Show 4 aa 1 N T N ilig 0 VI A CA P T 1 I J ART N al MA NUS EX P L 1 LA skid LU CZ TH THE E ANCIENT DISEASE OF af PO CAMPAIGN ITIS I 1 Tb cyro having a groat great time down tu hi Abys abyssinia synia said the photo tele graph operator on tho the now york re calving float ot of the tha V C A aerial line as he bo camo came out of his bis dark cabinet and rubbed his oyes eyes roil red with staring blaring ot at the moving films ot of the worlds arid events that had been flashing before him A fellow would think this was waa the year 1912 instead of 1962 11 what are they doing down there asked captain macmanus master retired oh gone mad the whole aholo nation ll 11 said bald tho the operator wearily to look nt at the films think they were having a war or a plague or a wholesale riot all over the couii country just hold what they call a 0 convention for three days botu marching around with brass brasa lands bands and banners and shouting and talking and fl oin geve y thing but declaring actual war on ono another today about twenty ino wo tousand usand of them got into a big hall aud and shouted their heads beads oft off to decide on who they wore were going to shout their heads off for the next four months to como come or untie election time a they call it thinie tho the way ali chiy y went about A t that an invading leet fleet was hanging liver their heads threatening to spill the rays on thorn thain before sundown and all in order to decide on what namo name la Is to go on their campaign banners its a fright continued the operator removing from hla his ears cars themire the wireless sound con conductors doctors that had caught the speech and noise of far awny as they came caine over the wireless telephone people arent abelli paying any attention to business or the other things that concerti concern them fairly consumed by this inexplicable excitement abyss niah has as gono gone mad captain macmanus leaned back and chuckled heartily what are yon yo laughing at demanded the operator 1 I tell you Ws its no laughing matter to sit alt still and watch a whole nation go crazy this way p 1 I laugh my lad because you take ilia ne hack back to the days of my youth chuckled the captain you make lakome me remember the days when most people lived on the ground you take me back to the days when railroads and steamships were trying to carry people and goods around ton the earth why I 1 laugh but dont borr worry tho the uncivilized nation of abys byln has not pone gone crazy not permanently manent ly li at least its just suf suffering fOrIng su from an old disease a 1 disease that lu nw dw afflicts only the few nations that rd ard still barlario baru bar arlo enough to follow the old discarded ru customs thenamae the name 0 of f the disease is ie tot lot me see sea I 1 believe ivo forgotten alit ahl I 1 have it politics the matter with its suffering fromon from an attack of political 11 that asked the operator A joke enid captain macmanus Is it if dangerous only to the bystander iles hes likely to get kicked in the fracas as tho indents ancients used to say aay what Is the cause of it imagination yes said the capt captain ain imagination you see political it a real disease it really anything it never was not oven even buck back in the old days of 1912 when it used to be so prevalent before the people got onto tho the joke of it ical really Is nothing more inore than a state of mind a bAllu hallucination cl nit tion the victim im alnes that he be must insist got get excited over a namo nam printed on bati banners nerv must quarrel with his best beat friend about the merits of the men inon whose names aro are on the banners and other otherwise behave like a madman mac man it Is inspired b by ty tho the agitators who used to bo be hii knan awil as aa politicians Iti itic ians clans of course there any of it left now in tho the civilized countries but what youve been seeing and hearing from down in Abys abyssinia synia where they still refuse their government over to an efficient general manager la Is a pretty good imitation of what that samo same disease used to do to this united slates of america in tho the days of my youth around the year 1912 1 the operator laughed easily do you mean to tell me that this enlightened country ever went into convulsions alko that 1 I mean to tell you that and its tho the truth retorted tho the captain you must remember my lad ind that back in 1012 1912 this country was still in the ground and water ago age it was waa not until many years after when came caine rots solf self sustaining and self belt balancing float helped people to learn that it was easier and cheaper to live in the air than oh on land or water that the country really became enlightened then when living became easier and t fit I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 1 11 N mm 34 r 4 PA M I 1 JAIN ag I 1 A I 1 rr r T I 1 what hat ar aronou you laughl laughing laughling ng at demanded the operator 1 I tell you its no laughing matter to sit still and watch a whole nation get crazy thle way pi overcrowded over crowded cities became a thing of the past people began to take themselves less lese seriously they laughed the out of business and a sorry da it was for the latter too because they do any thing u useful se fill lit in the world and most ilg of them he m had to take up posing for I 1 the tha moving pictures to earn a bare living they were good at that posing been at it all their lives but before these things came to pass this country was the worst example of what tho the imaginary disease of political could do to a country that ever was known in the history of the world every four years tho the plague came down you have seen how bow behaving in today well that Is a picture of this country as aa it was say in the summer of 1912 the operator mused shaking his head incredulously what cau caused sed these ou breaks he asked 1 that my lau lad Is something that none nona or of the great scientists who stud died it ever was able to discover but this la is the way it could begin a bunch or of usually sane bane citizens would bo be sitting together and all of a sudden one of them would happen to look up at the calendar whoops my dear hod yell dy by the calendar I 1 see that next year Is a going to be year when wolie woe got to elect another president abo who shall it be roosevelt one would say none ol of it would como come from a second taft brait la Is tho the boy taft raft your eyell the third would yell wilson Wl lson wilson forever fo reverl then all of a sudden bo be yelling back at one another and add frova from word worda come to blosl and froni from bows bow 8 to chairs and chah the man who ran the place would have to como coma in and tell them to got gel jut and tight fight in the street or hod hed loso lose his license why they did it nobody evar was 1 able to tell it that concerned the average rhan he fie had to scramble just as hard to support his family faintly no matter what happened but go at it just as if it was some of their business after got thoroughly wormed warmed up somo some of tho the tribe of agitators culled called politicians Iti itic ians clans who had been waiting for or tho the right moment for some time would signal his calcium opera operator torand and suddenly stand forth in the spotlight 11 1 I hate to sacrifice myself fellow citizens hed bod say but if you insist upon it hero here boys bring out those hundred thousand lithographs ive had made of at myself these last six months then the common people as they were called then would be touched by the noble coble conduct of tile the man Ho say then the noble 9 int would got get come of his rich friends to hire a hall and they d have what they called a convention then was when you could see political iral campaign itis getting in its worst licks the minute tile the average citizen entered a convention hall the plague hit him behind the ear bar and ho he was waa bereft or of all sense and reason A man would got get up 06 on he platform take a drink of water and begin to speak then the victims of the disease would think that they ad to do something queer most alost of them would keep on tal talking icing and ever 0 a often the plague would sweep over his audience and go into convulsions when tho speech was tin till islieb the people would think they had to get up on chairs throw their hats and canes into the air and jurn up tip a years energy cheering their heads beads off then somebody would get et nominated and the people would go 90 back to their jobs and flad find that iho boss had got somebody in their place while they wore were away it was a great gamo it reached its climax in 1913 1912 ah I 1 well I 1 kemem her ber how the people of this country were running around that summer actually worrying because there were three parties in tho the field and tile the election of one was supposed to be important hahl hah I 1 queer to look back on it now there was teddy at one corner wilson at another and tatt taft at the other and the people actually excited about it lc it was some something illing important like the invention of Tonnes sun aitay itay storage battery or Ml karoffa agricultural accelerator now you and 1 I lad ind we know that the real trouble in those days was because it was so hard for a lot of the people to keep warm in winter and get enough food the year around will why they had those obsolete words want and suffering and you and 1 I lad we know hiow that when that norwegian professor began to catch sun rays rays and store them for use in winter and when the old russian finally hit upon the ray that made five crops grow in the time one had grown before then was waa when something important hill happened but in those days they ther had bad queer notions not lons political politics cst how w strange it la Is to look back at it alit 1 who got elected in that terrible campaign of 1912 asked tho the operator captain tain macmanua looked down at th the city below and shook his head 1 I dont remember said raid he copyright by W G chapman |