon below, at 9 o'clock,
scores of delegates were already shut
fling in the sawdust that covered the
floor. holding huge schooners of beer
In their hairy fists, gorging grossly at
the free lunch table, with bologna,
rank onions and rye bread. The foam
OF the beer chung to their mustaches,
which. after each sip, they sucked be-
tween their lips. Most of them man
aged, at the same time they were eat
Ing and drinking, by a dexterous
Straightforward, to smoke cheap do
nestle cigars, and cloud of white
smoke rolled along the low ceiling
Each new arrival was greeted with
some obscene but endearing epithet,
and the room rang with laughter and
profanity. A key of beer had been
provided by one of Conway's man.
ayers. and the bartender, wiping his
hands on dirty towel. was rid, SO
long as the key lasted, of the response
bility of keeping account of drinks.
and of ringing up the change on the
cash register. At IL o'clock the key
was empty, the free lunch table aban-
doned to the flies, and the delegates
scuffled up the dingy stairs to the
nall. Half an hour later the chairman
of the senatorial district committee
pounded the kitchen table with a leg
of broken chair, and shouted:
THE convention will be in order"
This declaration made no impress
sion upon the babel of voices, the
laughter, the profanity, the noise of
shutting feet and scraping chairs.
Finally the chairman of the commit
tee, growing impatient, split the table
with his club and yelled:
Damn 1t all, boys. come to order!"
And then, eager to resign such diff
hcult command, he fastened to an
nounce:
THE committee has named Honor
able John p. Muldoon to act as
temp'ry chairman"
He handed the chair leg to John P.
who, stroking back his curly
hair from his brow, began to beat the
table impartially.
All this while Underwood stood
against the wall, looking on. The
question that had been agitating him
Tor weeks was about to be decided. |
but now that the ordeal was actually
upon him, the consciousness beat |
lumbly against his brain, SO that the
whole scene lacked reality. almost in
crest. He was dazed. He was about
o take his baptism Of political fire.
Ind he trembled like white noyiti-
tie.
Underwood belonged to one of the
'ldest families of Chicago-the name
lad been known there before the fire.
lis father, who had lately taken him
INTO his law firm, continued to cling
II his conservatism to an old stone
louise in Michigan avenue long after
lis neighbors had abandoned their
mansions to uncertain boarders, and
ither retreated farther south or ad-
anced to the North Side. John I'm
erwood had come out of Harvard
With young lawyers ambition in
olitics, an ambition that had the
United States senate merely as a be-
inning of its home stretch, and when
he year rolled around In which state
enators were to be elected In the
id numbered districts he decided
hat 1t was time to begin.
The newspapers had scented the
ensation that lurked In the candida
ire of young man like Underwood
the district like the First, and be-
ause he went into what is called So
ety, promptly dubbed him reform
r. and thus weighted he had set out
pom his race for the nomination. He
ked to see his name in the newspa-
ers, liked to think of himself as a
eformer, though he was embarrassed
| this attitude by the fascinating fig I
re of the political boss he had hoped I
become-a well-dressed, gentleman
boss, OF course, who, while at home I
those saloons where he permitted
lie convivial familiarity of the boys. c
evertheless took his luncheons at his {
ub. He fell into a way of speaking 8
the First as my district" spoke
1t, in fact, as If he, instead of !
alachi Nolan and "Cinch" Conway. {
vned it, and when certain ward poll
clans In the first days of the cam I
aign called upon him, Underwood 6
as pleased to lend them money. lust '
he was pleased to comply with the I
'quests OF certain others who organ c
ed the John W. Underwood First /
ard Campaign club, and sent a com
ittee to inform him that they we're
"a lad In, h. 81, 4