The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-23
Honorable Senator Sagebrush
 By
 FRANCIS LYNDE Copyright. 1910. by Street a Smith

l Eno senator, ne 4dnSWoE0u SnOIuy. 'He said I would have to make my peace with you. I want to be put next in this pigs in clover railroad puzzle. Our contract with the Transcontinen- tai is about to expire, and I'd like to get 1t renewed on the same terms as before.''
 1 Well" she said ingenuous1y, ''why ] don't you do it?''
 q can't" he clustered. 'Everybody has suddenly grown mysterious. Kit tredge, the general superintendent doesn't seem to remember that we ever had any contract, and Gantry is just as bad. And when go to the senator he tells me I must make my peace with you. I can't understand what everybody is driving at. I've got something to sell that the railroad company needs. Where's the hitch? You can put me next. Why can't get my contract renewed?'' The little lady was opening and shut ting her fan slowly. What was your contract?'' she asked tnnocently.
 eff I thought you didn't know I wouldn't tell you," he said bluntly. '1t's rebate rate east and west from all of our sawmills, and it was given us two years ago, few days before election
 And the consideration ?" she asked, looking up quickly.
 -sYou know that, too Mrs. Blount. It was the swinging of the solid em- ployees' vote of the Twin Buttes Lum- Der company over to the railroad ticket"
 And you wish to make the same ar engagement again ?" she asked.
 Exactly. We've got to have that preferential rate or go out of busi- ness.''
 with whom did you make the con- tract two years ago?"
 ''With MT, McVickar, verbally. Of course there was nothing put down in black or white, but the railroad folks did their part, and we did ours.,' ss
 "A gentlemen's agreement" she Vickar again?
 ''Yes. He referred me to Gantry!''
 And what did ME Gantry say?'
 q couldn't get him to say anything with any sense in it. The most I could get out of him was that I would have to see the boss.'
 And instead of doing that you went to see the senator? ?' she asked.
 ''Who else would Gantry mean by the boss?'" demanded the befogged one
 Possibly he meant the senator's son." she ventured, tapping a very pretty cheek with the folded fan. Have you been leaving Evan Blount out in all of this?'
 "I didn't know where to put him in. That's what brings me here tonight. The senator or MT. AIcVickar or both of them together have set the whole state to running around in circles with this appointment of young Blount- Some say it's deal between the sena- tor and McVickar, and some say it's a fight. Half of the professional spell binders are walking in their sleep over 1t right now. I thought maybe you could tell me, Mrs. Blount.''
 '1 can't tell you anything that would help the people who are walking in their sleep" she returned, 'but might offer a suggestion in your per sonal affair. MT. Blount Is your man"
 Hathaway pursed his thin lips and frowned. "How big a block of Twin Buttes stock shall offer him?"
 Her laugh was a s11very peal of de- rtsion. ''Xou always figure in dollars and cents, don't you, MT. Simon Peter Hathaway she mocked.
 ''I have always found it the cheapest in the end.''
 ''Listen,' she said, with the folded fan held up like a monitory finger. ''Mr. Gantry may be back any min ute, and can give you only the tfniest hint. You must go to MT. Evan Blount and appeal to him frankly as one business man to another.''
 ''But I have heard-they say he's all kinds of a crank"
 Never mind what you have heard. Tell him all the facts and ask him to help you, and, for mercy's sake, don't offer him a block of your stock. Put it where 1t will do the most good. Put 1t in the name of Professor William J. Anners of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and show MT Blount how dreadfulIy disastrous the loss of the preferential freight rate would be to all the poor people in your list of stockholders, in- cluding Professor Anners.'
 Hathaway drew down his cuff and made 8 rapid pencil memorandum of the name and address of the new beneficiary.
 ''You will take notice that I'm not l asking who this Professor Anners is | or why should be making him a pres l ent of block of stock, but what you | say goes as it lies. Anything else%'
 'yes. Be perfectly frank with MT. l B1ount and don't let him put you off. | He may pretend to be very angry at l first, but you won't mind that.''
 'I won't mind anything if I can bring this business down to the every day, commonplace earth once more. You and the senator and Gantry and l are playing some sort of ] game, and you haven't shown me mere than the back of the cards. That's all |