The Washington herald., 1913-08-10

ried-with fees. Then the weather UNI
fortunately grew warm, and some one
! started an investigation. The Niger
and the coroner's political career
!. spoiled simultaneously that week. Old
| Mowry had been shutting around the
| courthouse trying to collect his fees
| from every succeeding county board
but always the ghost of that colored
citizen haunted him. And every month
| ly board meeting Father Doyle drove
over from Earlville to see if Mowry's
claim had been allowed. Mowry was
the sole Catholic in Rome, but the
| only time he would contribute cent
was when he had buried a Protestant
in good standing. And one of the I'M
| dertaker's grievances, always aired in
| the News Office, was that county dead
should not figure in the good priests
calculations-he couldn't collect his
fees, anyhow; out of this gol-durned
! board. Mr.. Curran listened patiently.
| The priest was his good friend. So
was Mowry. So seemed all the lame
ducks of the communicated no one
| else. He wondered now, in his new
found ambitions, why all the repre-
! sentative men seemed afraid of him;
and why all the nondescript humanity
| of the town attached itself to him.
Mowry was the first to spread the
news about the courthouse that week
that Curran was going to run against
Jim Hall in, the Congressional pri-
maries. Mr.. Curran, when he made
his usual round of the county building
for the batch of items, reaped' an I'M
expected harvest.
He met Thad Tanner and his SON.
in-law, Cal Rice, OF the First National
Bank, in. the corridor. Cal Rice's wife
owned most of the Eariville Mercury
Journal stock; and recently the Mer-
! cury-Journal had been giving away jar
dinieres and eigfft-day clocks with sub
scriptions in an endeavor to put the
News out of business. Old Thad and
Cal were talking about it now and
some OF the county board were with
them. Thad had Boosted five years
ago that he would put that damned
four-page rag on the dump behind
Curran's shop, but still the rag" per-
sisted. Somehow the county remem-
bered the day. the elder Curran was
/ stretched senseless across the dihsy
desk by a copper-head mob.
Old Tlrad was small and screw-head-
ed, with a continually barring upper
lip as he talked and his husky voice
came out of toothless cavern of
mouth that seemed never quite able to
close its grinning. Yet he had a GER
tain clear and singing way of stat
ing facts, rugged horse sense and
profane humor that accounted for much
of his dominance in the county at
fairs-that and his money and fighting
qualities And he knew men He
knew Wiley Curran. Wiley had an
exasperating idea that Old Thad, by
some intuition, had gagged year by
year, month by month. week by week.
the decay of the News-that he could
forecast very nearly how much longer
the malcon;ent sheet would keep up
lis barking.
7 Morning, Mr.. Curran,' Thad turned
from the board members as the edi-
tor mounted the courthouse steps.
How is our very weakly these days."
That was a never-failing banter of
the county boss. The farmer men,
bers were apt 10 smile deprecatingly;
and the editor kept his temper. He
| wondered how the big-bodied country
men could tolerate the boss grin-he
always was so sure of himself-and
them. Old Thad felt good this morn
ing-he had got his contracts for the
creek diversion and road culvert about
which the News had been peppering
the board. Only Burt Hemminger, a
pale-eyed, yellow-bearded farmer, had
proteste and mumbled something about
the News charges that the Tanner
quarries were the chief benehciaries
of the work. Boydston and Curry, the
road committee. and Tanner men, had
put through the contracts without
comment-it was the usual program.
So now the quarry boss thought he
could badger the defeated News COM
placently.
THE honorable board has Just voted
for the creek work, Mr.. Editor, You
might make a note of it. But / sup
pose the News will be too filled this
week with politics. We hear you're
coming out against Jim Hall?"
The county men were looking at
Curran. Judge Van Hart and the dis
trict attorney, Jewett, pot-bellied
nonentity. were coming from the court
room. Tanner spoke purposely loud:
he wanted to smoke out this Joke of
the editors aspirations.
Il am going in the primary" said
Currsn quietly. The group stopped
curiously. Cal Rice, ever taking his
cue from the boss. laughed Jewett
rubbed his bald head The News was
his aversion. Wiley had bounded him
as prosecutor who never began action
against any one except bootleggers,
drunk section hands and any sort of
homeless men. Jewett was noted as a
famous barbecue cook, and at Old
Home Week festivals, Old Settlers
picnics and the like, white-aproned,
genial, good-humored, he presided.
During campaigns he gave bullhead
breakfasts in the woods, where county
politicians prominent lodge members,
influential farmers-any one who was
any one-congregated, and through a
night OF rough conviviality-a vast
glut of eating, drinking, songs and
speeches-Jewett won his election
Church folk and wives complained of
these orgies, but Jewett offered his
cookery and his jokes with equal IA
cility to the church festivals and quiet
ed the talk. Curran never attended
these bullhead feasts-they disguised
the esthete's taste in him, and besides,
with the unsureness of the nervous
man, he did not care to face the ban
ter of the county crowd at its widest.
Old Thad waddled nearer to tap
Curran on the arm. young man,
Congress is stable pill for you, amt
il? And don't Won know there ain't