The Washington herald., 1913-01-19

Baldwin, the lobbyist, leaning forward
with his elbows on his knees, and sway
ing with the train as it swung out on
to the rocky ledge that paves the Valley
of the Desplaines, contemulatively cut
the end from a fresh cigar and said:
But I'm not SO sure, after all. Ny
experience with the Bailey bill shook my
faith in that proposition
The two other men in the salon looked
up with startled eyes.
Baldwin had been driven over from his
Michigan Avenue home and caught the
Alton limited when 1t made the station
stop at Twenty-third Street. where he
boarded the last OF its curtained Pull
mans. This coach was the political in
stitution known to Illinois statesmanship
as the Springfield sleeper, and Baldwin
and his two companions-Jennings, the
Secretary of State, and Denny Healy, a
canal commissioner-had the capsulated
coziness of its smoking compartment all
to themselves. Down by Dwight they
had fallen into a desultory discussion of
the old question as to whether or not
every man has his price. The question
could hardly interest these men long,
for, after many years constant contem-
plation, under the gray dome of the
State House, Of the weaknesses of men,
they had come to an acceptance of the
have no lingering faint Of cynicism. Jen-
nings. indeed. had just dismissed the
subject by declaring:
IAN men air fer sale, an most of 'cln
damn cheap"
And so the subject might have lapsed
had it not been for Baldwin's hetero-
doXy. That George R Baldwin, of all
men should double the first maxim OF
their profession was beyond comprehen-
sion. Though he played his part in
life with a suite of law offices in a sky
scraper as a background. his serious
business was lobbying bills through the
legislature. His friends, who were many,
boasted that he always stood by them.
right or wrong. Which he did. indeed.
And as they were generally wrong. the
value of such friendship. or his opin-
IONS on practical politics, could hardly
he overestimated. The day had been
a hot one in Chicago, but now a cold
draft of smoky air was sucking through
the narrow window-screen, on which
the cinders hailed as the limited plunged
southwark.
Smoke and dirt long since be-
grimmed the dark and sweaty face OF
Jennings, who. with waistcoat opened
in the comfort dear to the Egyptian,
was sprawling his shanks on the cushion
opposite him. while Healy, doomed by
CorpulenCe to an attitude more erect,
sitting with his chubby knees far apart,
as the fat will, his paunCh resting on
the edge of the seat he filled, now and
then brushed a fat palm over his red
scalp and sighed, as he pulled his
domestic cigar. But Baldwin sat and
smiled showing his excellent teeth be-
meath his reddish mustache. and visibly
expanded. They could hear. as an un-
dertone to their talking. the dun roll
Of the Pullman's paper wheels, and
now and then they were interrupted by
the whistles long and lonesome note at
country rOad-crOssing. out through
the double windows, against which Healy
sometimes pressed his forhead. because
the glass cooled IL. the dark fields wheel
ed past in an endless belt of darkness,
save where an oCcas sional burch of sparks
from an engine burrowed under the right
Of way fence. and then, in the momen-
taTy glow of light. they could catch sight
OF a tossing plume OF corn which told
them they were out on the prairies of
Central Illinois.
When the train paused for the Big
Four crossing at Gardner they heard in
the sudden flood of silence the snoring
OF a sensible fare-paying passenger who
had gone to bed. The strident noise of
the crickets and the frogs outside was
noted only as an effect OF the silence.
The three men had no thought of retir-
ing until they reached Pontiac at
clock, for the lives they led were such
that they could not sleep until that hour,
and then not very well.
Baldwin had lighted his imported cigar,
the superior aroma Of which. perceptible
even in an atmosphere chol1ed with coal
gases and the fumes of the domestic
C,gars Jennings and Healy were smoking,
indicated family the height of cultiva-
ton to which he had brought his appe-
tite. when Jennings, fiecking his ashes
on the floor of the salon just as he would
have done on his own parlor carpet,
aid:
Well. so on with the story
Baldwin settled mis- chin over the blue
cravat with the white polka dots that
was knotted over the immaculate collar
A collar incredulous men from Southern
Illinois were sometimes told. that was
actually made on the shirt-drew his
creased trousers a little farther above
the tops of his patent leather boots and
began:
"One session there was an old man
named Henderson in the house, who had
come up from Greene County: Hender-
son of Greene, everybody called him, to
distinguish him from Tom Henderson. of
bingham. He was a queer figure, was
Henderson of Greene, tall and gaunt
with a stoop in his shoulders. He al
ways wore a hickory shirt, opened at
a red and wrinkled throat, and his hair
was just a stubble bleached by harvest
suns The old man was a riddle to
everybody in Springfield that winter
He was always in his seat, even on
Monday evenings, when no one else was
there. He voted always with his party.
and he voted consistently as well, like a
good country member, against all the