Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-01-01
CHAPTER v111-(continuedo.

the gigantic financial interests that
dominated his party. Already his re-
elecsion was bitterly opposed.
la that dinner. o roared the
Tor that old cuss as a senator! The
governors crowdW get him! 1 tell vol
Fellows ought to get an ear to the
eround. Here Wiley sits in his old
snop kicking off q 81 job for the Gem
restaurant when he ought to be out
among the people. Here's Harlan get
TIM through law and then hanging out
1or some picayune cas- old Thad Tan
ner throws him to keep him lined up
WITH the ole guard. In a few years
nell be TAT and married. driving a car
never a hair sweated-and re-
hard fists together-"never q rough
and tumble fight in your life. was there
Harlan?"
Harlan smiled. That sort of thing
was mot for the Van Harris.
w,s n9@ ought 1ngta,a t. to ao;e come a . up 7nt to
Harvard graft is all right for law
but you want to catch the new
spirit OF the new times. Sometimes
up there in the north, I'd like you
70 climb the hill with me and see the
fellows from the cow college fight to
get into Carmack's lectures on political
science. I say, fight to get in! Car
mack's the faculty chap the regents
would fire IL they dared. But I tell
you every man who come Of the
class room is a political missionary
against h old order. You ought to
hear those youg professors talk-that's
the stuff for the Vest"
Wlley's eyes We're on the two. Both
native sons Of the Midlands. one
Dronzed with Tx soil. lean with his
srdors the other h%ealthily pink. the
beauty OF a Galahad, the pure nurture
OF his fathers victorian ~standards-of
the two he loved Harlan better. There
was about him a completion, he was a
product OF an American era done; the
other was In the travail Of the making.
But he could visualize all of Arne's
outcry. He himself, in the wandering
years. had seen h epic Of the old west
close; he had mingled the wine of his
lie with 1t. But now the new land
was here. the stately cities rising, the
ordered nobleness OF form. That was
fuller democracy; the west had seen
and caught the vision; and Curran,
the Celtic romanticist, could feel the
%splendor.
You shall seek the truth, and the
truth shall make you free;' that is
what they tell us up there" vent on
Arne. 'Ive lain in bed after bucking
all night on soil tests and economic
history, and listened to the young men
going up the hill to Carmack's lectures
the young men up the hill in the
snow at Z o'clock! And when he de-
clared that the spirit of socialism was
the spirit of every good thing the world
was fighting for; when he told them to
go out and preach the recall, and the
state control of wealth-I've heard
them shout, and others going up the
bill took up the shout. That's what
we're getting, along with soil culture
and forest preservation n law and
engineering tell you It sounds like
the marc Of a new civiiization-the
hill" - ~,
Harlan listened with his detached
nnd friendly smile. He remembered
last week stopping Arne in the post
office with a forecast of the Yale-Har-
vard football season, but the western
student had not seemed to hear-per-
haps he was filled with his vision of
the young men going up the hill seek
Ing h vision of the New America,
the truth that should make men free.
20 those young fellows going back
to their states jump into politics."
went on Arne. $50 am I. Harlan.
Ing pigs and politics, INC Wen ditch
Jim Hall for congress and Fairchild
later. And where will you be-you. I
say!"
"Arne,' drawled Harlan with aggra-
waiting calm, II shall probably be ar
ooAAS AA0~ACASo case al Lie justice
court"
Arne snorted. Wiley, here, is going
to get in the primaries again Jim HALL"
Wiley" put in Janet slowly, last
week the governor was asking about
Curran of the News
Wiley flushed, disconnected for once.
He felt that Janet was shrewdly read
Ing him. He had met Governor Delroy
once-the fighting anti-ring governor,
whom the rebellion Of the north insur-
gents had put in the chair. But that
Delroy remembered him! After all.
With his philandering old News had he
really done something? He raised his
eyes to see Janet smiling fondly at him,
that old affectionate camaraderie Of
days long dead. Harlan, too, smiled. It
was rather droll to consider this OBJ
u country editor as a contestant
against James Hall, one time his ia
Tiers law partner, now one Of the
most powerful figures Of the lower
house. What, then, was Wiley Curran
An the new civic conscience Of the
state? What hidden forces were ar
rayed against the old order, the easy
dominance of property and class to
which privilege 8 given a sort Of
sanctity? He had his first feeling Of
class consciousness. now. with these
challenging friends. And slowly his
thoughts went back to Aurelie, to that
sullen r~esentful shame with which he
had become aware Of his failure to
reconcile his owe for her with his sense
Of obligation to his parents, their trad
ltion. breeding, their love and hopes for
him. This seemed deepest in him, this
abiding sense of honor to them. to
their gentle birth and the manners Of
their kind. There were two sorts Of
right then-the clamor of those who
fought up to seize the good of life. and
the steadfast resolution Of those who
possessed this good and would hold It
against the others. Nothing new in the
problem; 1t was the problem Of demLc-
racy. Harlan was considered an ami
able and democratic young man, yet he
could not define certain reserves in
himself n why 1t was almost impos-
stble to pass these reserves or admit
others to them, although thy were the
common understanding OF cultured peo-
pie everywhere. That was it-this bond
Of cultured people! And social rebels,
political rebels: the eternal spirit OF re-
.bellion Of any sort did not have this.
or cared nothing for 1.-THE rough-and-
tumble Of life left little time for its
fineness. That raj left to those OF
the established order. an aristocracy
to which, much as he hated the word.
he must belong. That was why he
could not acutely see Aurelio as tho
little ~vulgarian, after all; OF obscurc
origin and social gaucherie once she
Wes placed with people OF his wort HIS