第73章

I spent the week before election in the city,where I had the opportunity of observing what may be called the charitable side of politics.For a whole month,or more,the burden of existence had been lifted from the shoulders of the homeless.No church or organization,looked out for these frowsy,blear-eyed and ragged wanderers who had failed to find a place in the scale of efficiency.For a whole month,I say,Mr.Judd Jason and his lieutenants made them their especial care;supported them in lodging-houses,induced the night clerks to give them attention;took the greatest pains to ensure them the birth-right which,as American citizens,was theirs,--that of voting.They were not only given homes for a period,but they were registered;and in the abundance of good feeling that reigned during this time of cheer,even the foreigners were registered!On election day they were driven,like visiting notables,in carryalls and carriages to the polls!Some of them,as though in compensation for ills endured between elections,voted not once,but many times;exercising judicial functions for which they should be given credit.For instance,they were convinced that the Hon.W.W.Trulease had made a good governor;and they were Watling enthusiasts,--intent on sending men to the legislature who would vote for him for senator;yet there were cases in which,for the minor offices,the democrat was the better man!

It was a memorable day.In spite of Mr.Lawler's Pilot,which was as a voice crying in the wilderness,citizens who had wives and homes and responsibilities,business men and clerks went to the voting booths and recorded their choice for Trulease,Watling and Prosperity:and working-men followed suit.Victory was in the air.Even the policemen wore happy smiles,and in some instances the election officers themselves in absent-minded exuberance thrust bunches of ballots into the boxes!

In response to an insistent demand from his fellow-citizens Mr.Watling,the Saturday evening before,had made a speech in the Auditorium,decked with bunting and filled with people.For once the Morning Era did not exaggerate when it declared that the ovation had lasted fully ten minutes."A remarkable proof"it went on to say,"of the esteem and confidence in which our fellow-citizen is held by those who know him best,his neighbours in the city where he has given so many instances of his public spirit,where he has achieved such distinction in the practice of the law.He holds the sound American conviction that the office should seek the man.His address is printed in another column,and we believe it will appeal to the intelligence and sober judgment of the state.It is replete with modesty and wisdom."Mr.Watling was introduced by Mr.Bering of the State Supreme Court (a candidate for re-election),who spoke with deliberation,with owl-like impressiveness.He didn't believe in judges meddling in politics,but this was an unusual occasion.(Loud applause.)Most unusual.He had come here as a man,as an American,to pay his tribute to another man,a long-time friend,whom he thought to stand somewhat aside and above mere party strife,to represent values not merely political....So accommodating and flexible is the human mind,so "practical"may it become through dealing with men and affairs,that in listening to Judge Bering I was able to ignore the little anomalies such a situation might have suggested to the theorist,to the mere student of the institutions of democracy.The friendly glasses of rye and water Mr.Bering had taken in Monahan's saloon,the cases he had "arranged"for the firm of Watling,Fowndes and Ripon were forgotten.Forgotten,too,when Theodore Watling stood up and men began,to throw their hats in the air,--were the cavilling charges of Mr.Lawler's Pilot that,far from the office seeking the man,our candidate had spent over a hundred thousand dollars of his own money,to say nothing of the contributions of Mr.Scherer,Mr.

Dickinson and the Railroad!If I had been troubled with any weak,ethical doubts,Mr.Watling would have dispelled them;he had red blood in his veins,a creed in which he believed,a rare power of expressing himself in plain,everyday language that was often colloquial,but never--as the saying goes -"cheap."The dinner-pail predicament was real to him.He would present a policy of our opponents charmingly,even persuasively,and then add,after a moment's pause:"There is only one objection to this,my friends--that it doesn't work."It was all in the way he said it,of course.The audience would go wild with approval,and shouts of "that's right"could be heard here and there.Then he proceeded to show why it didn't work.He had the faculty of bringing his lessons home,the imagination to put himself into the daily life of those who listened to him,--the life of the storekeeper,the clerk,of the labourer and of the house-wife.The effect of this can scarcely be overestimated.For the American hugs the delusion that there are no class distinctions,even though his whole existence may be an effort to rise out of once class into another."Your wife,"he told them once,"needs a dress.Let us admit that the material for the dress is a little cheaper than it was four years ago,but when she comes to look into the family stocking--"(Laughter.)"I needn't go on.If we could have things cheaper,and more money to buy them with,we should all be happy,and the Republican party could retire from business."He did not once refer to the United States Senatorship.