Part 47 (1/2)
”No; that boy of his with the bad lung had to go off to the Adirondacks, and he went with him.”
The inner door opened at this moment, disclosing the Honorable Isaac Pett.i.t, who greeted Ramsay effusively.
”What is immortality, gentlemen!” the Honorable Isaac Pett.i.t inquired, clinging to the Colonel's hand. ”We had a little social gathering for our new pastor up at Fraser the other night, and I sprung a new game on the old folks. Offered a prize for anybody who could name all the Vice-Presidents of the United States since Lincoln's administration, and they couldn't even get past Grant--and Schuyler Colfax being right off our own Hoosier pastures! Then we tried for the Democratic candidates for President, beginning back at the war, and they couldn't even start.
One young chap piped up and said Jeff Davis--oh, Lord!--which reminds me that the teaching of history in the public schools ain't what it ought to be. They hadn't heard of Hanc.o.c.k, and when somebody said Blaine, the teacher of the infant cla.s.s in our Sunday School said Blaine who? That reminds me of one time when I met Dan Voorhees, than whom G.o.d Almighty never made a n.o.bler soul; I met Dan down here in the lobby of the old Bates House, carrying a 'Harper's Weekly' with one of Tom Nast's cartoons spread wide open. You know Dan had--”
Colonel Ramsay had been edging toward the door of Harwood's private room, and he now broke in upon the editor's reminiscences.
”You tell that story to Miss Farrell, Ike. I'm spouting myself to-night, at a Christian Endeavor rally at Tipton, and want to see Dan a minute.”
Miss Farrell was inured to Pett.i.t's anecdotes of Dan Voorhees, and the Fraserville editor continued, unmindful of the closing of the door upon Dan and Ramsay.
Ramsay pushed his fedora to the back of his head and inspected Dan's new furniture.
”Well, you did it! You've cut loose from your base and burned your bridges behind you. I would have brought my congratulations sooner, but I've had a long jury case on hand. You did it, my boy, and you did it like a gentleman. You might have killed him if you had wanted to.”
”I don't want to kill anybody,” smiled Dan. ”I want to practice law.”
”That's a laudable ambition, but you can't go back on us now. What we've needed for a long time was a young man of about your make-up who wasn't afraid.”
”Don't rub it in, Colonel. I was a mighty long time seeing the light, and I don't deserve any praise from anybody. I mean what I say about practicing law. I'm a free man now and any political work I do is going to be along the lines of the simple, childish ideas I brought home from college with me. I had begun to feel that all this political idealism was sheer rubbish, but I put the brakes on before I got too far downhill. If a few of us who have run with the machine and know the tricks will turn and help the bewildered idealists, we can make idealism effective. Most of the people don't want a handful of crooks to govern them, but there's a kind of cheap cynicism abroad that discourages the men who are eager to revolt. There are newspapers that foster that sentiment, and scores of men who won't take time to go to a caucus keep asking what's the use. Now, as for Ba.s.sett, I'm not going to bite the hand that fed me; I'm simply going to feed myself. Pett.i.t was just in here to sound me as to my feelings toward Thatcher. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in Thatcher as a senatorial possibility.”
”That's all right; but if you had to make a choice between Thatcher and Ba.s.sett?”
Dan shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
”You mustn't exaggerate the importance of my influence. I don't carry United States senators.h.i.+ps around in my pocket.”
”You're the most influential man of your age in our state. I'm not so sure you wouldn't be able to elect any man you supported if the election were held to-morrow.”
”You've mastered the delicate art of flattery, Colonel; when the time comes, I'll be in the fight. It's not so dead certain that our party's going to have a senator to elect--there's always that. But all the walls are covered with handwriting these days that doesn't need interpreting by me or any other Daniel. Many of the younger men all over this state in both parties are getting ready to a.s.sert themselves. What we want--what you want, I believe--is to make this state count for something in national affairs. Just changing parties doesn't help anything. I'd rather not s.h.i.+ft at all than send some fellow to the Senate just because he can capture a caucus. It's my honest conviction that any man can get a caucus vote if he will play according to the old rules. You and I go out over the state bawling to the people that they are governing this country. We appeal to them for their votes when we know well enough that between Thatcher and Ba.s.sett as Democrats, and 'Big' Jordan and Ridgefield in the Republican camp, the people don't stand to win. It may tickle you to know that I've had some flattering invitations lately to join the Republicans--not from the old guard, mind you, but from some of the young fellows who want to score results for policies, not politicians. I suppose, after all, Colonel, I'm only a kind of academic Democrat, with no patience whatever with this eternal hitching of our ancient mule to the saloons and breweries just to win.
In the next campaign I'm going to preach my academic Democracy all the way from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River, up and down and back and forth--and I'm going to do it at my own expense and not be responsible to any state committee or anybody else. That's about where I stand.”
”Good; mighty good, Dan. All the rest of us want is for you to holler that in your biggest foghorn voice and you'll find the crowd with you.”
”But if the crowd isn't with me, it won't make a bit of difference; I shall bark just the same.”
”Now that we've got down to bra.s.s tacks, I'll tell you what I've thought ever since Ba.s.sett got his clamps on the party: that he really hasn't any qualities of leaders.h.i.+p; that grim, silent way of his is a good deal of a bluff. If anybody ever has the nerve to set off a firecracker just behind him, he'll run a mile. The newspapers keep flas.h.i.+ng him up in big headlines all the time, and that helps to keep the people fooled. The last time I saw him was just after he put through that corporation bill you broke on, and he didn't seem to have got much fun out of his victory; he looked pretty gray and worried. It wasn't so easy pulling through House Bill Ninety-five; it was the hardest job of Mort's life; but he had to do it or take the count. And Lord! he certainly lost his head in defeating those appropriation bills; he let his spite toward the governor get the better of him. It wasn't the Republican governor he put in the hole; it was his own party.”
”That's the way with all these men of his type on both sides; they have no real loyalty; they will sacrifice their parties any time just to further personal ends, or in this case it would seem to have been out of sheer bad temper. I didn't use to think Ba.s.sett had any temper or any kind of emotional organization. But when he's mad it's the meanest kind of mad, blind and revengeful.”
”He's forced an extra session--he's brought that on us. Just chew on that a minute, Dan. A Republican governor has got to rea.s.semble a Democratic legislature merely to correct its own faults. It looks well in print, by George! Speaking of print, how did he come to let go of the 'Courier,' and who owns that sheet anyway? I thought when Thatcher sprung that suit and dragged our Aunt Sally into it, the Wabash River would run hot lava for the next forty years. But that night of the ball she and Mort stood there on the firing-line as though nothing had ever happened.”
Harwood grinned and shook his head gravely.
”There are some things, Colonel, that even to a good friend like you I can't give away. Besides, I promised Atwill not to tell.”
”All right, Dan. And now, for fear you may think I've got something up my sleeve, I want to say to you with my hand on my heart that I don't want any office now or ever!”