Show V 1 jf 4 0 aw V a 7 ew Armol V 4 9 Is that your candidate I 1 inquired not any more was the surly reply the conscientious candidate by JAMES J MONTAGUE sitting by himself in a hotel ro room om I 1 found an old friend ot 01 earlier days chewing a toothpick and gloomily regarding a cheering crowd outside the open window where a man was standing in an automobile and addressing an obviously approving crowd Is that your candidate I 1 inquired not any more was the surly reply 1 I thought you were one of his managers listen that lad got any managers I 1 was one but I 1 aint any more and moreover I 1 wont be im waiting for the next nest train that will take me back home what was the trouble it would take more than between now and train time to tell you that fellow got any political brains I 1 was up all night last week writing him a speech the regular speech that used to go big in all the campaigns ive been in when I 1 showed it to him he read it believe it or not read every line of 14 it and then he said dut but youve made a lot of promises here that I 1 cant carry out nobody could carry them out dont you realize that id be expected to carry them out if 1 I 1 was elected usten listen I 1 said youre new in this game but youre smart or any way I 1 think you are and you can learn nobody pays any attention to campaign promises except a few cranks and they wont bother you after election day have a secretary to keep them from bothering you what youve got to do Is to let us old hands bands tell you what kind of promises promise will get votes and then go and make them and take the bows you ton just attend to the talking youre good at that and well get somebody up from headquarters to hand you the speeches the cues youve been writing aint sound you keep talking about not being able to perform impossibilities that wont make you any votes now dont worry it will be all right you just leave that speech with me and ill leave in it anything that ought to be there and let one ot of the bright lads ive brought along fix the ohp rest of it for you 11 but he says 1 I make a speech that somebody else wrote for me you hey I 1 says well smarter guys than you has made lem em and grabbed oft off big jobs by makin em and after they was elected they managed to squirm out of em like they all do but that be honest he be says it be ste alln or bur alarin would icv it pretty much the same thing yes now what could you do with a bird like that well what ahat did you do with him nothing to do or of course but just let him take the bit in his mouth and a terrible mess hes made of it it why do you know the very next day he be told a crowd out in front of the hotel that when he was elected he wanted lern em to come down to the capitol and tell him it if there was anything wrong with the way than things s was going and it if they had bad any complaints pla ints tg and so forth what do you think of that after he was elected mind you ned hed listen to lem em atter after he had the job and need to listen to em 1 I sat down then and tried to have a serious talk with him and explain that nobody ever took campaigns seriously riou sly and that he was to leave what happened after he was wag elected to older and wiser heads that had bad grown gray in politics ne he was a little huffy at that tut but I 1 thought he could take ills his medicine even if it taste good and set to work tellin him as I 1 would tell a little child what it was all about and what does he do but turn on his heel and walk boffl off I 1 the next morning I 1 went up to his room where he was mahln a lut of party leaders poor old boys tast past fifty chuck one of them medicine balls at each other just because he liked to get exercise that way ne was waa all smiles when he see me and chucked the ball at we me deanin nie anin to be playful and it hit me on the ear and hurt but I 1 was so pleased to think hed come around to my way of thinking that I 1 say anything till the other boys had bad gone then I 1 said well I 1 see you aint mad any more so I 1 suppose Rs its all right 1 you suppose all right says lie he why the quarrel between you and me I 1 knew you take that serious no he says 1 I take it serious heres another speech I 1 wrote this mor morning DIng 1 ne ile handed it to me and I 1 put on my spectacles to read it and found hed said again that when he was elected he was going to be the peoples man and that the first professional politician who came to him to give advice or offer instructions would be chucked out of 0 f the window well I 1 just turned on my heel and walked away here am 1 I an out there Is he be givina a talk to tile the people about the danger of trick pol Iti clans colln into the offices an tryan to influence elected officials and how if he was elected the first thing hed do would be to try to get to ask for a law makin attempts to influence an official a felony A felony 1 think of thail what are you going to do about it I 1 inquired as he paused to catch ills his breath well the trouble Is we cant do nothing about it we aint got nothing on him like we have with a good many of the men we nominate ile he aint made us no promises which debbe was our fault for we thought hed be so glad to have us tell ailta what to do that hed come in askin for advice every day its too late to head him off now and the worst thing about it la Is hes makin headway and maybe will get elected in spite of all we can do to stop him an be a lot believe me look at him out there em he wont make no promises unless he knows he can carry them out he wont have no boss direct in I 1 him in the discharge of his duty to the people an he thinks the mandate of the people Is more important than the orders of all the political bosses that ever put their heads together in a back room 1 I suppose we got it comin to us we nominated him because we took it for granted that hed be a good boy and do what was right cut but we have learned our lesson nell hell probably be elected tor for be goes good with the crowd an he be nay may get such fellers do sometimes but when he quits an we put in another man that man Is coln to be our man an hes coln to admit it in whitin before he gets ills his name so much as mentioned in the convention hall ball A sound of loud cheers came through the open window the old politician grinned lies iles bad business tor for us he be said but I 1 cant help admidin his nerve at that ac boll bell syndicate service |