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Show I CONDENSED CLASSICS I I ? $ CONISTON I I I By WINSTON CHURCHILL $ X X Condensation by .t. Hon. Samuel W. McCall. ex-Gov- X ernor of Massachusetts 1:h:X"H: I' "' 1 Winston Church- w,asts?$raJ. Ill, whom we per- j& - - ' haps nhould cull yfgu' Amerlcanus, to dtHttng-alsh b 1 m jjr- from the lively i Hon of Lord Ran- f v dolph Churchill " who bears the pT4 ,J same tn a m e of - 4 Winston, was born x; e 10, 1871, though v v -t v his father was of 1 Portland, Me. He liifc s was educuted at i g. ? Smith academy, ; ' st- 1'oul, ttna ( 8fl,., grraduoted from . fcf f ,ne United State. ? ' Naval academy In V ' ' 1804. The same - r year found him an editor of the Army -ef i and Navy Journal; A the next year he warn managing editor ed-itor of the Cosmopolitan masraxlnej In 1003 and 1005 he was a member of the New Hampshire legislature, and In 1006 he mil running for governor of that state a. the candidate of the Lincoln Republican club on a reform platform, fighting a valiant battle to do irn the political practices which had gl JWn to be time-honored, If nothing else. In that state. Some of the lenders, of the Democratic party fully recognized the good he was attempting to accomplish In this early progressive movement, but the fact that he -eras not a native of the state, was a newcomer In polities, poli-ties, and was striving for Idea, which were novel and thoroughly distressing to politicians of long experience prevented pre-vented his success with the Republicans. Republic-ans. Politics, however, have not bnen entirely the same in the state t l-fccc and as an education for a wrltT on political subjects his experiences could be called laboratory courses. CONISTON was a small village upon a shelf on a mountain side, commanding one of the gorgeous views characteristic of a little lit-tle commonwealth which has many a larger sister state, but none worthier. The politics of the place was under the control of the Church party, which something more than three-quarters of a century ago held sway over many of the towns of New England. But the career of "Old Hickory" was giving giv-ing a new Impulse to democracy and portended little good to any ruling class, whatever Its virtues. All that was needed was a leader and one was found In a yoiLug man named Jethro Bass, who was the son of a well-to-do tanner. Jethro Inherited from his father fa-ther a snug little fortune, but his education edu-cation had been almost wholly neglected. neg-lected. He skillfully made use of the rising discontent by appeals to ambition ambi-tion and personal Interest. It became clear that the ruling party was to be challenged at -the coming town meeting meet-ing and so presumptuous a thing stirred society to its depths. The spiritual leader of the Church party was the clergyman. His lovely daughter, Cynthia, filled a large place in the eyes of Jethro and she was drawn to him by the unmistakable signs of power apparent under his awkward exterior. They used sometimes some-times to meet by chance, and, unlike as they were in point of cultivation, they were really very much In love with each other, a circumstance that had rather to be inferred because Jethro Jeth-ro was little likely to exercise the initiative and say anything about it. Once when In Boston he bought a beautiful locket and had engraved upon it "Cynthia from Jethro," but he never mustered up the courage to present pre-sent It. When the political tempest was rising Cynthia, who sympathized strongly with her father's party, decided de-cided to go to Jethro and plead with him to stop the fight. Before he knew her purpose he broke his silence and declared his love. Perhaps If he had been given a chance for reflection and had not been so upset by his own confession he would have granted her request, but that did not seem possible possi-ble at the moment. Cynthia took his refusal as a decree of separation ; and she left him never to see him again and he set out upon the career which ended in his becoming the uncrowned king of the state. The town meeting fight went on and Jethro was chosen first selectman, the only office he ever held and in which he continued for 36 years. Cynthia went to Boston, where she became teacher in a high school, and in the course of time married William Weth-erlll, Weth-erlll, the clerk who had sold Jethro the locket She first learned about the locket from her husband and con fessed to him her love for Jethro. After a few years she died, leaving a little girl who bore her name. Weth-erill Weth-erill moved to Conlston, taking young Cynthia with him, and went to keeping keep-ing the' village store. In the years that had gone by Jethro had found Coniston too small and was engaged in carrying on the government govern-ment of the state. He had his lieutenants lieuten-ants in every county and possessed such an organization that he was able to select most of the men who held the Important offices and to control their actions afterwards. In brief, he became be-came the "Boss" of the state and people peo-ple who desired legislation or offices found it necessary to visit him. Avarice Ava-rice did not seem to be the motive which controlled him. Railroads wero being built, manufacturing developed, and he took pride in making himself indispensable In what was going on. When little Cynthia appeared at Conlston Con-lston he at once loved her as he would have loved his own daughter. Her father was enable to meet his obligations obliga-tions at the bank. Jethro quietly bought the mortgage and had it assigned as-signed to himself. Cynthia used to j call him Uncle Jethro and loved him as she "did her father. ' After a time the railroad corporations corpora-tions decided to consolidate. Jethro, whether he feared that they would become be-come too large for the state, or for him, did not approve of consolidation. Thereupon they decided to overthrow him. The fight began over his home post office. He was known to favor an old soldier named Eph Prescott who had been badly wounded In the Wilderness Wil-derness and whom he had helped in his uphill fight as he had helped many' another person. The railroad party decided de-cided to defeat Jethro's candidate In order to weaken his prestige in the state, and it had the support of many men who had formerly done his bidding bid-ding and of the "congressman from the district," the usual autocrat in the distribution of offices of that class. Jethro went to Washington and contrived con-trived to have an apparently chance meeting between President Grant and Eph. Grant was attracted by Eph's simplicity. They talked over the battle bat-tle they had fought together with a modesty which furnished another instance in-stance that the noisiest patriots are not always the greatest. Grant appointed ap-pointed Eph. When the news of the victory reached home, Jethro's prestige pres-tige was much increased. He placed Cynthia in a finishing school in Boston. Being a young woman wom-an of high spirit she was not happy there. The fact that she came from a remote country place and of an unknown un-known family, very likely j'ad something some-thing to do with the treatment she received re-ceived in those primitive days before finishing schools had been made wholly whol-ly safe for democracy. One day a paper pa-per controlled by Isaac Worthington, the head of the corporation party, made a savage attack upon Jethro as a lobbyist and a "boss." The paper found its way Into Cynthia's hands and gave her the greatest distress. She went to Jethro and asked him if fhe story was true. He said: "They h'.aln't put It just as they'd ought to pen-haps, but that's the way I done it -In the main." His manly confession confes-sion caused her to love him even more than, before. She withdrew from the finishing school and went to teach In Brampton, the town Id which Worthington Worth-ington lived. Jethro, shaken by the effect on Cynthia, determined to withdraw with-draw ficm politics. The state was in a ferment. Would the corporations be able to down Jethro? Jeth-ro? For the first time In nearly 40 years Jevhro did not appear at the Conlston town meeting.- The enemy won by default. The news heartened the corponifions everywhere. Worthington Worth-ington had Always been an enemy of Jethro's, although he had accepted his help more than once, and while Indulging In-dulging in very virtuous speeches, had practiced essentially the same methods. meth-ods. His son,- Bob, was madly In love with Cynthia, but she subordinated her own love for Bob completely tc her fidelity to Jethro. Bob proposed to her and she refused. He declared that he would leave his father and earn his own living and then claim her on account of what he had himself him-self done. He wrote his father telling tell-ing him his purpose. When the latter received the letter he flew into a rage. Learning that Cynthia was a teacher In his own town, he called the committee commit-tee together, the majority of whom he controlled, and had them pass a vote Ignomlniously dismissing her from the school. This action aroused Jethro and he straightway took up the battle again against the corporation magnate responsible for the outrage. He swooped down upon the capltol like an eagle. His genius for political generalship gen-eralship flashed out with its old-time brightness. Messages went to the valley val-ley towns and to the north country. The "throne room" was open again, and although the battle had been apparently ap-parently lost through Jethro's withdrawal, with-drawal, it became evident that the corporations were destined to defeat. Finally Worthington was willing to surrender and asked Jethro's terms. Jethro said, "Consent to the marriage of Cynthia and Bob." Worthington complied com-plied In some high flown letters and the marriage took place. Jethro withdrew with-drew from the fight and from politics and passed his old age near Cynthia, blessed by her love and that of her children. (With apologies to Mr. Winston Win-ston Churchill). Copyright, 1919. by the Post Publishing Co. (The Boston Post). Copyright In the United Kingdom, the Dominions. Its Col onies and dependencies, under the copyright copy-right act, by the Post Publishing Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. All rights reserved. re-served. Condensed from "Conlston." by Winston Churchill, copyright, 1906, by The Macmlllan Company. Used by permission per-mission of author and publisher. |