The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 10, 1905, Page 2

to-morrow, Mr. Gwynn—with your per- vart in selecting Your measureless interests in Anaconda Afrline warrant me rtion.” CHAPTER IV. How a Speakership Was Fought For. w and then turns jester in a bit- < to ironjes and grin- Often it gives with the y. to take with the left, and re set to chop and saw and es which in the end make ir hopes. The story of the 1 inadvertent Frank- ifies the grewsome Fate less than two years prior to g when Senator Hanway took aled Mr. Gwynn into a corner how, with his great Anacon- ., he should cut a figure in the of a next Speaker for the House ntatives, .t had been that fortune to so reconstruct a it gave unusual riches and al comfort to the dominant a certain manufacturing North- State. This commonwealth at the was politically in the hands of the pposed to Senator Hanway. Molli- the friendly tariff and anxious to t gratitude, those domi- arose and in the fol- autumn to be Governor State aged Individual, obstinacy and a kind of that nothing might cor- de. The Obstinate One onged with the party of this pin ile chance befell. No er was the Obstinate One given the ernorship of a State doubtful and ac- the enemy’s country than he was looked upon as timber by sundry architects d thereafter his name went ed with a possible Presi- The situation stirred the spleen f Senator Hanway. It was discouraging to have those identical tariff triumphs, which been intended as an argu- ment favorable to himself, give birth to a rive so who, for his geography 1 the popularity which those personal inacies and thick-skulled integrities , might work a great disturbance in his plans. To make bad worse, the Obstinate One possessed a sinister luck of his own and with closed eyes backed fight on the right side and won it st a pack of lobby wolves who were i snapping about the State This, although the Obstinate of all men least appreclated what d done, confirmed him as a val- asset of party; pending further honors the public to reward him gave the title of Governor Obstinate. In his white, still, rippleless way, Sen- ator Hanway hated in his soul's soul the ame of Governor Obstinate. Night and hq carried that dull, fortunate gentle- 1 on his swell of thought and never sed to consider how he might deal him blow or withstand him in any Presi- stepping forward. And yet at had Senator Hanway—and him- master of every art of cord him and creese in politics—felt more hélpless. f Governor Obstinate had been mo more just a finished politician, a mere on of political fence, Senator Han- might have flashed his ready point between his ribs. But the other's very s defended him. He was primitive to the verge of despair. Even his strength primitive, inasmuch as it dwelt 2 the people rather than with the machinists of party. Senator Hanway's monkish brow went often puckered of ost uncanenical frown as he thought that sardonic Destiny which had st this Governgr Obstinate forward become a stumbling block.in his way. In his angry contempt he could compare him to nothing save a grizzly bear. g er the justice of this last shaggy . even Senator Hanway could not its formidable side. A grizzly, n fact or in hyperbole, is no to meet. There is a supremacy the primitive; when the matural and cial have collided the latter has n once come limping off. Our cannot make the Indians fight their fashion; the Indians make the sol- s fight their fashion. If the soldiers dense enough to Insist upon their the Indians—fighting all over i and each red warrior for him- ~would fill them as full of holes as r. When, therefore, Senator y called Governor Obstinate a it was a name of respect. The u methods would net prevail in his stubborn case. Most of all, money could not be employed to overthrow him; for his foundations, like the foundations of any other grizzly, were original and be- d the touch of money. s Now all this served to palsy the strength of Senator Hanway. In one shape or enother, and whether by prom- jse or actual present production, money wes his one great tool, and where the tool has lost its power the artisan is also powerless. It is not to Senator Han- way's discredit that he would fail where money failed; Richelleu, wanting money, would bave been a turtle on its back. Wherefore, let it be rewritten that Sen- ator Hanway in the face of those clumsy, U suth, half-seeing yet tremendous po- tentialities of his enemy was seized of a helplessness never before felt. To op- pose the other with only those narrow means of money was like trying to put down a Sloux uprising with a resolution f the Board of [Trade. Still, he must o his best; he must hold this Governor Obstinate as much as he might in check, trusting to the chapter of accidents, which in politics is a very lair of sur- prises, to suggest final ways and means to baffle his advance. For the business of making him Presi- dent, the complacent Senate had become the workshop of Senator Hanway. Now, the brink of a mew Congress, one which would be in session when the minating convention of his party was ! to order and therefore might be sed to own power over its action he Presidential ticket it would put tor Hanway resolved to add the of Representatives to his ma- ¥ He would elect its Speaker, and make the House an annex to his work- shop of a Senate. He would hook up House and Senate as a coachman hooks up his team, and driving them tandem or abreast as the exigencles of the hour suggested, see how far two such power- ful agencies might take him on his White House road. It was on the side of Senator Hanway & brilllant thought and a daring one, this plan to seize a Speakership and ap- ply it to his personal fortunes; for your Speakership is that office second only to a Presidency, and comes often to be the Jatter's superior in practical force, Those wise ones who designed the Government intended the House of Representatives to be a republic. Through its own groveling abjectiops, however, it long ago sunk to an autocracy with the Speaker in the role of autocrat. It sold its birthright for no one knows what mess of pottage to pass Its slav- 1sn cays beneath a tyranny of the on gavel. The Speaker No measure is proposed, no bill passes, no member speaks except by the Speak- er's will. He constructs the commit- tees and selects their chalrmen and lays out their work. With a dozen mem- bers, every one of whom votes and acts beneath his thumb, the Speaker trans- acts the story of the House. So far as the other three hundred and forty odd members are concerned, the folk who sent them might as well have written a letter. They live as much without art or part or lot in planning and executing House affairs as do the caged menagerie animals in the plan- ning and execution of the. affairs of what show they happen to exist as the attractions. These caged ones of the House are never regarded and but sel- dom heard. The best that one of them may gain is “Leave to print,” which is a kind of consent to be fraudulent, and permits a member to pretend through the Congressional Record that he made a speech (which he never made) and was overwhelmed by applause (which he did not receive) which swept down in thunderous peals (during moments utterly silent) from crowded galleries (as empty as a church). Senator Hanway, when he decided to pick out a House Speaker favorable to his hopes, had plenty of time wherein to lay his plans. The personnel of a coming House is ‘known for over a- year; the members are elected nearly thirteen months beforg they take their seats.. These thirteen’months of grace are granted the new. member by the constitution on a hopeful theory that he will devote them to a study of his country's needs. In this instance, as in many another, theory and practice wander wide apart: the new member gives those thirteen months to a pro- found study of his own needs, and con- cerns himself no more over the nation’s than over wine-pressing in far-away Bordeaux. It is the glaring fault of every scheme of government, your own beimg no exception to the rule, that it seems meant for man as he should be than for man as he ls. v member of the coming House, -among matters of personal moment to himself, had given no litle thought to what comittees he would be placed up- on; and this, in the nature of House things, likewise compelled him to a consideration of the Speakership and who should fill it. It was by remem- bering #hose committee hopes and fears of members, and adroitly fomenting them, that Senator Hanway expected to control the Speakership eleetion. But he must go warily to work. Coming from thé Senate end of the Capitol, Senator Hanway, in his pro- posed interference in the organization of the House, must maintain himself discreetly in the dark. Jt was not a task to accomplish blowing a bugle. The House had surrendered its powers to the Speaker; but it had retained its vanity, and ki 11 weak animals it was the more vain for being weak. The members, were it once known and par- cel of the common gossip how they in- clined to Senator Hanway's manipula- tion, would be compelled to rebel. They would be driven to oppose him as a: method of preserving what they called isenal, advant thelr self-respect. Aware of ithis, Sen- ator Hanway never came into the open, never appeared upon the surface. He secretly pitched. upon a candifdte among the older ones of the House and made his deab with him, working the wires of ‘his diplomacy from below. There was pecullar demand for effort on Senator Hanway's part. Iiis man, when now he\had sélected him, would not find’ himself uninterrupted or un- opposed in his march for that Bpeaker- ship. . There ' was another, and. if ma- tive popularity were to eount, a strong- er hand stretched forth to seize the gavel prize. Had it lain in the cards, Senator' Hanwey, who always sought his ends on lines of least resistance, would himself have pitched upon this stronger one. But such was beyond the question, The strong one claimed to be of that party clan which pushed the offensive Governor Obstinate for the Fresidency; and this not only offered a perfect reason why Senator Hanway shduld make no alliance with him, but it muitiplied the necessity for his. de- feat. That member wpon whom Senator Hanway settled for Speaker owned the biting name of Frost; it was an in- stance, however, when there was noth- ing in a name. Mr. Frost was a round, genial personage and only biting with occasional sarcasms; then, it is true, his sentences cut like a rawhide. He was big, breezy, careless; quick, and coming of an aquatic ancestry. oceanic in his sort; eyen his walk reminded one of a ground swell. And vet he was defective a2s_a candidate. The House members liked him well, despite those verbal acridities which shaved the sur- face of debate as lawns are shaven by a scythe; but with the last word there existetd no recognized House or party reason, whether of the past, the pres- ent or the future, why he should be made Bpeaker. In the lay of House topography he was on the wrong side of the river from the Bpeakership, and to land him within stretch of the gavel required that Benator Hanway either ferry or pontoon him across. This the latter gentleman set himself to accom- plish by a series of intrigues and strat- agems that would have brightened the fame of a Talleyrand. The statesman opposed to Mr. Frost for the Speakership was a personage named Hawke. He stood possessed of honesty, Intelligence and energy; also he had been for long the leader of his party in the House, and given his name to a tariff measure. With- out one gleam of humor, he was of a temper hot as that of any Hecla, and like his fellow volcano, bein~ often in a state of eruption. he offered " many reasons for being admired and none for being loved. This should be a key to the man. He had been a brave goldier during the Civil War, and when his men, most nf whom were armed with shotguns— it being in the early hours of that strife and these men arming themselves— complained that thelr weapons were no match for the Enfields of the foe, re- buked them fiercely, “General,” said the spokesman of the soldlers, “these yere shotguns ain’t no cven break for them rifles the Yanks are =hootin'!” “They are a match for them,” retort- ed the furious Mr. Hawke, “if you will only go close enough.” For all his soberned§s of humor and choleric upheavals, Mr. Hawke, be- cause of his record as a House leader and a tarlff maker—he had tinkered together that identical bill which, when Senator Hanway later revamped it in the Senate, produced the Obstinate One as a Governor—was the legitimate heir to the Speakership; and in the House, where tradition is something sacred and custom itself the strongest of ar- guments, his defeat for the place was thereby rendered well-nigh impossible. Senator Hanway had und en no child’s task when he went about the gavel elevation of the popular, ,n-bv THE, SAN unghfln illegitimate- House Frost. Months before ever Senator Hanway was granted the honor of knowing Mr. Gwynn, he Lad been burrowingly busy about the Speakership. As a primary step he was obliged to suppress his ebullient brother-in-law. Mr. Harley, the moment a conquest of the House in the interests 6f Senator Hanway was proposed, wuxed threateningly exuber- ant. He was for issuing forth to vo- ciferate and slap members upon their backs and jovially arrange committee- ips on the gift-gaff principle of give s the Speakership and you shall be- come a €hairman. The optimistic Mr. Harley, whose methods were somewhat coarse and who did most things with an ax, was precisely of that hopeful sort who would ndvertsa an auction of the lion’s hide while it was yet upon the becast. Senator Hanway, with In- stincts safer and more upon the order f the mole’s, forbade such campaigns of noise. 5 “You must keep silent. John,” said he, “and never let men know what we are about. You are inclined, apparent- Iy, to regard a Speakership as you might a swarm of bees; you think one has only to beat 4 tin pan long enough or blow a tin horn loud enough in or- der to hive it according to one's wish. The Speakership, however, so far from being a swarm of bees is more like a flock of blackbirds, and the system to which you incline would prove the readiest means of frightening away our every chance. In short, you must wqork by my orders and meet no one, say nothing, except as I direct.” Then Senator Hanway sent Mr. Har- ley, much modified of his vigor, with a secret invitation tQ Mr. Frost! When that personage was brought to the pri- vacy of the Harley house, he laid open to his ambition -those gavel prospects whieh he, Senator Hanway, had al- ready constructed in his thoughts. There was no conflict of argument with Mr. Frost; he rose to the sugges- tion like a bags to a fly. Knowing him- self to be of a genius too openly bluff and frank, and no one to conquer those clements which his campaign would re- quire, he put himself in the hollow of Senator Hanway's hand to be con- trolled, by him with shut eyes. This voluntary prompt submlission on the part of Mr. Frost had a further sub- duing effect upon Mr. Harley. In imi- tation thereof he, too, began to speak in whispers and step with care, and ask his eminent relative for orders in all he- went about. Now when Senator Hanway had trained his partner and his candidate to come to lieel he began to unravel his diplomacy. By his suggestion, Mr. IFrost took into confidence two of his party colleugues in the House. These would on every occaslon act as his agents or lieutemants. Senator Han- way and Me Harley were not to ap- pear too. ohviously. ' Senutor nway, lying back in the dark, looked over the, field and sent those two lieutenants variously to a score of members. These, were sounded on the engaging topic of committee chairmanships; and gne by one such coigns of congressional, not to say per- e as the heads of Ways Means, the Appropriations, the ‘oreigp- Affairs, the Naval, the Military nd a bumber of other great sub-bodies Mr. were disposed’ of—bartered away on ‘the contingency always 6f Mr. Frost's seéléction to be the Speaker. The en- tire House was laid off into lots like ‘real estate and sold, the purchaser promising his vote M;fl)) e in the party caucus, taking ef Verb; contract to give him { ghe fi place he preferred. i RS {7 This " ce phrtition {of the spoilsiand the lAKIng of every {flzsqflrgs tactd with ‘the campaign of ‘Mr./ Frost “was conciuded about a fort- .night prior to Mrs. Harled's dinner to Mr.' nn. As Benator Hanway ran his| expérienced eye- bver ‘the list and counted the noses of Mr. Frost's array, he saw that;if was not enough. The pontoon would not reach; there was still a‘wide expanse of ‘water between his . candidate and the coveted Speakership. _ As - -matters rested, and every morsel of House patronage disposed. of -to thls hungry one -or: -~that, the enemy, Mr. Hawke —being doubly the enemy for toat he was beedme an open supporter of Gov- ernor Obstinate and made no - secret that his candidacy - for ‘the Speakership was, meant to be a step toward mak- ing that gentleman Fresident—would still rise victorious in caucus by full forty votes. Senator Hanway's anxious wiis were driven hard. He had drawn to Mr. Frost every splinter ot power he could command by barter, and thrown in his own State delegation in the House by sheer stress of that machine which he had upreared for his own defense at home: It was not enough; even the subtraction of two. State delegations from thé standards of the foe, by the adroit scheme, applied to each dele- gation, of dragging one of its mem- bers forward to be a candidate for Spoaker, was net enough.- After ten months of labor, Senator Hanway went over the.result and could read nothing therein save failure. And it was like an icicle through his heart; for gside from what advantage the control of the House might give his own ambitions, he knew beyond ques- tion that with the gavel in the fingers of a professed partisan of Governor Obstinate, the latter thick, yet for- tunate, indlvidual would occur as the next Presidential candidate of his party 80 surely as the sun came up on a con- vention morning. Senator Hanway was in this valley of gloom when he heard of Mr. Gwynn. It was Mr. Harley, ever brisk in rail- way matters, who told him of that gen- tleman as the Colossus of the Anaconda Airline. “He holds no offices in the manage- ment of the company,” explained Mr. Harley, “but being millions upon miil- fons a majority shareholder his least word is Anaconda Alrline law.” 4 Senator Hanway did not have to be told of the influence of railways In the destinies of his country. He glanc: ed up @t a map on the wall; there he could see the nation caught like some great clumsy fish in a very seine of rajlways. He traced the black, thread- like flight, from seaboard to seaboard, of the Anaconda Airline. Then he made a- calculation. The Anaconda Alrline was the political backbone, first one State and then another, of forty House members, twenty-three ot whom being of his own complexion of politics, would have a caucus vote. Of t twenty-three, luck upon good luck! twenty belonged to Mr. Hawke. If Sen- ator Hanway might only get the Ana- conda Alrline to crack the thong of its authority over these recalcitrants, they could be whipped into the Frost traces. Not one would dare defy an Anaconda order; it would be political hara-kirl. At this point our wily Sen- ator Hanway began laying plans to bring Mr. Gywnn within his reach; it was in deference to those FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. plans that our solemn capitalist found himself upon 's. - Han- way-Harley’s hospitable right hand on that evening of the dinner, with his severe legs outstretched beneath the Har- ley mahogany. - “I will see you to-morrow—with your permission,” observed Senator Hanway, as he parted with Mr. Gwynn. ‘When Mr. Gwynn returned from Mrs. Hanway-Harley’'s he stood in the of the floor, and told Richard, word for word, all tHMat had taken place. The latter young gentleman was in a pro- diglously good humor. the first time in his life he had.done & day's work, be- ing the twenty-five hundred word story written and dispatched to the Daily Tory, and that was one reason for joy. Be- sides, there was the manager's wire of praise—and Richard thought it marked a weakness in him—that, toe, had warmed the cockles of his heart. Being in good humor, he listened without inter- rupting comment to the rasping, parrot tones of Mr. Gwynn while that gentle- man, without inflection or emphasis or slightest shade of personal Interest, tole the tale of the night's adventures, from Mrs. Hanway-Harley's flattery and Mr. Harley's song, to Senator Hanway's last handclasp and that parting promise of a call. + ““And that is all, sir,”” said Mr. Gwynn, at the close, coughing apologetically be- hind his palm as though fearful of criti- cism. 3 “‘You did well,”” was Richard's response. “When Senator Hanway calls to-morrow, introduce me to him at once. After that, I shall talk and you will acquiesce. You Bay go.” “Thank you, sir. Very good, sir!” said Mr. Gwynn. Mr. Gwynn. recelved Senator Hanway in his library; Richard was present, con- s';lderlng the world at large from a’ win- ow. “And first of all,” said Mr. Gwynn, after greeting Senator Hanway, ‘“‘and first of all, let me introduce to your notice Mr. Storms. I may say to you, sir, I kave confidence in Mr. Storms; I act ‘much by his advice.” And here Mr. Gwynn looked at Richard as though ap- pealing for corroboration. Senator Hanway, from whose nimble faculties nothing escaped, noted this ap- peal. He thought the less of it. since Mr. Harley had given him some glint of the measureless millions of Mr, Gwynn, ana he deduced from this stiff turning to- ward Richards, this brittle .deference, nothing save a theory that Mr. Gwynn, by virtue of his tremendous riches, haa grown too great to do his own listening and thinking. It was as plain, as it was proper, that he should hire them done, precisely as he hired a groom for his clothes. Senator Hanley, himself, was at bottom impressed by nothing so much as money, and was quite prepared to belleve that one of the world's wealthlest men —for such he ungderstood tb be the case of Mr. Gwynn—would prove in word and deed and thought a being wholly different from every one about him. Wherefore, his heaped millions ac- counted in Mr. Gwynn for what other- wise might have been considered by Senator Hanway as queernesses. To add to this, Mr. Gwynn was of a certain select circle of English exclu- sives; Senator Hanway had learned that .much from his sister, Mrs. Han- way-Harley. It was to be expected then that he would have some one about him to furnish brains for his de- liberations, and to make up his mind as a laundress makes up shirts. Sena- tor Hanway, knowing these things of Mr. Gwynn, was In no wise surprised that he possessed In his service one was. hearer, talker and decider, just as aneient kings kept folk about whose. business was to make witty re- _torts for them and conduct sparkling conversations in thelr. stead, they themselves being too royal for anything so much beneath that level of exalted inanity, which as all men know is the only proper mark of princely minds. Something of this raced hit or miss through Senator Hanway's thoughts, as Mr. Gwynn presented Richard and then relapsed—hinge by hinge as though his joints were rusty with much aris- tocratic unbending—into a chair. Richard gave him no space to dwell upon the phenomenon. He came for- ward with a little atmosphere of def- ference; for Richard had his own deep designs. Then, too, Senator Hanway was white of hair and twice his age, to say nothing of being a certain young lady's uncle. “Mr. Gwynn has told me of you,” said he. Then pushing straight for the point after methods of his own, he con- tinued: “What is it the Anaconda Alr- line can do? Mr. Gwynn is quite con- vinced, from what he has been told of those positions you have from time to time asumed in the Senate, that his own interest with that of every rall- way owner lies in | following your leadership. Indced, I think he has de- cided to adopt whatever suggestion you may make.” Richard glanced toward Mr. Gwynn, and that great man gave his mandarin bow. Senator Hlanway, while smitten of vague amazement at Mr. Gwynn's ac- quiescent spirit, accepted it without pause. However marvelous it might be, at least he himself ran no risk. More than that, on second thought it did not occur to him as so peculiarly unusual; a ‘Senator in a measure be- ‘comes inured to the wondrous. Senator Hanway did not reply direct- ly to Richard's query, Direct replies were not the habit of this practiced one. He made a speech full of flat- tering generalitles. He spoke of Richard’s connection with the Dally Tory, and expanded upon the weight and influence of that jour- nal. Also, with a beaming albeit delicate patronage which Richard stom- ached for reasons of his own, he inti- mated complimentary things of mchm himself and seemed to congratulate Dally Tory on thé services of one 8o keen, so sure, so graphic; which last was the more kind, since Senator Han- way could have knpwn mno single reason for assuming an: told Richard that he hoped to see him personally every day. Here Richard broke in on the Senatorial flow to ask ii he might wait upon Senator Hanway every morning at ecleven. “For 1 am warned by Mr. Gwynn,” ex- plained Richard, with an alert mendacity which would have done honor to Senal Hanway himself, “that he will hold any- thing short of calling upon you once a day as barefaced neglect of his inter- “Certainly, - sir; most barefaced!” creaked Mr. Gwynn, giving the mandarin bow. Senator Hanway would be graciously pleased to see Richard every morning at cleven. Also, he would ald him, as far as was proper, with a recount of what gusts and windy currents of news were moving in the upper ethics of govern- ment. - Then, having been polite, Senator Han- way got down to business and stated that Mr. Frost, if Speaker, would favor a cer- tain pooling bill, much desired by rail- ways, and particularly dear to the Ana- conda Alrline. On the obdurate other ing of the sort. He . hand, Mr. Hawke was an enemy to pooi- ing bills and railways. Mr. Gwynn's in- terest was plainly with Mr. PFrost. “Not that I care personally for the success of Mr. Frost,” remarked Scna- tor Hanway, ‘but I know how the rail- ways desire that pooling bill, and how that pooling bill is a darling measure with Mr. Frost."” “Which brings us back,” observed Rich- ard, who never took his eyes off a ques- tion, once put, until he saw it mated with an answer, “to Mr. Gwynn's first inter- rogatory: What can the Anaconda Air- line do?" 8 e Senator Hanway explained. The Ana- conda Airline could press down the weight of its influence upon those twen- ty-three members. The Anaconda influ- cnce might better be exerted through its president and general attorney, and per- haps what special attorneys were local to the Congressional districts of thos: twenty-three.- “Mr. Gwynn,” observed Richard, “an- tieipated something of the kind, and I think is prepared to request those officers you name to come to Washington.”” ““They shall be requested, sir; certainly, sir,”” rasped Mr. Gwynn. Richard's words seemed ever to reverberate in Ar. Gwynn's noble interfor as in a cavern, and thereafter to {ssue forth by way of hiz mouth in the manner of an echo. “Certainly, sir; they shall be requested,” repeated the cavernous Mr. Gwynn “Now this is highly gratifying.” said Senator Hanway. “And you will have them czll upon me, too, I've no doubt. You should wire them at once; the cau- cus, you know, isn't ten days away; Con- gress convenes on “’f first Monday of next month.” Senator Hanway, being of a quick in- telligence, had by this time found his rightful line. He divided himself fairly, for he gave his entire conversation to Richard, while he conferred upon Mr. Gwynn his whole respect. In good truth. the less Mr. Gwynn said and the less he seemed to hear and understand, the more Senator Hanway did him honor in his heart, The rigid witlessness of Mr. Gwynn fairly came over him as the token and sign of an indubitable nobility, and it was with a feeling treading upon rev- erence for that wonderful man that Sen- ator Hanway arose to go. . “I am mudéh refreshed by this inter- view,” saild he, taking Mr. Gwynn's hand and shaking it pump-handlewise. “Your help should insure Mr. Frost's success. With Mr. Frost Speaker, rail- way Interests will be safeguarded. And,” continued Senator Hanway, quoting from one of his Senate speeches, lifting his voice the while, and falling into a fine declamatory pose, ‘“‘he who safeguards the railroads safeguards his country. Pa- triotism cannot count the debt the nation owes the railroads. Had it not been for the knitting together of the country by the railroads, bringing into closer touch with one another the West and the East, the South and the North—the wiping out of sectionalism—the annihilation of spec- ial Interests by making all interests gen- eral—all done by the railroads, sir!—this country, broken across the knee of moun- tain ranges and sawed into regions by great rivers, would ere this have been frittered into fragments; and where we have now the glorious United States—a free and unified people—Europe, who en- vies as well as fears us, would be grati- fled by the svectacle of four and perhaps a half dozen different and differing coun- tries, each alien and, doubtless, each hos- tile to the others.” Senator Hanway had reached the door. “And . that this con- dition of disseverment does mnot exist' cried he, as he bowed with final grace to. ‘Mr. Gwynn, who approved s due to you, sir; and to.gent! you; and to those railways which, like the Anaconda Alrline. form the ties that bind us safe against such dismembering possibilities and give us, for war or for peace, absolute coherency as a common- wealth.” CHAPTER V. How Richard Was Things. Richard went every day at eleven for a brief confernce with Senator Hanway. The latter was no wise backward in his usge of the columns of the Daily Tory. There are so many things concerning both men and measures that statesmen want sald, and which, because of their modes- ty, they themselves hesitate to say, that Senator Hanway, when now through Richard he might tell this story of poli- ties or declare that propesal of state. and still keep his own name under cover, dis- govered in the Dally Tory a source of rellef. So much, in truth, did Senator Hanway, by way of Richard and tha Daily Tory, contribute to the gayety of the timcs, that the editor-in-chief was duly scandalized. He aroused himself on the third evening, killed Richard’s dis- patch and rebuked that earnest journal- ist with the following: “Send news; nothing but news. No one wants your notion of the motives of Representatives in fight over Speaker- ship.” ‘This led to a word or two between Rich- ard and Mr. G n, the upcome being a wire from Mr. Gwynn to the editor de- siring him on all oceasions and without alteration or addition to print Richard's dispatches, The editor in retort remind- ed Mr. Gwynn that the Daily Tory had .a reputation and a policy; also there were laws of libel. Mr. Gwynn declined to be moved by these high considerations, and reiterated his first command. After that Richards in each issue gave way to an unchecked column ietter, which was run sullenly by the editor and never a word aisplaced. This daily letter, signed *“R. 8. brought Richard mighty comfort; he read it fresh and new each morning with mounting satisfaction. * Richard, like other authors, found no literature so good 1o his palate as his own; and while his stories looked well enough when he wrote them, the types never failed in uncover- ing charms that had escaded his ken. These were complacent days for Richard the defective; ones to nourish his seif- love. - Being his first work, and performed un- der his own tolerant mastery, with none tg molest him or make him editorially afraid, it stood scant wonder that he went about the subject of his own sieep- 1css self-congratulations. What Richard needed—and neyer knew it—was dismissal in rapid s jon from at least four newspapers; such a course of journalistic sprouts would have set his feet in proper paths. Under the circumstances, how- ever, this Improving experience was fm- possible; missing the benefits thereof, Richard must struggle on as best he might without a bridle. It was fortunate, when one remembers his blinded ignorance, a condition ag- gravated by his own acute approval of himself, that Richard had a no more radical guide than was the cautious Sen- ator Hanway. While that designing gen- tleman—the Dally Tory turning the stone —grinded many a personal ax—nota bene, never once without exciting the sophisti- cated wrath of the editor-in-chief—he was no such headlong temper of a man as to invite the paper into foolish extrava- gancies, whether of statement ar of style. Taught Many As the bug under tha chip the Dally Tory’'s Washington correspondence, Sen- ator Hanway was neither a vindictive nor yet a reckless byg; and the paper, while it became the organ of his ambitions, made some reputational profit by the very melody of those guarded tunes be ground. Richard, you are not to suppose, went unaware of those employments to which Senator Hanway put him in the vine- yard of his policies. He realized the sit- uation and walked therein with wide and willing eyes. It served his tender pur- pose; it would take him to the Harley house and throw him, perchance, Into the soclety of Dorothy without the dul- cet privilege being identified as the true purpose of his call One cannot but marvel that Richard should be at the trouble of so much dif- ficult chicane. It is strange that he should so entangle what might have been the simplest of love stories; for you may as well know Here as further on that, had Richard laid bare the truth of him- self, Mrs. Hanway-Harley, far from fencing her daughter against him and his addresses, would have taken the door off its hinges to let him in. But Richard, as was heretofore suggested, had been most ignorantly brought up, or rather had been granted no bringing up at all. More- over, in the sensitive cynicism of his na- ture, which made a laugh its armor and was harsh for fear of being hurt, our Democritus had long ago bound himself with vows that he would accept no-friend- ship, win no love, that did not come to him upon his mere and unsupported mer- its as a man. In his own fashion, so far from being the philosopher he thought, Richard was a knight errant—one as mad and as romantic as the most feather- headed Amadis that ever came out of Gaul, and so he is to make himself a deal of trouble and have himself much laughed at before ever he succeeds in slipping through the fingers of this his- tory to seek obscurity with Dorothy by his side. For all that, it is Richard’s due to say that his “R. 8.” letters at- tracted polite as well as political atten tion, and got him much respected and condemned. Also they lodged him high in the esteem of Senator way, who discovered daily new execel- lencies in him: and this came somewhat to the rescue of Richard Ome day. Senator Hanway had a room in a wing of the Harley house which Mrs. Han- way-Harley called his study. It was a sumptuous apartment, furnished in ma- hogany and leather, gnd a bookcase, filled with Congressional Records which nobody ever looked at, stood against the wall. Here it was that Senator Hanway held kis conferences; it was here he laid his plans and brooded them. When Sen- ator Hanway desired to meet a gentle- man and preferred to keep the meeting dark, this study was the scene of that secrecy. In such event, the blinds were drawn to baffle what prying or casual eye might come marching up the street; for in Washington, to see two men con- versing I8 to know nine times in ten precisely what the conversation is about. Commonly, however, the blinds were thrown wide, as though the study’s pure proprietor courted a world's serutiny. It was in this study that Richard was received by Senator Hanway. There was an outside door; a caller might be ad- mitted from the veranda without troubling the main portals of the Har- ley house. To save the patience of that journalist, Senator Hanway called Rich- ard’s attention to the veranda door and commissioned him to make use of it. Senator Hanway said that he di@ not wish' to subject one whom he valued ¥, 1880 Jhighly, and who was on.such near e like' terms with his good friend, Mr. Gwynn, to the slow ceremomy which attended a regular invasion of the premises. Richard thanked Senator Hantay, al- though he could have liked it ‘better had he been less thoughtfully pelite. Richard would have preferred the main door, with whatever delay and formal clatter such entrance made imperative. The more delay and the more clatter, the more chance of seeing Dorothy. It struck him with a dublous chill when Senator Han- way suddenly distinguished him with the fredeom of that veranda door—a fran- chise upon which your statesman laid flattering emphasis, saying that not ten others_ had been granted it. This episode of the veranda door befell upon the earliest visit which Richard made in his quality of correspondent of the Daily Tory. On that day, being ad- ed by way of the Harley front door, Richard had the felicity of coming in with the before mentioned daily sheaf of roses. Richard and the blossom-bearing colored youth entered together, the door making the one opening to admit both; and by this fortunate chance—whieh Richard the wily had waited around the corner to secure—he was given the joy of seeing and hearing the beautiful Dorothy gurgle over the flowers. “And to think,” cried Dorothy, nose in the bosom of a rose, “no one knows from whom they come! Mamma thinks Count Storri sends them. It's so good of him, if he does!” Dorothy’s head was bowed over the flowers. As she spoke, however, her blue eye, full of mischief, watched Richard through a silken lock of hair that had fallen forward. “But you dom’t think it's Storr1?” cried ichard dolorously. “Oh, no!" returned Dorothy, shaking her head with wise decision, “I dont think it's Count Storri. But of course I wouldn't tell mamma so; she doesn’t like to be contradicted. Still,” and here Dorothy looked quite wistful, “I wish 1 knew who did send them.” Before Richard could take up the de- licate question of the roses and their origin, there arrived the word of Sen- ator Hanway that he be shown into the study. “Now that I'm a working Jjournalist, Miss Harley,” sald Richard, “I shall be obliged to see your uncle every day.” “Qh, dear!" exelaimed Dorothy, with a fine sympathy; “how hard they asive you poor newspaper L +Still, without wards,” returned Richard. Then observing that Senator Hanway's messenger—who had not those reasons for loitering which made slow the feet of Richard—was already halfway down the hall, Richard took Dorothy’s small hand in his, and before she kmew her peril or might make an effort to avoid it rapturously kissed the fingers, not once, not twice, but five times. The very fin- gers themselves burned with the scandal of it! Following this deed of rapine, Richard went his vandal way: Dorothy’s face turned a twin red with the roses. Dorothy sald nothing in rebuke of Richard, and it is_to be assumed that so flagrant an outrage left her without breath to voice' her condemnation. That she was disturbed to the heart is sure, for she went Instantly to her friend, the sibyl of the golden hel;. 1tur conterence, confidence and -consolatic: B “Wasnw't he wretchedly bold, Bess?” said Dorothy in an awe-stricken whisper. “Absolutely abandoned!” said Bess. Then the two sat in silence for ten im- her our re-