The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 9, 1904, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. ——eeeeeeeeeee————————————————————————————————————————————ee e e e ————— e e, the men of their uni- ¢ mutual friends in the country” to the east- stonian epic, of all and to your prospects, guest. “How are you gged. s dead, as you see; too dead n’t you get out of it, then?"” day, perhaps. Up to no place to go to to arrive. Like some I've made an ass 1 mean? Oh, I don’t You have had some I take it, but if you are vid Kent I used to know e made a bigger man of you.” ve had the Gas- s in the news- had brought them in building in Texas gling crowd gath- rticoed entrance. As there was a rattle of lowed by the dum-dum a brass bahd ramped ening nreasures of a eam- oo mHA NS v,"” said Kent, when they ar enough beyond the zone ated morings to make :dible. I told you that the f-pack had gone into poli- e in the throes of a State d there is to be a political ng at the opera-house to- ks in the title role. And r measure of the deadness When you see people like that to hear a brass ans one of two things: hasn’'t outgrown the else it has stages and is the ceme! ay of putting it,” Lor- are as bad as re moving on, was the lack-luster re- I don’t know where to » do when I get there.” » crossing the open square f t the wide-eaved passenger derous tremolo, domi- nd music, thrilled extended arm e with its two ed twice. ng, quickening ““It s a special 3ucks crowd Number Three minutes yet, and the steps to.the sta< good time to meet the it came clattering and presently thick of the , place.and o 1 of the soil for the B »d and bronzed and 1 here and t e a turesque le: ™ and wide-flapped side and put up his is first sight near ammeled West in 1 he was finding 1 di- tive and CHAPTER II. n of the People. and abil the burial; and he hi en curious enough to pa Spy out the reason i evening tog little law s fath; clean breast of it: woman in the case, ssed before Kent colliege. Pe had She was a farmer's , with no notion for a change ament; ed Kent wherefore she had career and the ts lines in the nar- own choosing. ing knew, the senti- ad dragged until it off holding-ground. The young woman had laid the blam at the door of the university, haa €lven Kent 2 bad half-year of fault- finding and recrimination and had finally made an end of the matter by bestowing her dowry of hillside acres on the son of a neighboring farmer. Therefore XKent had stagnated quietly, living with simple rigor the life he had marked out for himself; thankful at heart, Loring had sus- pected, for the timely intervention of the farmer’s son, but holding himself well in hand against a repetition of the sentimental offense. All this until the opening of the summer hotel at the foot of Old Croydon and the com- ing of Elinor Brentwood. No one knew just how much Miss Brentwood had to do with the long- delayed awakening of David Xent; by in Loring’s forecagtings she en- joyed the full benefit'of the doubt. From tramping the hills alone or whipping the streams for brook trout, David had taken to spending his after- neons with lover-like regularity at the Croydon Inn, and at the end of the season had electrified the sleepy home tewn by declaring his intentions to go West and grow up with the country. In Loring’s setting forth of the awakening the motive was not far to seek. Miss Brentwood was ambitious, and 1f her interest in Kent had been only casual she would not have been likely to point him to the wider bat- tlefield. Again, apart from his modest patrimony, Kent had only his profes- sion. The Brentwoods were not rich, as riches are m: millionat lived in their own house in k Bay wilderness, moved in er substantial circle, and, where success, economic or sort the touchstone, social planes above a coun- 1 some wyer. ng knew Ke none better. to account s flerce poverty- Hence, he was at for the exile’s afield, or for his unhopeful pres- ude. Meaning to win trophies Miss Brentwood's feet, the : of the rough joust with found him unhorsed, un- iponed and rolling in the dust of lists. Loring chewed his cigar reflectively, une tt wishing his companion would open the way to free speech on the subject pre- sumably nearest his heart. He had a word of comfort, negative comfort, to offer, but it might not be safid until Kent should give him leave by taking ritiative. Kent broke silence at last, the prompting was nothing more ent than the chalking up of the delayed tr: s time An hbu and twenty minutes: that s any time after 9 o'clock. I'm tly sofry. for you, Grantham— for any one that has to stay in charnel-house of a town ten min- after he's through. What will you do with yourself?" Loring got up, looked at his watch, hoping that h it. 1 don't know. hall we rooms and sit a whi The exile’s eyes gloomed suddenly. “Not unleéss you insist on it. We rhould get back ameng the relics and 1 11d bore you. I'm not the man you used to know, Grantham.” ’ said Loring. “I shan't be hyp- enough to contradict you. you are my host. It is what you will do with n n time.” e can kill an hour at the rally, if you like. You have seen the street P de and heard the band play; it is y fair that you should see the men- agerie on exhibition.” Loring found his match box and e a fresh light for his cigar. ‘It’s_pretty evident that you and ‘next-Governor’ Bucks are on opposite sides of the political fence,” he ob- served. utes go back to We are. I should think a .good bit s of myself than I do—and that's less—if I trained in his company.” “Yet you will give him a chance to make a partisan of me? Well, come along. Politics are not down on my Western programme, but I'm here to see all the new things.” he Gaston Opera-house was a sur- vival of the flush times, and barring a certain tawdriness from disuse and neglect and a rather garish effect wkich marched evenly with the brick ard terra cotta fronts in Texas street and the American-Tudor cettages of the suburbs, it was a creditable relie. The auditorium was well filled in pit, dress circle and gallery when Kent and his guest edged their way through the standing committee in the foyer; but by dint of careful searching they suc- ceeded in finding two seats well around to the left, with 'a balcony pillar to separate them from their nearest neighbors. Since the public side of Ameriean politics varies little with the varia- tion of latitude or longitude, the man from the East found himself at once in homeful and remindful surroundings. There was the cus- tomary draping of flags under the proscenium arch and across the set- plece villa of the background. In the semicircle of chairs arched from wing to wing sat the local and visiting political lights; men of all trades, these, some of them a little shamefaced and ill at ease by reason of their unwonted consplicuity; all of them listening with a carefully assumed air of strained at- tention to the speaker of the moment. Also there was the characteristic ante-election audience; typical of all America—the thing most truly typlical in a land where national types are sought for microscopically, wheel- horses who came at the party call; men Wwho came In the temperary upblaze of enthusiastio patriotism, which is light- ed with the opening of the campaign and which goes out like a candle in a gust of wind the day after the election; men who came to applaud blindly, and a few who came to cavil and deride. Loring oriented himself in a leisurely eyesweed and 50 cams by easy grada- tions to the speaker. Measured by the standard of fitness for his office of prolocutor the man standing beside the stage properties speaker’'s desk was worthy a second glance. He was dark, mndersized, trimly built, with a Vandyke beard, clipped closely enough to show the lines of a bulldog jaw and eyes that had the gift, priceless to the pyblic speaker, of seeming to hold every onlooking eye in the audience. Unlike his backers in the awkward semicircle, he. wore a professional long coat, and the hands that marked his smoothly flowing sen- tences were slim and shapel; 2 “Who is he?’ asked Lo in an aside to Kent. “Stephen Hawk, the ex-District At- torney—boomer, pettifogger, promoter —a charter member of the Gaston wolf pack. A man who would persuade you into believing in the impeccability of Satan in one breath and knife you in the back for a $10 bill in the next,” was the rejoinder. Loring nodded and again became a listener. Hawk's speech was merely in- troductory and it was nearing Its peroration. “Fellow citizens, this occasion is as auspicious as it is significant. When the people rise in their might to say to tyranny in ‘whatsoever form it op- presses them, ‘Thus far and no farther shalt thou go,’ the night is far spent and the light is breaking in the east. “Since the day when we first began to wrest with compelling hands the natural riches from the sbil of this our adoptive State political trickery in high places, backed by the puissant might of alien corporations, has ground us into the dust. “But now the time of our delliverance is at hand. Great movements give birth to great leaders; and in this, our holy crusade against oppression and tyranny, the crisis has bred the man. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the pleasure in presenting to you the speaker of the evening, our friend and fellow citizen, the Honorable Jasper G. Bucks, by the grace of God and your suffrages the next Governor of the State.” In the storm of applause that burst upon the dramatic peroration of the ex-District Attorney, a man rose from the center of the stage semjicircle and lumbered heavily forward to the foot- lights. Loring's first emotion was of surprise, tempered with pity. The cri- sis born leader, heralded by such a flourish of rhetorical trumpets, was a giant in size; but with his huge fig- ure, unshapely and ill clad, all promises of greatness seemed to pause. His face, broad featured, colorless, and beardless as a, boy's, was either a blank or an impenetrable mask. There was no convincement in the lack-luster gaze of the small, porcine eyes; no eloquence in the harsh, nasal tones of the untrained voice, or in the ponderous and awkward wavings of the beam like arms. None the less, be- fore he had uttered a ‘dozen halting sentences he was carrying the audi- ence with him step by step; moving the great concourse of listeners with his commonplace periods as a melli- guous Hawk could never hope to move * Loring saw the miracle in the throes of its outworking; saw and felt it in his own proper person, and sought in vain to account for it. Was there some subtle magnetism in this great hulk of & man that made itself felt in spite of its hamperings? Or was it merely that the people, weary of empty rhe- toric and unkept promises, were ripe to welcome and to follow any man whose apparent earnestness and sin- _cerity atoned for all his lacks? Explain'it as he might, Loring soon assured himself that the Hon. Jasper - Bucks was laying hold of the sen- timent of the audience as though it were & thing tangible to be grasped by the huge hands. Unlike Hawk, whose speech flamed easily into denuncia- tion when it touched on the alien cor- porations, he counseled moderation and lawful reprisals. Land syndicates, rail- roads, foreign capital in whatever em- ployment, were prime necessities in any new and growing commonwealth. The province of the people was not to wreck the ship, but to gulde it. And the remedy for all {lls lay in controll- ing legislation, faithfully and rigidly inforced. “My friends: I'm only a plain, hard- handed farmer, as those of you who are my fellow townsmen can testify. But I've sesn what you've seen. and -1 5P| AL THE TAEIFF 7HE | 2 ITRAFFIC " WILZ SHHD WL BE NOMORE. HOWN 1 ISRAEL,, I've suffered what you've suffered. Year after year we send our represen- tatives to the Legislature and what comes of it? Why, these corporations, looking only to their own interests, as they're in duty bound to do, buy ’em it they can. You can't blame ’em for that; it's business—their busi- ness. But it's our business, as citizens of this great commonwealth to prevent it. We have good laws on our statute books, but we need more of ’em; laws for control, with plain, honest men at the capital, in the ju- diciary, in every root and branch of ihe executive, to inforce 'em. With such laws and such men to see that they are executed there wonldn't be any more extortions, any more raising of the rates of transportation on the produce of our ranches and farms merely because the Eastern market for that particular product happened to jump a few cents on the dollar. “No, my friends; plain, hard handed farmer though 1 be, I can see what will follow an honest electiod of the peo- ple, by the people and for the people. The State can be—it ought to be—sov- erelgn within its own boundaries. If we rise up ‘as one man next Tuesday and put a ticket into the ballot box that says we are golng to make it so, an@ keep it so, you'll see a new com- modity tariff put into effect on the Western Pacific Railroad the day af- ter.” The speaker paused and into the Iit- tle gap of silence barked a volice from the gallery. a “That's what you say. But supposin’ they don't do it?” Loring was gazing steadfastly at the blank, heavy face, so utterly devoid of the enthusiasm the man was evoking in others. For one flitting instant he thought he saw behind the mask. The immobile face, the awkward gestures, the slipshod English became suddenly transparent, revealing the real man; a man of titanic strength, of tremendous possibilities for good or evil. Loring put up his glasses and looked again; but the figure of the flashlight inner vision had vanished and the speaker was answering his ,objector as calmly as though the house held only the sin- gle critic to b set right. “I'm always glad to hear a man speak right out in meeting,” he said, dropping still deeper into the collo- quialisms. “Supposing the corpora- tions don't see the handwriting op the wall—-won't see it, you say? Then, my friend, it will become the manifest duty of the Legislature and. the executive to make 'em see it; always lawfully, you understand; always with a just and equitable respect for the rights of property in which our free and glori- ous institutions are fouhded, but with level handed justice and without fear or favor.” A thunderous uproar of applause clamored on the heels of the answer, and the Hon. Jasper movped his face with a colored handkerchief and took a swallow of water from the glass on the desk. “Mind you, my. friends, I'm not say- ing we are not going to find “plenty of stumps and roots and a tough sod in this furrow we are going to plow. It's only the fool or the ignoramus who underrates the strength of his oppo- nent. It i{s going to be just plain, honest justice and the will of the people against the money of the Harrimans and the Goulds and’ the Vanderbilts and all the rest of ’em. But the law is mighty, and it will pre- vall. Give us an honest Legislature to make such laws, and an executive strong: énough to enforce ‘em, and-the sovereign State will stand out glorious and triumphant as a monument against oppression. o ‘“When that time comes—and it's a- coming, my friends— the corporations and the syndicates will read-the hand- writing on the wall; donM you be afrald of that. If they ‘should be a little graln thick-headed and sort o blind at first, as old King Belshazzar was, it may be that the sovereign State will have -to give 'em an object-lesson —lawfully, always lawfully, you under- stand. But when they see, through the medium of such an object-lesson or otherwise, as thie case may be, that we mean business; when they see that we, the people of this great and growing commonwealth, mean to assert our rights to live and move and have our have fair, even-hamded fus- tice meted out to ourselves, our wives apd our little . children, they'll come down and quit watering their stock with the sweat of our brows; and that hold-up motto of theirs, ‘All the tariff the traffic will stand,” will be no more known in Israel!’ " _Again the clamor of applause rose like fine dust on the throng-heated air, and Kent looked at his watch. “It is time we were going,” he said; adding: "I guess you have had enough of it, haven’t you?” Loring was silent for the better part of the way back to the railway station. ‘When he spoke of it was in answer to a delayed question of Kent's. “What do I think of him? I don't know, David; and that's the plain truth. He is not the man he appears to be as he stands there haranguing that crowd. That is a pose, and an exceedingly skillful one. He is not altogether apparent to me, but he strikes me as being a man of immense possibilities—whether for good or evil, I can't say “You needn’t draw another breath of uncertainty on. that score,” was the curt rejoinder. “He is a demagogue, pure and unadulterated.” Loring did not attempt to refute the charge. “Are he and his party likely to win?" he asked. “God knows,” said Kent. “We have had so mar- lightnir~ transformations in politics in the State that nothing is impossible.” “I'd like to know.” was Loring’s com- ment. “It might make some difference to me, personally.” “To yor said Kent, inquiringly. “That reminds me: I haven't given you a chance to say ten words about yourself.” “The chance hasn't been lacking. But my businesz out here is—Well, it isn’t exactly a star chamber matter, but I'm under promise in a way not to talk about it until I have had a con- ference with our people at the capital. I'll write you about it in a few days.” They were ascending the steps at the end of the passenger .platform again, and Lering broke away from the politi- cal ard personal entanglement to give Kent one more opportunity to hear his word of negative comfort. “We dug up the field of recollection pretty thoroughly in our after-dinner seance in your rcoms, David, but I no- ticed there was one corner of it you left undisturbed. Was there any good reason?" Kent made no show of misunder- standing. “There was the excellent reason which must have been apparent to you before you had been an hour in Gaston. T've made my shot, and missed.” Loring entered the breach with his shield held well to the fore. He was the last man in the world to assault a friend’s confidence recklessly. “I thought a good while ago, and I still think, that you are making a mountain out of a mole-hill, David. Elinor Brentwood is a true woman in every inch of her. She is as much above caring for false notlons of caste as you ought to be.” “I know her nobllity: which is all the more reason why I shouldn't take advantage of it. We may scoff at the social inequalities as much as we please, but we can't laugh them out of court. As between a young woman who is an heiress in her own right, and a briefless lawyer, there are differ- ences which a decent man is bound ta efface. And I haven't been able.” “Does Miss Brentwood know?" “She knows nothing at all. I was un- willing to entangle her, even with a confidence,” “The more fool you,” said Loring, bluntly. ‘“You call yourself a lawyer, and you have mot yet learned ome of the first principles of common justice, which is that a woman has some rights which even a besotted lover is beund to respect. You made love to her that summer at Croydon; you needn’t deny it. And at the end of things you walk off to-make your fortune without com mitting yourself; without knowing, or apparently caring, what your stiff- necked poverty-pride may cost her in years of uncertdinty. You deserve to lose her.” Kent's smile was a falr measure of his unhopeful mood. “You can't well lose what,you have never had. I'm net such an ass as to bellieve that she cared greatly.” “How do you know? Not by any- thing you ever gave her a chance to say, I'll dare swear, I've a bit of quali- fled good news for you, but the spirit mightlly to hold my said Kent, his indifference vanishing in the turning of a leaf. “Well, to begin with, Miss Brentwood is still unmarried, though the gossips say she doesn’'t lack plenty of eligible offers.” “Half of that I knew; the other half I took for granted. Go on.” “Her mother, under the advice of the chief of the n Brentwood, has been making a lot of bad investm for herself and her two daughters; in other words, she has been making ducks and drakes of the Brentwood fortune.” Kent was as deeply moved as if the loss had been his own, and said as much, craving more of the particulars. “I can’t give them. But I may say that the blame lies at your door, David.” “At my at that?” “By the shortest possible route. If you had done your duty by Elinor in the Croydon summer, Mrs. Brentwood would have had 3 bright young attor- ney for a son-indaw and adviser, and the bad investments would mot have been made.” Kent's laugh was_entirely devoid of mirth. . “Don’t trample on a man when he's down. I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. But how bad is #he smash? Surely you know that?" “No, I don’t. Bradford was telling me about it the day I left Boston. He gave me to understand th8t the prin- cipal family g at present {s door? How do you arrive “Did he happen to know the name of the stock?” asked Kent, moistening his lips, “He did. Fate flirts with you two in the usual fashion. Mrs. Brentwood’s little fortune 1 by consequence, Eli- nor's and Penelope's—is tied up in the stock of the company whose piatform we are occuping at the present moment —the Western Pacific.” Kent let slip a hard word directed at ill-advisers in general, and Loring took his cue from the malediction “You swear pretty feelingly, David. Isn't our property as good a thing as we cf the Boston end have been crack- ing it up to be?” “You know better about the financial part of it than I do. But—well, you are fresh from this anarchistic conclave at the opera-house. You can imagine what ‘the stock of the Western Pacific or of any other foreign corpcration ing business in this State will be worth in six months after Bucks and his crowd get into the saddle.” “You sneak as if the result of the electjon were a foregine conclusion, I hope' it isn't.. But we were talking more particularly of Miss Brentwood and your personal® responsibilities.” The belated train was whistling for the lower yard, and Loring was deter- mined to say.all that was in his mind. “Yes, go on. I'm anxious to hear— more anxious than I seem to be, per- haps.” ‘““Well, she is coming West bit. She and her siste Mrs. Brentweod”, the wise men have or interior. I thonght you'd like to k “Is she—are they coming this asked Kent. The train was in and the porter fetched Loring’s handbag checkstand. The guest 7 one foot on the step of t car. If I were you, after a David, I'd w ask; I should, by would tremendously cheeky th 1 ing such a slight her as you in the meantime, East next week, When you do, day off and shall need y Kent wa $tood loc eyes of appeared ar CHAPTER IIL The "Bostonians. It was p ly on the day the Brentwoods’ westward the postman, making round, delivered David at the house in the Back Bay trict. Elinor was busy pack migration, but she left Per the maid to cope with the pro compressing two trun i while she read the letter, and s reading it a d time when Mr Brookes Ormsby’s card , Penelope, much to do.” said the younger sister, cavallerly; “he didn't come to see me.” ‘Whereupon Elinor smoothed two begged. small wrinkles patien brow, tucked her letter into her b and went down. to meet the early ing caller. Mr. Brookes Ormsby, clubm tleman of athletic leisure and of the Ormsby millions, was back and forth before the h fire in the drawing-room g she entered. “You don't deserye to have a collle friend,” he pr - “How was I to know th ng away?" Another time Elinor migt that she owed him an exg just now she was careful, a about the packing. “How was I to know you know?” she retorted. “It was Transcript.” “Well!” said Ormsby. come to a pretty pass wh keep track of column. I d man brought Vineyard Haven and we brok 2 a pr peller blade on the Amyp ite tr 4 to get here in time.” “I am so hitrite she said. I ran out to see to 'do Your erra f tickets, and so “Oh, we shc you. Jam And falling pendable y this house Haven't condueted he f y A frontier call on sometimes I think I 3ut I have had t the man 1 f s part In your of it as I can. give me the nd all the nueh going to 53 as 1 as go you it would E you at be were st Bar narrowing But I'd ir heart to open.” and took vack to the go - back, also—to nk-packing."” sarely a trunkroom?” ing-off bl g-off pl u are go to the § wherever it g “you must ying so ought to be su he contended, frowning Shall I natured think that, she said laughed. “Never mind t about it and keep out of s much as you like." 2 the little gestu: T'll be dece lly placing me in to pre: receds grs take all three of you in.cha the de hle youn Yars earned ldav—a 1 which she won't h the transit peopi Have your route to the western Miss Brentwood had t parent skin that tells fair, tales and trans- the