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Show THE OD- D- e j S its me Keiorm eh BRAND WHITLOCK By AUTHOR OF "TEE THIRTEENTH DISTRICT." "HER INFINITE VARIETT THE HAPPY AVERAGE." "THE TURN OF THE BALANCE," ETC. ETC Copyrig in by op The Bobbs Merrill Company HE senatorial convention in the First district was to convene at 10 oclock, in a dingy little hall in lower Clark street, lighted by windows so long unwashed that they looked like ground glass. From the chandeliers, black and sticky with dead flies, shreds of tissue paper fluttered, relics of some boisterous fete an Italian society had given there long ago. The floor was damp In arabesque wrought for the janitor by a sprinkling-can- , had sprayed water there to lay the dust he was too indifferent to remove Perhaps a hundred chairs were set in amphitheatrical order, and before them stood a kitchen table, on which was a white water pitcher, flanked by a glass, thickened by various sedimentary deposits within. In the saloon below, at 9 oclock, scores of delegates were already shuffling in the sawdust that covered the floor, holding huge schooners of beer in their hairy fists, gorging grossly at the free lunch table, with bologna, rank onions and rye bread. The foam of the beer clung to their mustaches, which, after each sip, they sucked between their lips. Most of them managed, at the same time they were eating and drinking, by a dexterous sleight-of-hand- , to smoke cheap domestic cigars, and a cloud of white smoke rolled along the low ceiling. Each new arrival was greeted with some obscene but endearing epithet, and the room rang with laughter and A keg of beer had been profanity. provided by one of Conways managers, and the bartender, wiping his hands on a dirty towel, was rid, so long as the keg lasted, of the responsibility of keeping account of drinks, and of ringing up the change on the cash register. At 11 oclock the keg was empty, the free lunch table abandoned to the flies, and the delegates scuffled up the dingy stairs to the hall. Half an hour later the chairman of the senatorial district committee pounded the kitchen table with a leg of a broken chair, and shouted: The convention will he In order. This declaration made no Impression upon the babel of voices, the laughter, the profanity, the noise of shuffling feet and scraping chairs. Finally the chairman of the committee, growing Impatient, split the table with his club and yelled: Damn It all, boys, come to order! And then, eager to resign such a difficult command, he hastened to announce: The committee has named Honorable John P. Muldoon to act as tempry chairman. He handed the chair leg to John P. Muldoon, who, stroking back his curly hair from his brow, began to beat the table Impartially. All this while Underwood stood against the wall, looking on. The question that had been agitating him for weeks was about to be decided, but now that the ordeal was actually upon him, the consciousness beat numbly against his brain, so that the whole scene lacked reality, almost Interest. He was dazed. He was about to take his baptism of political fire, and he trembled like a white novitiate. Underwood dollars a keg. He winked confi- dentially at himself In the mirror that night as he gave a final touch to his white cravat and surveyed his fine young form arrayed in evening clothes for the reform banquet at the Palmer house. His speech was The Tendencies of Modern Politics. The newspapers said it was a very brilliant speech, breathing lofty political sentiments that were bound to make John votes. Also, the Reform club Indorsed his candidature. As Underwood leaned against the greasy wall of the little hall on lower Clark street this morning, the whole campaign flashed before him, just as the events of a lifetime are said in hooks to flash before the mind of a drowning man. He recalled every vivid detail of the call Baldwin had made upon him, how he entered his private oflice without troubling the pale, pimpled office boy to announce him, how he lifted from his carefully parted hair his strawr hat with Its youthful band of blue, and laughed out, John, my boy, how are He could see you? Hot, Isnt It? Baldwin as he sat In the solid oak chair that stood intimately beside his roll-todesk, fanning his ruddy face with the hat, which had impressed a broad red band on his forehead. Unto derwood had been glad enough close Cooley on Taxation and revolve his chair to face Baldwin, just as If he had been a client, for Baldwin was the most Important politician who had ever called upon him professionally. He knew Baldwin had come with some practical proposition, and when the lobbyist suggested that he was too respectable, and would run better in some residence district, that the boys looked upon him as a reformer, and that the silk stockings were not practical enough to help him, Underwood had felt that at last It was coming. It was simple enough. Baldw'in had been talking that very morning about Underwoods candidature to Mr. Med of the Metropolitan Motor System, and to Mr. Peabody, president of the Gas company, and they had been very much Interested. They had an anxiety to see good men nominated that year, for they had large business interests that were more or less affected by legislation, and had feared they would have to settle on Conway. Conway had experience In legislative matters, and had been friendly enough in the city council, yet they felt they could hardly trust him he was such a grafter, and in such things, Baldwin blandly assured Underwood, they had to depend upon a mans honor alone, and so they had sent Baldwin to suggest that Underwood meet them at luncheon, and talk matters over. Baldwin, with his love of ease and luxury, had preferred a dinner over at the Cardinals in the evening, but Mr. Peabody had something on hand with the trustees of his church and couldnt meet them then. Baldwin had taken out his watch at this point, with the air of a man who suddenly remembers some Important engagement the details all came back with a fidelity that was painful and stood awaiting Underwoods reply, with the open watch ticking Impatiently in his palm. Of course, Underwood had understood and he wished ardently to be nominated and elected. He could see himself swinging idly in a big chair behind a walnut desk in the senate chamber, Just as an actor sees himself, with an artists ecstatic, gasp, in some new part he is about to study. The position would give him much importance, he would be riding back and forth between Chicago and Springfield on a pass, It would be so pleasant to be addressed as senator, to he consulted, to head delegations in state conventions and cast the solid vote for any one he pleased; besides, it would be a good training for Washington, he could practice in oratory and parliamentary law Just as he practiced on friendless paupers over In the criminal court some when his father influenced Judge to appoint him to defend an Indigent prisoner. It meant only one little word, he could be wary of promises. Ills heart had expanded, he had turned half around In his chair to face Baldwin, when suddenly the reformer within him rose to object, pointed to his ideals, rehearsed the speech on The Tendencies of Modern Politics," recalled all the good words the independent papers had spoken of him, urged the beauty of great sacrifices for principle. At the idea of Underwood had felt a melting self-pithe admired himself In this reformnew role of a er. And so he flung the cigarette out of the window, watched it whirl down to the melting tar of the roofs below and said firmly: I have an engagement this morning, Mr. Baldwin. Im sorry, but I guess I cant come. Once more Underwood saw the pleasantness leave Baldwins face, saw him fleck a flake of ash from the white waistcoat he wore with bis summer suit of blue, and snapping the lid of his watch Bhut, he once more heard him say in a final and reproachful W. Underwood p self-sacrific- t 4 If h "had the decision to make ovl test vote; It would disclose his own again, he would decline such lnflf strength andthe strength of Conway. enee. It had been the cause of mu1 He looked over the red faces before doubt and some regret at the timl him. He saw Conway himself movThe boss within him had protestedf-aurel- y ing among the delegates, snarling, it was a political mistake s'd cursing, quarreling with the friends of the boss was louder than the refoJm-?- , years; he saw Conways candidate for and more plausible. He came for- the house, MeGlone, over in the Secward with a brilliant scheme. He re- ond ward delegation, his coat off, a called Baldwins reference to the handkerchief about his fat neck, a fumrivalry betveen Nolan and Conway. ing cigar between his chubby fingers, Underwood remembered that whejn he turning on bis heavy haunches to resuggested the possibility of Nolan's vile some man who was numbered Nolans crowd; he saw in the running for the nomination biimself, Baldwin had shaken his First ward delegation, Malachl Nolan, wasnt enough in it, he said. Nolan in black coat and cravat, could do very much better in th coun- his iron gray hair cropped short, calm He would cil, where he was. Besides, Mr. Weed alone of all the others. have looked the priest more than the and Mr. Peabody disliked him. Underwood thought out his scheme had he smoked his cithat afternoon, while hunting in the gar differently. Now and then he soldigest for cases In point to be cited emnly raised his hand, with almost the in a case his father was preparing for benediction of a father, to still the the appellate court. The work of look- clamor of his delegation, which, with votes, was safe at all ing up cases in point, while its results its twenty-onare Impressive and seem to smell of events for Underwood. Muldoon was Conways man they the lamp, had In reality grown quite automatic to Underwood, and as he would try to make the temporary orloafed over digests and reports and ganization permanent. DOrmand was jotted down his notes, he elaborated Underwoods candidate. And Muldoon the scheme, just what he would say won. Underwood had lost the first and do, how he would appear, and so round. forth. And so, when he entered MalThe candidates for senator were to achl Nolans place In Dearborn street, be placed in nomination first. Underearly that evening, he was fully pre- wood stood in the crowded doorway pared. The details of this Incident and heard Conway's name presented. came back just as the details of Bald- Then, in the cheering, with his heart wins visit had done the empty sa- in his sanded throat, he heard the loon, the alderman himself leaning chairman say: over his bar, his white apron rolled Are there any other nominations? into a big girth about his middle, the There was a momentary stillness, cigar In the round hole at the corner and then he heard a thick, strong of his mouth gone out, denoting that voice: Misther Chairman. it was time for him to go down the The gentleman from the First alley to Billy Boyles and get his porward. terhouse and baked potato. the thick, Misther Chairman, Underwood watched Malachl Nolan mix his Martini cocktail, splash it pic- strong voice said, I roise to place in turesquely into a sparkling glass and nomynation the name of wan It was the voice of Malachl Nolan, bejewel It with a Maraschino cherry, then gravely take a cigar for himself and Underwood suddenly remembered and stow it away in his ample waist- that Nolan was to place his name becoat. Then, as Nolan mopped the bar fore the convention. He listened an with professional sweep of his white- instant, but could not endure it long. sleeved, muscular arm, Underwood un- He could not endure that men should folded his brilliant scheme, skirting see him in the hour when his name head-S-the- belonged to one of the oldest families of Chicago the name had been known there before the fire. His father, who had lately taken him Into his law firm, continued to cling In his conservatism to an eld stone house In Michigan avenue long after his neighbors had abandoned their mansions to uncertain boarders, and either retreated farther south or advanced to the North Side. John Underwood had come out of Harvard In with a young lawyers ambition politics, an ambition that bad the United States senate merely as a beginning of Its home stretch, and when the year rolled around in which state senators were to be elected In the odd numbered districts he decided that it was time to begin. The newspapers had scented the sensation that lurked in the candidature of a young man like Underwood In the district like the First, and because he went Into what is called society, promptly dubbed him a reformer, and thus weighted he had set out upon his race for the nomination. He liked to see his name in the newspa-- ' pers, liked to think of himself as a reformer, though he was embarrassed in this attitude by the fascinating figure of the political boss he had hoped gentlemanto become a ly boss, of course, who, while at home In those saloons where he permitted the convivial familiarity of the boys, nevertheless took his luncheons at his club. He fell Into a way of speaking of the First as my district," spoke of It, In fact, os If he, Instead of Malachl Nolan and Cinch Conway, owned It. and when certain ward politicians In the first days of the campaign called upon him, Underwood was pleased to lend them money, Just as he was pleased to comply with the requests of certain others who organized the John W. Underwood First Ward Campaign club, and scut a com- tone: Well, all right; sorry, my boy. mittee to Inform him that they were Underwood wondered that morning assembled In the club' rooms ready to transact business, and beer only four In the noisy convention hall, whether, well-dresse- MAMMOTH EECOE ), MAMMOTH CITY, UTAH. knew one or two Conway men who could be got very cheaply, but the boy shook his head the reformer within him demurred and yet he smiled sardonically at the reformer thinking of the primaries and the convention itself. Then Malachi Nolan caught the chairman's shifty eye and moved an adjournment until morning. But even as he spoke, Crogan scowled at Muldoon, shook his head at his followers, and the room rang with their hoarse gan. shouts: No! no! no! Heartened by this confession of weakness on Nolans part, they kept on yelling lustily: No! no! no! They even laughed, and Muldoon smote the table, to declare the motion re clean-shave- saloon-keepe- lost. On the ballot, one of the Simmons votes went over to Conway, and there was a faint cheer. On one of the Simmons the votes went to Underwood, and parity Unwas restored. On the derwood gained another of S'mmons' votes Nolan, it seemed, had promised to get him on the janitors in the state house and the vote was tied. This ballot stood: forty-sevent- e h forty-eight- forty-nint- pay-ro- ll First Second Fifth Ward Ward Ward Total Conway Underwood Simmons 21 10 23 4 6 7 32 32 5 .. The Simmons men were holding out, waiting to throw their strength to the balwinner. When the lot had been taken, Muldoon, squinting In the miserable light at the secretarys figures, hit the table with the chair leg and said: On this ballot Conway receives 32, Underwood 32, Simmons 5. There being no choice, you will prepare your ballots for another vote. sixty-sevent- h y he said as innocently as he could. He was not much of an actor. This wont do, Nolan said, giving the ballot back to the man. Its all right, Malachi, honest to God it is! protested Donahue. Thin Ill just put this wan In for ye, heh? said Nolan, drawing another ballot from the pocket of his huge waistcoat and poising It above the hat. The crowd had pressed around the First ward delegation. The convention had risen to its feet, craning red necks, and out of the mass Grogan cried: Aw, here, Malachl Nolan, none o now! that carefully the acute suspicions of an old politician. But Nolan mopped, blinking inscrutably, at last putting the damp cloth away in some mysterious place under the counter. The fat Maltese cat, waiting until the moion the bar had evaporated, stretched herself again beside the silsture ver urn that held the crackers and the little cubes of cheese. Still Nolan blinked in silence, like a hostile jury with Its mind made up, until at last. In desperation, Underwood blurted out his proposition. Nolan blinked some more, then, half opening his blue Irish eyes, grunted: Well, I like your gall. Underwoods spirits fell, yet he was not disappointed. It was, after all, just what he had expected. It served him right for his presumption, if nothing more though the subdued reformer within had hinted at other reasons. He hung his head, twirling his empty glass disconsolately. He didiot see the light that twinkled in the blue not then known how very was to form any com ready binatlon that would beat Conway and Baldwin, especially with a reformer like himself who had money to spend on his ambitions. He had not discerned how badly the man whom the newspapers always cartooned with the First ward sticking out of his vest pocket needed a reformer in his business, as the saying is. Hence hi3 glad surprise when Nolan wiped his big hand on his apron like a washerwoman and held It out, saying: But Im wit ye. Then the campaign, undor Nolans eyes, he had Nolan management, in the most wonderful district a cosmopolitan district, bristling with sociological problems, a district that has fewer homes and more saloons, more commerce and more sloth, more millio- legislative naires and more paupers, and whllo It confines within its boundaries the skyscrapers, clubs, theaters and hundred churches of a metropolis, still boasts a police station with more arrests on its blotter than any other in the world. Night after eight, with Nolans two candidates for the house, he spent In saloons where a candidate must treat and distribute his cards that the boys may size him up. But they were balloting for permanent chairman now. It would be a He votes for John W. Underwood, Misther Chairman," said Nolan complacently. The vote was unchanged. The chairman ordered another ballot. And then, all at once, as if a breath from a sanded desert had blown into the room, Underwood was sensible of a change in the atmosphere. The air was perhaps no hotter than it had . been for hours at the close of that stifling day, no bluer with tobacco smoke, no heavier with the smell borne in from Clark street on hot winds that had started cool and fresh from the lake four blocks away, a smell compounded of many smells, the smell ascending from foul and dark cellars beneath the sidewalk, the smell of stale beer, the ammoniac smell of filthy pavements, mingled with the feculence of unclean bodies that had sweated for hours in the vicrowdtiated air of that ed room. A hush fell. Muldoon, his blacky curly locks shining with perspiration, was leaning on his Improvised gavel, his keen eye, the Irish eye that s readily seizes such situations, darting into every face before him. And suddenly came that for which they were waiting. A man entered the hall and strode s light across the floor Into the Fifth ward delegation, into the group where the Underwood men were clustered about their leader. He wore evening clothes, his black dinner coat and white shirt bosom striking a vivid note in the scene. He walked briskly, hut his mind was so Intent upon his pose that it wins not until he had removed his cigarette from his lips and had observed Underwood, that his white teeth showed beneath his reddish mustache in the smile of George R., Baldwin. He elbowed his way into the-vermidst of the Underwood men from the Fifth ward, and leading one-o- f them aside, talked with him an instant, and then returned him, as to his place in the delegation. Then he brought forth another, whispered to him for an earnest moment, and sent him back, with a smile andi a slap on the shoulder. The third delegate detained him longer, and once, as he argued with him, the slightest shade of displeasure crossed Baldwins face, but in an instant the smile replaced it, and he talked convincingly, it seemed. Before Baldwin returned this man to his delegation, he shook hands with him. The secretary was calling the wards, and Nolan had announced the result in his delegation. The Fifth ward was a long while in preparing its ballots. There was trouble ol some sort there, among the Underwood men. Nolan was urging, expostulating, cursing, commanding. The air was tense. It seemed to Underwood that It must Inevitably be shattered by some moral cataclysm in the soul of man. Grogan's brow was knit, as he waited, hat in hand. The delegates voted. Feverishly, with trembling fingers, Grogan opened and counted the bits of paper. Then he sprang to his feet, with a wild, glad light in his face. Mister Chairman! he cried, tha votes for Fifth ward casts twenty-fiv- e Conway and four for Underwood! The three bolters in the Fifth ward delegation sat with defiance in their faces, hut they could not sustain the expression, even by huddling close together. They broke for the door, wriggling their way through masses of men, who made their passage uncertain, almost perilous. A billow of applause broke from the Conway men, and submerged the convention. Delegates all over the hall were on tbeii feet, clamoring for recognition, but Malachi Nolans voice boomed heavily above nil ether voices. His fist was Id the air above all other fists. Misther Chairman! he yelled, 1 challenge that vote! "Misther Chairman! yelled Grogan, a point of order! The gentleman' Isn't a member of the Fifth ward delegation and can not challenge its vote! The point of order is well taken," The genpromptly ruled the chair. tleman from the First ward is out of well-know- n Just then one of the Conway men from the Second ward left his place, and touched one of Nolans fellows In the First ward delegation Donahue on the shoulder. Donanue started. The man whispered in his ear, and returned to his delegation, veeplng his eye on Donahue. Underwood looked on breathlessly. Nolan, revolving slowly, held his hat for every vote last of all for Donahues. The man dropped his folded ballot into the hat and hung his head. Nolan calmly picked the ballot out of the hat and gave It back to Donahue, who looked up In affected surprise Whats the trouble, Malachi? His blear eyes were filmy with? disappointment Nolan turned his rugged face toward him and said simply: Whos runnin this dillygation, you or me? Well none o your bulldozing we wont stand it! replied Grogan angrily, his blue eyes blazing. And You get to hell out o this. so saying, Nolan dropped the ballot Into the hat and turned to face the was being thus laid naked to the chair. world. Reporters were writing it Have you all voted? Inquired down, perhaps the crowd would laugh Muldoon. or whistle or hiss. Besides, candiFirst ward! the secretary called. dates do not remain in the convention not Nolan squared his shoulders, hall; they await the committee of noti- having looked In his hat or counted fication in some near-bsaloon. He the ballots there, and said slowly and squeezed through the mass of men Impressively: who stood on tiptoes, stretching their On behalf av the solid dillygation necks to see and hear the old leader av the First ward, I ca6t twinty-waof the First ward, and fled. votes for John W. Underwood. The first ballot was taken Conway, Misther Chairman? Misther Chair31; Underwood, 30; Simmons, the man! cried Grogan, waving his hand dark horse, 8; necessary to a choice, in the air, I challenge that vote! I 35. The vote was unchanged for challenge that vote! twenty-siballots, till the afternoon The gentleman from the Fifth ward ' had worn away, and the trucks had challenges the vote off of cobblestones Clark the jolted Misther Chairman, said Nolan, street, till the lights were flaring and standing with one heavy foot on his men, gamblers, beggars, chair and leveling a forefinger at Mulstreet walkers, all the denizens of doon, a point of order! The glntle-madarkness were shifting along the sidefrom the Fifth ward has no right walks, till the policemen had been to challenge the vote av the First changed on their beats, and Pinkerton ward hes not a member of the dillynight watchmen were trying the doors gation of stores, till Chinamen shuffled forth, Let the First ward be polled," and Jewesses and Italian women calmly ruled Muldoon. Nolan took his emerged for their evening breath of foot from his chair and stepped to air, bringing swart and grimy children Donahues side. Every man in the to play upon the heated flags. The First ward delegation, as his- - name hall was lighted, Just as if some Ital- was called from the credentials, cried ian festival were to be held there. The Underwood! As the secretary nearreporters places at the table were ed the name of Donahue, Nolan laid taken by the men who did politics for his hand heavily on tho fellow's shoulthe morning papers, themselves re- der. duced at last to the necessity of takDonahue! called the secretary. ing notes. They brought reports of The fellow squirmed under Nolan's the results In other senatorial conven- hand. tions held about town that day it Donahue! seemed to be assured that John Skel-leDon't let him bluff cried ou! had carried the country towns, some one from the Fifth ward. Lemont, Riverside, Evanston and so Vote as you damn please, Jimmie! on. In certain west side districts this Trow the boots into 1m, Donnie! man had won, in certain north side Soak him one!" districts that man had been successTake your hands off him, Bull Noful. It looked as if the old gang was lan! going to break back Into the legislaSo they bawled and Donahue wrigture. gled. But the hand of Nolan, like tho And so the interest In this one re- hand of Douglas, was his own, and maining convention deepened, the gripped fast. Grogan, his face red, strain tightened, the crowd thickened. his eyes on fire, leaped from his place Now and then the leaders made des- in his delegation, and started across perate attempts to trade, harrying the chairs for Nolan. The big saloonSimmons, offering him everything for keeper gave him a look out of his lithis seven votes. Simmons himself, in tle eye. Ills left shoulder dipred, his his turn, tried to induce each faction left fist tightened. Grogan halted. to swing Its strength to him. Vote, Jimmie, me lad," said Nolan, But the situation remained unchang In a soft voice. y n x order he will take his seat." Men were screaming, brandishing e fists, waving hats, coats, anything, scraping chairs, pounding the floor with them. There were heavy, brutal oaths, and, here and there, the smack of a fist on a face. In the tumult, tho ! five Simmons votes went to Conway. Muldoon was beating the table witlr hls club and crying: Order! order! order! To hell with order! bawled some one from the First ward delegation. On this ballot," Muldoon was callvotes cast; ing, there were sixty-nin- e necessary to a choice, thirty five. James P. Conway has received forty votes; John W. Underwood, twenty-nin-e, and George W. Simmons" ho paused, as If to decipher the vote none. James R. Conway, having received the necessary number of votes. Is therefore declared the nominee of this convention." Underwood was stunned. He staggered through the horrible uproar ti ward the door. He longed for the air outside, even the heavy air of lower Clark street, where the people surged along under tho wild, dazzling lights, in two opposite, processions. Itis head reeled. He lost the sense of things, tho voices about hlur seemed far away and vague, he felt lilmsclf detached, as it were, from all that ,ad gone before. But as he pressed his way through the crowd that blocked the entrance, and plunged toward the stairs, be saw Baldwin, mopping the red band on his white' , Underwood!" said Donahue, In a brow, Baldwin recognized him, ed. with his everlasting smile: Once Nolan sent for Underwood and whlBper. Ills weak, pinched, hungry ''SdtTjr, my boy next tluiv,! whispered to him. He thought he face turned appealingly toward Gro- - hot-tamal- n , y ever-passin- g and-said- , |