River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-09-11

AT times some pOllJlcldn would come
with a scared face and inquire about
the colonel, and the doctor always de-
manded news of the battle, before he
answered the questions. The reports
brought by the politicians were not
encouraging, and they hurried outside
again Their visits, in the afternoon
waned, became fewer Even Mosely
and Garwood had been glad of the ex-
citing excuse offered by the First dis
triet convention in Italia hall down
Clark street to escape from the shad-
owed headquarters. At o'clock
no one had been there for an hour
save some sympathetic bell-boys and
porters from downstairs, and Carroll,
of course-he came every half hour
from the convention, disheveled,
bathed in perspiration, his eyes burn.
ing with excitement and suspense.
Foerder would not allow him to see
the colonel. who lay behind the white
door, his eyes half closed, too weak
any longer to whisper.
At o'clock the reporters came, and
Doctor Foerder, as they put it, issued
bulletin. 800 iA 4kh" ~
"He's. alive" the doctor said. pulse
120 to 124. respiration % TO &c, tenn
perature 9S. His remarkable nerve
alone sustains him. He's making the
most magnificent fight 1 ever saw in
all my life-have you heard anything
from the convention?"
They're all over but the one in
the First district" one of the report
ers said, while they scrubbed down
the physicians figures. ''It all depends
now upon what that does, It's the
worst fight ever known in Chicago.
They say Warren has spent twenty
five thousand today"
Does 1t look as If he could be
elected therein the First, you
known"
The reporters smiled and winked
one at another.
The colonel lay like one asleep, I'M
til far along in the evening. Once or
twice he opened his eyes and looked
an inquiry into the doctors eyes, but
Foerder could only shake his head.
And once or twice he muttered some
thing about Baldwin, and was trou-
bled that they could not understand.
Then he sank into a state of coma,
and the news for which all were wait
ing would not come.
Doctor Foerder was forever glanc-
ing at his watch and asking Lambert
how he thought the First district
convention would turn out Lambert
had no idea.
Il hope We'll win," Foerder would
say. Finally he sent Lambert down
for news. Lambert hurried back.
They had taken forty-six ballots, he
said, and the vote was tied. AT ten
o'clock Doctor Foerder examined the
colonel again, examined his eyes, his
finger-nails, drummed on his chest,
listened to his heart.
You're magnificent" he could not
refrain from whispering, but his pa
tient did not answer or look, or even
smile this time. He was growing very
weak. His breathing was faint, he in
hailed the air through livid lips. He
did not arouse from his stupor.
Doctor Foerder got very impatient.
I'VE can't wait much longer" he said.
Its all we can do, now" said Lam
bert.
Foerder went outside. The ante
room was deserted. The politicians
came no more. He would sit down,
then instantly get up, walk back and
forth; his eyebrows knitting in his
scowl, his lips twitching in that mirth-
less smile. And he smoked cigarette
after cigarette. He did this for an
hour.
Along toward midnight he heard a
step. Flying to the door, he saw Car
roll, dragging down the hall with the
step of defeat and exhaustion. The
boys hair was matted under his hat,
his eyes were dull, sunken, black as
night.
Licked he said, wavipg his hands
with gesture of despair, as if the
world had come to an end. Foerder
went inside, leaving Carroll to sink
into the first chair. But a moment
later the physician opened the white
door. and beckoned with his head.
The motion was conclusive final. He
held the door ajar, and Carroll en-
tered. The useless drugs, had been
pushed aside. The room was filled
with the strange silence, the odor of
death. Lambert stood at the win
dow. looking out into the darkness.
The nurse stood by the bed, waiting
to perform her last Office for the dy-
ing man.
Carroll timidly approached and
looked down at the long form, scarce
ly outlined by the sheet, at the rigid
head, at the great, waxen brow, at the
little blue spheres formed by the
closed eyelids, at the mouth slightly
open beneath the white mustache
with it's tinge of yellow. Doctor
Foerder was pressing his fingers to
the colonel's wrist. The breathing had
lost all human quality, it was but a
series of automatic gasps, which, 1t
seemed. would never end. Finally
they grew shorter, at last they ceased,
there was one faint inspiration, and
Doctor Foerder, laying the thin old
hand down upon the colonel's breast,
said:
Its all over"
There was silence for a whole min
ute. Then Doctor Lambert tossed up
the window, and Carroll heard in the
street below, a crowd shuffling over
the sidewalk, crowd coming, as he
knew, from the convention In Italia
hall. And suddenly from the crowd