| Show I 1 44 C 0 PJ A N I 1 N R t r T tr E SZ 11 e BY I 1 rf LAC ILAC I Q TH tuf F ANCIENT DISEASE OF POLITICAL ITIS baving IL great time down in 1 said the tho photo tele graph operator r on the new now york receiving float neat of the P F C A A aerial line aa as be he came out of hie his dark cabinet and rubbed his eyes red with staring at the moving films alms ot at the worlds events that had been flashing before him A at fellow would think thia was the year 1912 instead of what are they doing dolar down there asked captain macmanus master Atri alligator Alrig gator ator retired oh ob they to gone mad the whole nation said the opa operator wearily to ro look at the films think they were having a war or a plague or a wholesale riot eat all over the country just hold what they call a convention for three days been marching around with bruss bands and banners and shouting end and talking and doing everything but declaring actual war on wee ao an other today about twenty thousand of at them got into a big hall ball and shouted their heads off to decide on who they were going to toe about hout their heads off at for the next tour four months to come or until election time sat a they call it 11 think the way they went about it that an invading rading In fleet was hanging their heads threatening to spill the Her talan ray rays on them before sundown and all in order to decide ton ion what tame is 1 to go on their campaign apal arts banners its 3 filsht continued the operator removing from afo ears earn the wire less sound conductors that had caught I 1 at what an are you laughing at adf demanded the operator 1 I tell toll y you u ita no not laughing matter to alt sit till still and wa watch 1 a whole nation et got crazy this way 00 the speech and nolee noise of faraway far away as they cams CG over the wireless telephone hOus people arent paying any attention to business buil nesa or the other thing things that concern them fairly consumed by this inexplicable excitement pas one mad captain MAC macmanus Hanus leaned back and chuckled heartily what are yoa you laughing at att de do In banded the operator 1 I tell you lle iva ILO laughing matter to kit sit till still ani watch a hole whole nation go crazy this way 1 I laugh ay MY lad because you take ins back to the day days of at coy my youth chuckled the captain you make me a remember the daya days when most people lived on the ground you take me back to the day days when railroads and steamships were trying to carry OPIO and goods around on an the earth teats why I 1 laugh but don t worry the uncivilized nation of abys lynia haj has not gone c bramy not permanently manent ly at least ita IVA lust just buttering suffering from an old disease die eaje a disease that now afflicts only the few low nation blat are still barbaric f bough nough to follow the old discarded customs the name of the disease 1 is lot me see I 1 believe ive forgotten ah ALI 11 I 1 hare have it Tol politics lUcs that what the matter with IV ite coffering ff ering from an ra attack a 0 political kovs asked the operator A joke sald wd captain Mac macmur Mux ie Is it dangerous dauge fous only to the bystander hes likely to get kicked in the fraass as th that ancients used to aarl bif what Is he be cause of it imagination af lm yes aid add the captain imagine imaging tion you see a real disease it really lent anything it never was not even back in the old days ot at 1912 when whom it used to be so Jent before the people eo go onto the joke of it political really is 1 nothing more than a state ot of mind a halluck cation nation the victim imagine e 8 that he h 0 must get excited over a nam name printed on ban banner must quarrel wita his big acs friend about the merits ot of the men whose names are on the ban ners and otherwise behave like a madman it Is inspired bf the agitators who used to be known as pol iti clans of course there ln isa t any of it left now in the civilized countries but what youve been seeing and hear bear ing from down dowa la in abys lynia where they still refuse to turn their government over to an efficient general manager la Is a pretty good imitation of what that same disease used to do to this united states of america in the day days of my youth around the year 1912 the operator laughed easily do you mean to tell me that this en lightened country ever went in to convulsions like that I 1 1 I mean to tell you that and its the truth 11 retorted the captain you must re my lad that back in 1912 1913 this country was still in the ground and water age it was not until many yea years after when came rots self and self balAZIC IDT float helped people to learn that it was easier and cheaper to live in the air than on land or water that ahn th country really became enlightened then when living become became easier and overcrowded over crowded cities became a thine thing of the punt pat decuple 11 began to ta take k 9 th themselves em lew less seriously they laughed the politic lats out of business busl nest and sorry da do it was for the latter too because they do any thing useful I 1 in thi tha world and most of them had to take up posing for the moving pictures to earn a bare bore living they thor were good at that posing ben won at it 11 their lives oat but before these things came to pass this country was as the wout ex ample of what hat the imaginary disease of could do 40 to a country that ever was known in the history of the world every fou year years the plague came down you have seen bow how behaving in abyssinia Abys Abyss synia yula today well that Is a picture of this country as it waa was say in III summer of 1912 i i the operator muted mused shaking bis his bead head what caused the these L le 0 asked that my lad Is something that aone none of the great scientists who stud died it ever was able to discover but this Is the ray it could begin a bunch of at sane citizens ci would be sitting to cether anti ml all of a sud bud den dea one jot of them would happen to look up at the calendar whoops my dearl hed yell dy by the cale dar I 1 see that next Is going to be the year when wele weve got to elect another president who hall rhall it ber roosevelt Rooseve IV one woul say none note of I 1 it V would co cone ra e t from 10 M i so con d tatt raf L Is the boy taft your eyl the third would yell Wll soni wilson forer formieri erl then all of 8 sudden be yelling yell tog back 81 t cn ta another iad d from word words and from wow blows eon come to blow blown to chairs and then the man abo ran to come to in and would have the tl a place in the tho tell them to gel get jut and fight light street or he bed d lose hie his license why they did it nobody estr wae WAS able to tell it wasn gasn t anything that he tie baa bad concerned the average man as bard hard to support to scramble just his hi family no matter what happened lut iut go at it just as if it was some of their business aft after er they d got thoroughly warmed up soft e one of the tribe of agitators called politicians Iti itic ians clans ho bo bad had blen nailing for or the right moment for tome forne time would bignal signal hie his c allum operator and suddenly stand forth in the spotlight I 1 bate hate to sac sacrifice rifle e Iny myself self fel low citizen citizens he bed d fay b but ut if you insist upon it here boys br ng ing out those hundred thousand lithographs ive bad had made of myself these last six all months then the common people as they were called thin tha would be to touched ached by the th noble conduct of the man hoorays Hoo rayl say bay then the noble coble aint would get ome some of ht his rich friends to hire a hall ball and they d have what they called a convention then was when you could see political getting in its worst alks the minute the average aitt ien zen entered a convention ball the th plague bit him behind the ear and be he was bereft of all sense and reason A man would gel get up on he be platform take a drink of water and begin to speak then the victims of the disease would think that they ad to do something tom ething queer moat of them would keep on talking and ever so 0 often the plague would seep over his audience bud lence and go into con when the speech was tin finished the people would think they had bad to get up on chairs throw their hate hats and cans into the air and jurn up a years clergy energy cheering their heads oft off then somebody get nominated and the people would go back to their jobs and find and that he be boas had got somebody in their place while they were away I 1 it was a great game it reached its climax in W ah I 1 well 1 kemem her bow the people of this ibis country were running around that summer actually worrying because there were three parties in the field and tho the election of one was supposed to be important hahl fis queer to look back on it now there was teddy at 0 one n e corner wilson at another and taft at the other and the people actually excited about IL t think it was something important like the invention of Tonne Ton sens sub suu ray storage battery or agricultural accelerator now you and 1 I lad sad we know that the real trouble in those days waa was because it was so go hard for a lot of the people to keep warm in winter and get enough food the year around why they had those obsolete words wanta and suffering I 1 and you and 1 I lad we know that when that Nor pro 1 feitor fessor began to catch sun raya roys and tore store them for use in winter ald when the old russian anally hit bit upon the ray that made fire five crop crops grow la in the time one bh had grown before then was when something important happened but in those day days they had queer notions polities political how strange range it Is to look back at it aill who got elected in that terrible campaign of 1912 asked the over oper ator star captain macmanus Manus looked down at the city below aud shook lis head 1 1 I dont remember said he copyright by W a chapman |
