It' 1 "1 
 
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 raw 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 S 1732.S83 1897 
 
 spoil of office :a story of the modern 
 
 3 1924 021 976 331 
 
fiamlin Garland's BooRs. 
 
 Uniform edition. Each, umo, cloth, $1.25. 
 
 Wayside Courtships. 
 
 Jason Edwards. 
 
 A Spoil of Office. 
 
 A Member of the Third House. 
 
 A Little Norsk. i6mo. so cents. 
 
 D. APPLETON & COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE 
 
 A STORY OF THE MODERN WEST 
 
 BY HAMLIN (JARLAND 
 
 AUTHOR OF JASON EDWARDS, A 
 MEMBER OF THE THIRD HOUSE, 
 A LITTLE NORSK, ETC. : ; ; : 
 
 NEW AND REVISED EDITION 
 
 0-^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 M DCCC XCVII 
 
Copyright, 1897, by 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 Copyright, 1892, by Hamlin Garland 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, 
 
 THE FOREMOST HISTORIAN OF OUR COMMON LIVES 
 
 AND THE MOST VITAL FIGURE IN OUR LITERATURE, 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS STUDY 
 
 OF THE GREAT MIDDLE WEST, 
 
 ITS CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND LANDSCAPE. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021976331 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 
 
 In this story of " A Spoil of Office " it was 
 my intention to treat life as it would present 
 itself to a young Western man of humble con- 
 dition, who should set himself to the task of 
 winning a political success. I have therefore 
 maintained with considerable care the point of 
 view of Bradley Talcott. Such a design loses 
 in variety but gains, it seems to me, in unity and 
 continuity of movement. 
 
 It has one marked disadvantage, however : it 
 is apt to be misunderstood by the reader who 
 may take the characters, events, and theories, 
 judged by the central figure, to be the author's 
 estimate. To illustrate : Ida Wilbur is pre- 
 sented as she appeared to Bradley Talcott, and 
 not as the reader would see her, and not as the 
 author would have delineated her had she been 
 taken as the central figure of the book. This 
 
viii PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 
 
 explanatory word seemed needed ; being given, 
 I leave its working out to the reader. 
 
 The three great movements of the American 
 farmer, herein used as background — the Grange, 
 the Alliance, and the People's party — seem to me 
 to be as legitimate subjects for fiction as any 
 war or crusade. They came in impulses with 
 mightiest enthusiasms, they died out like waves 
 upon the beach ; but the power which origi- 
 nated them did not die ; it will return in differ- 
 ent forms again and again, so long as the love of 
 liberty and the hatred of injustice live in the 
 hearts of men and women. 
 
 What the next movement will be I do not 
 know; but when it comes, Bradley Talcott and 
 Ida his wife will be foremost among its leaders. 
 
 Hamlin Garland. 
 
 Chicago, May, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I.— The grange picnic i 
 
 II. — The dinner under the oak . . . .17 
 III. — Bradley resolves to go to school . . 26 
 
 IV. — Trials at school 38 
 
 V. — Bradley rises to address the Carthaginians 58 
 
 VI. — Bradley attends a convention . . .78 
 
 VII. — The farmers oust the ring . . . .87 
 
 VIII. — Bradley attacks Nettie's father . . .95 
 
 IX. — Bradley meets Mrs. Brown .... 102 
 
 X. — A country polling place Ill 
 
 XI. — Studying with the judge 122 
 
 XII.— The judge advises Bradley . . . .129 
 
 XIII. — Bradley sees Ida again 136 
 
 XIV. — Bradley changes his politics . . . .158 
 XV. — Home again with the judge .... i6g 
 
 XVI. — Nomination 180 
 
 XVII. — Election 195 
 
 XVIII. — Don't blow out the gas 203 
 
 XIX. — Cargill takes Bradley in hand •. . . 218 
 
 XX. — At the State House 232 
 
 XXL — Bradley and Cargill- call on Ida . . . 242 
 XXII —The judge plans a new campaign . . .253 
 
 ix 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER . PAGE 
 
 XXIII.— On to Washington 265 
 
 XXIV. — Radbourn shows Bradley about the Capi- 
 tal " . . . 272 
 
 XXV. — Ida comes into his life again . . . 289 
 
 XXVI. — Congressional life 296 
 
 XXVII. — Bradley's long-cherished hope vanishes . 306 
 
 XXVIII. — Spring conventions 314 
 
 XXIX. — Bradley discouraged 327 
 
 XXX. — The great round-up at Chiquita . . 334 
 
 XXXI. — Ida shows Bradley the way out . . 350 
 
 XXXII. — Conclusion. Washington again . . . 367 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE GRANGE PICNIC. 
 
 Early in the cool hush of a June morning 
 in the seventies, a curious vehicle left Farmer 
 Councill's door, loaded with a merry group of 
 young people. It was a huge omnibus, con- 
 structed out of a heavy farm wagon and a hay 
 rack, and was drawn by six horses. The driver 
 was Councill's hired man, Bradley Talcott. Coun- 
 cill himself held between his vast knees the staff 
 of a mighty flag in which they all took immense 
 pride. The girls of the grange had made it for 
 the day. 
 
 Laughter and scraps of song and rude witti- 
 cisms made the huge wagon a bouquet of smiling 
 faces. Everybody laughed, except Bradley, who 
 sat with intent eyes and steady lips, his sinewy 
 
2 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 brown hand holding the excited horses in place. 
 This intentness and self-mastery lent a sort of 
 majesty to his rough-hewn face. 
 
 "Let 'em out a little, Brad," said Councill. 
 "We're a litde late." 
 
 Behind them came teams, before them were 
 teams, along every lane of the beautiful upland 
 prairie, teams were rolling rapidly, all toward the 
 south. The day was perfect summer; it made 
 the heart of reticent Bradley Talcott ache with the 
 beauty of it every time his thoughts went up to 
 the blue sky. The larks, and bobolinks, and 
 red-wings made every meadow riotous with song, 
 and the ever-alert king-birds and flickers flew 
 along from post to post as if to have a part in the 
 celebration. 
 
 On every side stretched fields of wheat, green 
 as emerald and soft as velvet. Some of it was 
 high enough already to ripple in the soft winds. 
 The corn fields showed their yellow-green rows 
 of timid shoots, and cattle on the pastures luxuri- 
 ated in the fullness of the June grass ; the whole 
 land was at its fairest and liberalest, and it 
 seemed peculiarly fitting that the farmers should 
 go on a picnic this day of all days. 
 
 At the four corners below stood scores of 4 
 wagons, loaded to the rim with men, women i 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 3 
 
 children. Up and down the line rode Milton Jen- 
 nings, the marshal of the day, exalted by the 
 baton he held and the gay red sash looped across 
 his shoulders. Everywhere rose merry shouts, 
 and far away at the head of the procession the 
 Burr Oak band was playing. All waited for the 
 flag whose beautiful folds flamed afar in the bright 
 sunlight. 
 
 Every member of the grange wore its quaint 
 regalia, apron, sash, and pouch of white, orange, 
 buff and red. Each grange was headed by ban- 
 ners, worked in silk by the patient fingers of the' 
 women. Counting the banners there were three 
 Granges present — Liberty Grange, Meadow Grange, 
 and Burr Oak Grange at the lead with the band. 
 The marshal of the leading grange came charging 
 back along the line, riding magnificently, his fiery 
 little horse a-foam. 
 
 " Are we all ready ? " he shouted like a field 
 
 officer. 
 "Yaas!" 
 
 " All ready, Tom ? " 
 " Ready when you are," came the fusillade of 
 
 replies. 
 
 He consulted a moment with Milton, the two 
 horses prancing with unwonted excitement that 
 transformed them into fiery chargers of romance, 
 
4 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 in the eyes of the boys and girls, just as the sash 
 and baton transfigured Milton into something 
 martial. 
 
 "All ready there!" shouted the marshals with 
 grandiloquent gestures of their be-ribboned rods, 
 the band blared out again and the teams began 
 to move toward the west. The men stood up to 
 look ahead, while the boys in the back end of the 
 wagons craned perilously over the edge of the 
 box to see how long the line was. It seemed 
 enormous to them, and their admiration of the 
 marshals broke forth in shrill cries of primitive 
 wildness. 
 
 Many of the young fellows had hired at ruinous 
 expense the carriages in which they sat with their 
 girls, wearing a quiet air of aristocratic reserve 
 which did not allow them to shout sarcasms at 
 Milton, when his horse broke into a trot and 
 jounced him up and down till his hat flew off. 
 But mainly the young people were in huge bow- 
 ered lumber wagons in wildly hilarious groups. 
 The girls in their simple white dresses tied with 
 blue ribbon at the waist, and the boys in their 
 thick woolen suits which did all-round duty for 
 best wear. 
 
 As they moved off across the prairie toward 
 the dim blue belt of timber which marked the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 5 
 
 banks of Rock River, other processions joined 
 them with banner, and bands, and choirs, all 
 making a peaceful and significant parade, an 
 army of reapers of grain, not reapers of men. 
 Some came singing "John Brown,"' or "Hail, 
 Columbia." Everywhere was a voiced excite- 
 .ment which told how tremendous the occasion 
 seemed. In every wagon hid in cool, deeps of 
 fresh-cut grass, were unimaginable quantities of 
 good things which the boys never for a moment 
 forgot even in their great excitement. 
 
 On the procession moved, with gay flags and 
 flashing banners. The dust rolled up, the cattle 
 stared across the fences, the colts ran snorting 
 away, tails waving like flags, and unlucky toilers 
 in the fields stopped to wave their hats and gaze 
 wistfully till the caravan passed., The men 
 shouted jovial words to them, and the boys 
 waved their hats in ready sympathy. 
 
 At. ten o'clock they entered the magnificent 
 grove of oaks, where a speaker's stand . had been 
 erected, and where enterprising . salesmen, from 
 Rock River had erected soda water and candy 
 stands, with an eye to business. 
 
 There was already a stupendous crowd, at least 
 so.it .seemed to the farmers' boys. Two or three 
 bands were whanging away somewhere in the 
 
"6 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 grove j children were shouting and laughing, and 
 boys were racing to and fro, playing ball -or wrest- 
 ling; babies; were screaming,!, and the marshals 
 were shouting directions to the entering teams, 
 in voices that rang through the vaulted foliage 
 with thrilling effect; and the harsh bray of 
 the ice cream and candy sellers completed the 
 ■confusion.- 
 
 Bradley's skill as a horseman' came out as he 
 swung into the narrow winding . road which led 
 through threatening stumps into the heart of the 
 wood past the speaker's stand.. Councill furled 
 his great flag and trailed it over the heads of 
 those behind, and Flora and Ceres, and all the 
 other deities of the grange upheld the staff with 
 smiling good-will. ; And so they drew up to the 
 grand stand, the most imposing turn-out of the 
 day. They sprang out and mingled with the 
 merry crowd, while Bradley drove away. After 
 he had taken care of the team he came back 
 towards the grand stand and wandered about 
 alone. He was not a native of the country and 
 knew_very_£eHL of the people. He" stood about 
 with a timid expression on his face that made 
 him seem more awkward than he really was. He 
 was tall, and strong, and graceful when not 
 conscious of himself as he was now. He felt a 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 1 
 
 little bitter at being ignored — that is, he felt it 
 in a vague and wordless way. 
 
 Lovers passed him in pairs, eating peanuts or 
 hot candy which they bit off from a huge triangu- 
 lar mass still hot from the kettle. He had never 
 seen any candy just like that, and wondered if he 
 had better try a piece. The speaking ■ on the 
 stand attracted and held his attention, however. 
 Oratory always had a powerful attraction for him. 
 He moved forward and stood leaning against a 
 tree. 
 
 Seats had been arranged in a semi-circle 
 around the stand, on which the speakers of the 
 day, the band, and the singers were already 
 grouped. AH around, leaning against the trees, 
 twined in the branches of the oaks, or ranked 
 against the railing, were the banners and mottoes 
 of the various granges. No. 10, Liberty Grange, 
 "Justice is our Plea." Meadow Grange, "United 
 We Stand, Divided We Fall." Bethel Grange, 
 "Fraternity." Other mottoes were "Through 
 Difficulties to the Stars"; "Equal Rights to All, 
 Special Privileges to None." A small organ sat 
 upon the stand surrounded with the singers. 
 Milton, resplendent in his sash and his white vest 
 and black coat, sat beside the organist Eileen, the 
 daughter of Osmond Deering. 
 
8 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The choir arose to sing, accompanied by the 
 organ, and their voices rolled out under the 
 vaulted aisles of foliage, with that thrilling, far- 
 away effect of the singing voice in the midst of 
 illimitable spaces. This was followed by prayer, 
 and then Mr. Deering, the president, called upon 
 everybody to join in singing the national anthem, 
 after which he made the opening address. 
 
 He spoke of the marvellous growth of the 
 order, how it had sprung up from the soil at the 
 need of the farmer; it was the first great move- 
 ment of the farmer in history, and it was some- 
 thing to be proud of. The farmer had been 
 oppressed. He had been helpless and would con- 
 tinue helpless till he asked and demanded his 
 rights. After a dignified and earnest speech he 
 said: — "I will now introduce as the next speaker 
 Mr. Isaac Hobkirk." 
 
 Mr. Hobkirk, a large man with a very bad 
 voice, made a fiery speech. "Down with the 
 middlemen," he cried, and was applauded vigor- 
 ously. " They are the blood-suckers that's itakin' 
 the life out of us farmers. What we want is to 
 deal right with the manufacturers, an' cut off 
 these white-handed fellers in Rock River who git 
 all we raise. Speechifyin' and picnickin' is all 
 well an' good, but what we want is agents. We 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. Q 
 
 want agents f'r machinery, wheat buyers, agents 
 f'r groceries, that's what we want ; that's what 
 we're here for ; that's what the grange was got 
 together for. Down with the middlemen ! " 
 
 This brought out vigorous applause and showed 
 that a very large number agreed with him. Brad- 
 ley sat silently through it all. It didn't mean 
 very much to him, and he wished they'd sing 
 again. 
 
 The chairman again came forward. "Napoleon 
 said 'Old men for counsel, but young men for 
 war.' But our young men have listened patiently 
 to us old fellows for years, and mebbe they don't 
 think much of our counsel. I'm going to call on 
 Milton Jennings, one of our rising young men." 
 
 Milton, a handsome young fellow with yellow 
 hair and smiling lips, arose and came forward to 
 the rail, feeling furtively in his coat-tail pocket to 
 see that his handkerchief was all right. He was 
 a student at the seminary, and was considered a 
 fine young orator. This was his first attempt 
 before so large an audience. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," he began after clear- 
 ing his throat. "Brothers and sisters of the 
 Order : I feel highly honored by the president by 
 being thus called upon to address you. Old men 
 for counsel is all right, if they counsel what we 
 
10 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 young men want, but I'm for war ; I'm for a fight 
 in the interests of the farmer. Not merely a 
 defensive warfare but an offensive warfare. 
 
 "How? By the ballot. Mr. President, I know 
 you don't agree with me. I know it's a rule of 
 the Order to keep politics out of it, but I don't 
 know of a better place to discuss the interests of 
 the farmer. It's a mistake. We've got to unite 
 at the ballot box ; what's the use of our order if 
 we don't ? We must be represented at the State 
 legislature, and we can't do that unless we make 
 the grange a political factor. 
 
 "You may talk about legislative corruption, 
 Mr. President, and about county rings, to come 
 near home. (Cheers and cries, "J>Tow you're get- 
 ting at it," "That's right," etc.) But the only 
 way to get 'em out is to vote 'em out. ("That's 
 a fact.") You m'say we can talk it over outside 
 the order. Yes, but I tell you, Mr. President, 
 the order's the place for it. If it's an educa- 
 tional thing, then I say it ought to educate and 
 educate in politics, Mr. President. 
 
 " I tell you, I'm for war ! Let's go in to win ! 
 When the fall's work is done, in fact, from this 
 time on, Mr. President, the farmers of this coun- 
 ty ought to organize for the campaign. Cut and 
 dry our tickets, cut and dry our plans. If we 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. H 
 
 begin early and work together we can strangle 
 the anacondy that is crushing us, and the eagle of 
 victory will perch on our banners on the third of 
 November, and the blood-suckers trouble us no 
 more forever." 
 
 With this remarkable peroration, spoken in a 
 high monotonous key, after the fashion of the 
 political orator, Milton sat down mopping his 
 face, while his admirers cheered. 
 
 The chairman, who had been nervously twist- 
 ing in his chair, hastened to explain. 
 
 " Fellow-Citizens : I'm not to be held respons- 
 ible for anything anybody else speaks on this 
 platform. I do not believe with our young 
 brother. I think that politics will destroy the 
 grange. To make it a debating school on polit- 
 ical questions would bring discord and wrangling 
 into it. I hope I shall never see the day. I now 
 ask Brother Jennings to say a few words." 
 
 Mr. Jennings, a fat and jolly farmer, came to 
 the front looking very hot. His collar had long 
 since melted. 
 
 " I aint very much of a speech-maker, Mr. Pres- 
 ident, brothers and sisters. Fact is, I sent my 
 boy down to the seminary to learn how to talk, 
 so't I wouldn't haf to. I guess he represents my 
 idees purty well, though, all except this political 
 
12 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 idee. I don't know about that. I aint quite 
 made up ray mind on that point. I guess I'd bet- 
 ter leave the floor for somebody else." 
 
 " Glad you left the floor," whispered Milton to 
 his father as he sat down by his side. Milton 
 was a merciless joker, especially upon his father. 
 
 "We have with us to-day," said the chairman, 
 in the tone of one who announces the coming in 
 of the dessert, "one of the most eloquent speak- 
 ers in the State, one whose name all grangers 
 know, our State lecturer, Miss Ida Wilbur." 
 
 The assembly rose to its feet with applause as 
 a slender young woman stepped forth, and waited, 
 with easy dignity to begin her speech. There 
 was something significant in her manner, which 
 was grave and dignified, and a splendid stillness 
 fell upon the audience as she began in a clear, 
 penetrating contralto : 
 
 "Brothers and sisters in the Order: While I 
 have been sitting here listening to your speakers, 
 I have been looking at the mottoes on your ban- 
 ners, and I have been trying to find out by those 
 expressions what your conception of this move- 
 ment is. I wonder whether its majesty appears 
 to you as it does to me." She paused for an 
 instant. " We are in danger of losing sight of its 
 larger meaning. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 13 
 
 "Primarily, the object of the grange has been 
 the education of the farmers. It has been a 
 great social educator, and I am glad, my friends 
 and neighbors, when I can look out upon such an 
 assembly as this. I see in it the rise of the idea 
 of union, and intelligent union ; but principally I 
 see in it the meeting together of the farmers 
 who live too much apart from the rest of the 
 world. 
 
 "I believe," she cried with lifted hand, "I 
 believe this is the greatest movement of the 
 farmer in the history of the world. It is a move- 
 ment against unjust discrimination, no doubt, but 
 it has another side to me, a poetic side, I call it. 
 The farmer is a free citizen of a great republic, it 
 \s true ; but he is a Solitary free citizen. He 
 lives alone too much. He meets his fellow-men 
 too little. His dull life, his hard work, make it 
 almost impossible to keep his better nature upper- 
 most. The work of the grange is a social work." 
 She was supported by generous applause. 
 
 "It is not to antagonize town and country. 
 The work of the grange to me is not political. 
 Keep politics out of it, or it will destroy you. 
 Use it to bring yourselves together. Let it fur- 
 nish you with pleasant hours. Establish your 
 agencies, if you can, but I care more for meetings 
 
14 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 like this. I care more for the poetry there is in 
 having Flora, and Ceres, and Pomona brought 
 into the farmer's home." 
 
 Her great brown eyes glowed as she spoke and 
 her lifted head thrilled those who sat near enough 
 to see the emotion that was in the lines of her 
 face. The sun struck through the trees, that 
 swayed in masses overhead, dappling the up- 
 turned faces with light and shade. The leaves 
 under the tread of the wind rustled softly, and 
 the soaring hawk looked down curiously as he 
 drifted above the grove, like a fleck of cloud. 
 
 On Bradley, standing there alone, there fell 
 something mysterious, like a light. Something 
 whiter and more penetrating than the sunlight. 
 As he listened, something stirred within him, a 
 vast longing, a hopeless ambition, nameless as it 
 was strange. His bronzed face paled and he 
 breathed heavily. His eyes absorbed every detail 
 of the girl's face and figure. There was wonder 
 in his eyes at her girlish face, and something like 
 awe at her powerful diction and her impersonal 
 emotion. She stood there like an incarnation of 
 the great dream-world that lay beyond his horizon, 
 the world of poets and singers in the far realms 
 of light and luxury. 
 
 " I have a dream of what is coming," she said 
 
A. SPOIL OF OFFICE. 15 
 
 in conclusion, and her voice had a prophetic ring. 
 " I see a time when the farmer will not need to 
 live in a cabin on a lonely farm. I see the 
 farmers coming together in groups. I see them 
 with time to read, and time to visit with their fel- 
 lows. I see them enjoying lectures in beautiful 
 halls, erected in every village. I see them gather 
 like the Saxons of old upon the green at evening 
 to sing and dance. I see cities rising near them 
 with schools, and churches, and concert halls, and 
 theatres. I see a day when the farmer will no 
 longer be a drudge and his wife a bond slave, but 
 happy men and women who will go singing to 
 their pleasant tasks upon their fruitful farms." 
 The audience did not cheer, it sat as if in church. 
 The girl seemed to be speaking prophecy. 
 
 " When the boys and girls will not go West nor 
 to the city; when life will be worth living. In 
 that day the moon will be brighter and the stars 
 more glad, and pleasure, and poetry, and love of 
 life come back to the man who tills the soil." 
 
 The people broke into wild applause when she 
 finished. All were deeply stirred. Tears were 
 streaming down many faces, and when Deering 
 arose to announce a song by the choir his voice 
 shook and he made no secret of his deep emotion. 
 After the song, he said: "Neighbors, we don't 
 
16 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 want to spoil that splendid speech with another 
 this day. The best thing we can do is to try to 
 think that good time is here and eat our dinner 
 with the resolution to bring that good time as 
 soon as possible." 
 
 Bradley stood there after the others had risen. 
 The dazzling pictures called up by the speaker's 
 words were still moving confusedly in his brain. 
 They .faded at last and he moved with a sigh and 
 went out to feed the horses their oats. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 17 
 
 II. 
 
 THE DINNER UNDER THE OAKS. 
 
 The dinner made a beautiful scene, the most 
 idyllic in the farmer's life. The sun, now high 
 noon, fell through the leaves in patches of quiverr 
 ing light upon the white table-cloth, spread out 
 upon the planks, and it fell upon the fair hair of 
 girls, and upon the hard knotted fingers of men 
 and women grown old in toil. The rattle of 
 dishes, the harsh-keyed, unwonted laughter of the 
 women, and the sounding invitations to dinner 
 given and taken filled the air. The long plank 
 seats placed together made capital tables, and 
 eager children squatted about wistfully watching 
 the display of each new delicacy. The crude 
 abundance of the Iowa farm had been brought oujt 
 to make it a great dinner. The boys could hardly 
 be restrained from clutching at each new dish. 
 
 The Councills and the Burns families took din- 
 ner together. Mrs. Burns, fretful and worn, 
 cuffed the children back from the table while 
 bringing out her biscuit and roast chicken. 
 Some sat stolidly silent, but big-voiced Councill 
 
18 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 joked in his heavy way with everyone within 
 earshot. 
 
 "Well, the Lord is on our side, neighbor Jen- 
 nings, to-day, anyhow," he roared across the space 
 of two or three tables. 
 
 "He's always on our side, brother Councill," 
 smiled Jennings. 
 
 "Wal, I'd know about that. Sometimes I'm 
 a leettle in doubt." 
 
 " Got something good to eat ? " inquired Jen- 
 nings of Mrs. Councill. 
 
 " Land sakes, no ! We never have anything 
 fit to eat since Jane's gone to havin' beaux ; my 
 cookin' aint fit for a hawg to eat." 
 
 "I aint a-goin' to eat it, then," roared Councill 
 in vast delight at his joke on himself. "I'll go 
 over and eat with Marm Jennings." They all 
 laughed at this. 
 
 "Tell us so't we c'n laff," called Mrs. Smith, 
 coming over to see what they did have. 
 
 "Where's Brad?" said Mrs. Councill, looking 
 about her. "Aint he comin' to dinner?" 
 
 "I don't see him around anywheres. Mebbe 
 he's out feed'n the horses,'' replied Councill, with- 
 out concern. 
 
 " Say ! that was a great speech that girl made," 
 put in Brother Smith, coming over with a chicken 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 19 
 
 leg in one hand and a buttered biscuit in the 
 other. " But what we want is free trade " — 
 
 " What we want is a home market," said Mil- 
 ton, some distance away. 
 
 "Oh, go to — Texas with y'r home market!" 
 
 "Tut, tut, tut, no politics, brethren," inter- 
 rupted Jennings. 
 
 Bradley, ignored by everybody, was standing 
 over by the trunk of a large oak tree, watching 
 from afar the young girl who had so stirred him. 
 She was eating dinner with Deering, his wife, and 
 daughter, and Milton, who was there, looking 
 very bright and handsome, or at least he appeared 
 so to Eileen Deering, a graceful little girl, his 
 classmate at the seminary. 
 
 Miss Wilbur sat beside Deering, who was a 
 large man with a type of face somewhat resem- 
 bling Lincoln's. She was smiling brightly, but 
 her smile had something thoughtful in it, and her 
 eyes had unknown deeps like a leaf-bottomed 
 woodland pool across which the sun fell. She 
 was feeling yet the stress of emotion she had felt 
 in speaking, and was a little conscious of the 
 admiring glances of the people. 
 
 She saw once or twice a tall, roughly dressed 
 young farmer, who seemed to be looking at her 
 steadily, and there was something in his glance, 
 
20 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 a timid worshipful expression, that touched her 
 and made her observe him more closely. He was 
 very farmer-like, she noticed; his cheap coat 
 fitted him badly, and his hat was old and shape- 
 less. Yet there was something natively fine and 
 chivalrous in his admiration. She felt that. 
 
 "You're a farmer's daughter yourself," said 
 Deering, as if they had been speaking of some- 
 body else who was. 
 
 "Yes, my father was a farmer. I'm a teacher. 
 I only began a little while ago to speak in the 
 interest of the farmer. It seems to me that 
 everybody is looking out for himself except the 
 farmer, and I want to help him to help himself. 
 I expect to speak in every county in the State 
 this winter." 
 
 Bradley crept nearer. He was eager to hear 
 what she was saying. He grew furtive in his 
 manner, when she observed him, and he felt as if 
 he were doing something criminal. He saw Miss 
 Wilbur say something to Mr. Deering, who looked 
 up a moment later and said to Bradley, whom he 
 did not know, "Why, certainly, come and have 
 some dinner, plenty of it." 
 
 Bradley flushed hot with shame and indigna- 
 tion, and moved away deeply humiliated. They 
 had taken him for a poor, friendless, lonely tramp, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 21 
 
 and there was just enough truth in his loneliness 
 to make it sting. 
 
 " Say, Brad, don't you want some grub ? " called 
 Council!, catching sight of him. 
 
 " Quick, 'r'y lose it," said Burns. 
 
 He sat down and fell upon the dinner silently, 
 but there was a hot flush still upon his face. He 
 was not a beau. It had always been difficult for 
 him to address a marriageable woman, and a joke 
 on that subject threw him into dumb confusion. 
 He had lived a dosen tender dreams of which no 
 one knew a word. Indeed, he never acknowl- 
 edged them to himself. He had admired in this 
 way Eileen Deering whom he had seen- with Mil- 
 ton a few times during the year. He now envied 
 Milton bis easy air of calm self-possession in the 
 presence of two such beautiful girls. There was 
 a bitter feeling of rebellion in his heart. 
 
 Miss Wilbur had stirred his unexplored self. 
 Down where ambitions are born ; where aspira- 
 tions rise like sun-shot mists, her words and the 
 light of her face had gone. Already there was 
 something sacred and ineffably sweet about her 
 voice and face. She had come to him as the 
 right woman comes sometimes to a man, and 
 thereafter his whole life is changed. 
 
 He walked away from the few people he knew, 
 
22 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 and tried to interest himself in the games they 
 were playing but he could not. He drifted back 
 to the grand stand and sought about till he could 
 see Miss Wilbur once more. She was so pure, 
 so beautiful to him. 
 
 The hour or two after dinner was spent in 
 visiting and getting acquainted, and the time 
 seemed all too short. Each granger took this 
 opportunity of inquiring after the health of the 
 other grangers of the county. The young people 
 wandered in laughing, romping groups about the 
 grounds, buying peanuts and sugar candy, and 
 drinking the soda water and lemonade which the 
 venders called with strenuous enterprise. 
 
 On the shadowed side of the stand the leading 
 men of the grange gathered, consulting about 
 plans and measures. 
 
 " Now, it seems to me that we're going on all 
 right now," said Deering. "We're getting our 
 goods cheap and we're cuttin' off the middleman." 
 
 "And we're getting hold of the railways." 
 
 " Yes, but it don't amount to nothin' compared 
 to what ought to be done. We ought 'o oust 
 them infernal blood-suckers that's in our court- 
 house, and we want to do it as a grange." 
 
 "No," said Jennings in his placid way, "we 
 can do that better. I've got a plan." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 23 
 
 "What we want," said Hobkirk, "is a party, 
 a ticket of our own, then we can " — 
 
 " No, we can't do that. It won't be right to 
 do that. We must stand by the party that has 
 given us our railway legislation." 
 
 Milton and several of the younger farmers 
 drew off one side and talked earnestly about the 
 fall campaign. 
 
 "They'll beat us again unless we go in 
 together," Milton said with emphatic gesticula- 
 tion. Milton was a natural politician. His words' 
 found quick response in the erratic Hobkirk, who 
 had good ideas but whose temperament made all 
 his words jagged shot. He irritated where he 
 meant to convince. 
 
 Bradley listened to it all without feeling that 
 he had any part in it. It didn't seem to him that 
 politics had anything to do with the beautiful 
 words of the girl. On the stand the choir began 
 to sing again and he walked toward them. They 
 sang on arid the people listened while they packed 
 away the dishes.. They sang " Auld Lang Syne," 
 and "We'll Meet Beyond the River," with that 
 characteristic attraction of the common people 
 for wistful, sorrowful cadences which is a paradox 
 not easily explained. 
 
 "All aboard!" called Councill from his wagon 
 3 
 
24 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 as Bradley drove the team up to the band stand. 
 While the merry young people clambered in and 
 paired off along the seats he was seeing Miss 
 Wilbur shaking hands with the people who. paused 
 to say good-by. His heart ached for a glance of 
 her brown eyes and a word, but he held the reins 
 in his great hands and his face showed only his 
 usual impassive reticence. He was only Coun- 
 cill's hired man. 
 
 The banners were taken up, the children 
 loaded in, the boys looking back wistfully to the 
 games and the candy-stands. Councill unfurled 
 his flag to the wind, and Bradley swung the eager 
 horses into the lane. On all sides the farmers' 
 teams were getting out into the road ; the work; 
 of the marshals was done. Each man went his 
 own gait. 
 
 The young people behind Bradley began to 
 sing: — 
 
 " Out on an ocean all boundless we ride, 
 We're homeward bound, 
 Homeward bound." 
 
 And so along each lane through the red sunset 
 the farmers rolled home. Home through lanes 
 bordered with velvet green wheat, across which, 
 the sunlight streamed in dazzling yellow floods. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 25 
 
 Home through wild prairies, where the birds 
 nested and the gophers whistled. The dust rose 
 up, transformed into gold by the light of the set- 
 ting sun. The children fell asleep in their tired 
 mothers' arms. The men shouted to each other 
 from team to team, discussing the speakers and 
 the crops. 
 
 Smiles were few as each wagon turned into its 
 gateway and rolled up to the silent house. The 
 sombre shadow of the farm's drudgery had fallen 
 again on faces unused to smiling. 
 
 Only the lovers lingering on the road till the 
 moon rose and the witchery of night came to 
 make the girlish eyes more brilliant, softening 
 their gayety into a wistful tenderness, only to 
 these did the close of the day seem as sweet and 
 momentous as the morning. While the trusty 
 horse jogged on, impatient of the slow pace set 
 by his driver, the lovers sat with little to say, but 
 with hearts lit by the light that can glorify for a 
 few moons, at least, even the life of ceaseless toil. 
 
26 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 III. 
 
 BRADLEY RESOLVES TO GO TO SCHOOL. 
 
 A farm is a good place to think in, if a man 
 has sufficient self-sustaining force — that is, if 
 work does not dominate him and force him to 
 think in petty or degrading circles. 
 
 It is a lonely life. Especially lonely on a large 
 farm in the West. The life of a hired man like 
 Bradley Talcott is spent mainly with the horses 
 and cattle. In the spring he works day after day 
 with a drag or seeder, moving to and fro an ani- 
 mate speck across a dull brown expanse of soil. 
 Even when he has a companion there is little 
 talk, for there is little to say, and the extra exer- 
 tion of speaking against the wind, or across dis- 
 tances, soon forces them both into silence. 
 
 True, there is the glory of the vast sweep of 
 sky, the wild note of the crane, the flight of 
 geese, the multitudinous twitter of sparrows, and 
 the subtle exalting smell of the fresh, brown 
 earth ; but these things do not compensate for 
 human society. Nature palls upon the normal 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 27 
 
 man when he is alone with her constantly. The 
 monotone of the wind and the monochrome of the 
 sky oppress him. His heart remains empty. 
 
 The rustle of flashing, blade-like corn leaves, 
 the vast clean-cut mountainous clouds of June, 
 the shade of shimmering popple trees, the whistle 
 of plover and the sailing hawk do not satisfy the 
 man who follows the corn-plow with the hot sun 
 beating down all day upon his bent head and 
 dusty shoulders. His point of view is not that 
 from the hammock. He is not out on a summer 
 vacation. If he thinks, he thinks bitter things, 
 and when he speaks his words are apt to be oaths. 
 
 Still a man has time to think and occasionally 
 a man dominates his work and refuses to be 
 hardened and distorted. Many farmers swear at 
 the team or the plow and everything that bothers 
 them. Some whistle vacantly and mechanically 
 all day, or sing in endless succession the few 
 gloomy songs they know. Bradley thought. 
 
 He thought all summer long. He was a 
 powerful man physically and turned off his work 
 with a ready knack which left him free to think. 
 All day as he moved to and fro in the rustling 
 corn rows, he thought, and» with his thinking, his 
 powers expanded. He had the mysterious power 
 of self-development. 
 
28 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The centre of his thinking was that slender 
 young woman and the words she had uttered. 
 He repeated her prophetic words as nearly as he 
 could a hundred times. He repeated them aloud 
 as he plowed day after day, through the dreamful 
 September mist. He began to look ahead and 
 wonder what he should do or could do. Must he 
 be a farmer's hired man or a renter all his life ? 
 His mind moved slowly from point to point, but 
 it never returned to its old dumb patience. His 
 mind, like his body, had unknown latent forces. 
 He was one of those natures whose delicacy and 
 strength are alike hidden. 
 
 "Brad don't know his strength," Councill was 
 accustomed to say. " If he should ever get mad 
 enough to fight, the other feller'd better go 
 a-visitin'." And a person who knew his mind 
 might have said, " If Bradley makes up his mind 
 to do a thing he'll do it." But no one knew his 
 mind. He did not know its resources himself. 
 
 His mind seized upon every hint, and bit by 
 bit his resolution was formed. Milton, going by 
 one Monday morning on his way to the seminary, 
 stopped beside the fence where Brad was plowing 
 and waited for him to tome up. He had a real 
 interest in Bradley. 
 
 "Hello, Brad," he called cheerily. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 29 
 
 " Hello, Milt." 
 
 " How's business ? " 
 
 " Oh, so so. Pretty cold." 
 
 The wind was blowing cold and cuttingly from 
 the north-west. Milton, rosy with his walk, 
 dropped down beside the hedge of weeds in the 
 sun and Brad climbed over the fence and joined 
 him. It was warm and cosy there, and the crick- 
 ets were cheeping feebly in the russet grass 
 where the sunlight fell. The wind whistled 
 through the weeds with a wild, mournful sound. 
 Bradley, did not speak for some time. He 
 listened to Milton. At last he said abruptly — 
 
 "Say, Milt, what does it cost to go to school 
 down there ? " 
 
 " Depends on who goes. Cost me 'bout forty 
 dollars a term. Shep an' I room it and cook our 
 own grub." 
 
 " What's the tuition ? " 
 
 "Eight dollars a term." 
 
 "Feller could go to the public school for 
 nauthin', couldn't he?" 
 
 " Yes, and that'd be all it . 'ud be worth," said 
 Milton with fine, scorn at an inferior institution. 
 
 " What does a room cost ? " Brad pursued after 
 a silence.. 
 
 "Well, ours cost 'bout three dollars a month, 
 
30 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 but we have two rooms. You could get one for 
 fifty cents a week." 
 
 He looked up at Brad with a laugh in his 
 eyes. "Don't think of starting in right off, do 
 you ? " 
 
 "Well, I don't know but I might if I had 
 money enough to carry me through." 
 
 " What y' think o' doin', study law ? " 
 
 " No, but I'd kind o' like to be able to speak in 
 public. Seems t' me a feller ought 'o know how 
 to speak at a school meetin' when he's called on. 
 I couldn't say three words to save m' soul. They 
 teach that down there, don't they ? " 
 
 " Yes, we have Friday exercises and then there 
 are two debating clubs. They're boss for prac- 
 tice. That's where I put in most o' my time. 
 I'm goin' into politics," he ended with a note of 
 exalted purpose as if going into politics were 
 really something fine. " Are you ? " 
 
 "Well, there's no tellin' what minit a feller's 
 liable to be called on and I'd kinder like to " — 
 He fell off into silence again. 
 
 Milton jumped up. "Well, hold on, this won't 
 do f'r me; I must mosey along. Good-by," he 
 said, and set off down the road. 
 
 "When does the next term begin?" called 
 Bradley. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 31 
 
 "November 15th," Milton replied; looking 
 about for an instant. " Better try it." 
 
 Bradley threw the lines over his shoulder and, 
 bending his head, fell into deep calculation. 
 Milton's clear tenor was heard ringing across the 
 fields, fitfully dying away. Milton made the most 
 of everything, and besides he was on his way to 
 see Eileen. He could afford to be gay. 
 
 Bradley thought, even while he husked the 
 corn, one of the bitterest of all farm tasks when 
 the cold winds of November begin to blow. 
 Councill had a large field of corn and every morn- 
 ing in the cold and frosty light Ike and Bradley 
 were out in the field, each with a team. Beauti- 
 ful mornings, if one could have looked upon it 
 from a window in a comfortable home. There 
 were mornings when the glittering purple and 
 orange domes of the oaks and maples swam in the 
 mist dreamfully, so beautiful the eyes lingered: 
 upon them wistfully. Mornings when the dim 
 lines of the woods were a royal purple, and gray^ 
 blue shadows streamed from the trees upon the 
 yellow-green grass. 
 
 Husking was the last of the fall work and the 
 last day of husking found Bradley desolately 
 undecided. They had been working desperately 
 all the week to finish the field on Saturday. It 
 
32 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 was a bitter cold morning. As they leaped into 
 the frost-rimmed wagon-box and caught up the 
 reins, the half -frozen team sprang away with des- 
 perate energy, making the wagon bound over the 
 frozen ground with a thunderous clatter. 
 
 In every field the sound of similar wagons get- 
 ting out to work could be heard. It was not yet 
 light. A leaden-gray dome of cloud had closed in 
 over the morning sky and the feeling of snow Was 
 in the air. There was only a dull flush of red in 
 the east to show the night had been frostily clear. 
 
 Ike raised a great shout to let his neighbors 
 know he was in the field. Councill, with a fork 
 over his shoulder, was on his way down the lane 
 to help a neighbor thresh. Ike jovially shook" the 
 reins above his colts and Bradley , followed close 
 behind, and , the two wagons went crashing 
 through the forest of corn. The race started the 
 blood of the drivers as well as: that f the teams. 
 The cold wind cut the face like a knife and the 
 crackling corn-stalks flew through the air as the 
 wagons .swept over- theirs Reaching the farther 
 side they turned in and faced toward-' the house, 
 the horses' blowing white clouds of: breath. 
 
 "Jee Whitaker!" shouted Ike, as he crouched 
 on the leeward side of his wagon, and. threshed 
 his arms around his chest, after having finished 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 33 
 
 blanketing his team to protect them against the 
 ferocious wind. " I'm thunderin' glad this is the 
 last day of tliis kind o' thing." 
 
 He looked like a grizzly bear in bad repair. 
 He had an old fur cap on his head that concealed 
 his ears and most of his face. He wore a ragged 
 coat that was generally gray, but had white lines 
 along the seams. Under this he wore another 
 coat still more ragged, and the whole was belted 
 at the waist with an old surcingle. Like his 
 father, he was possessed of vast physical strength, 
 and took pride in his powers of endurance. 
 
 " Wal, here goes," he said, stripping off his out- 
 side coat. " It's tough, but it aint no use dreadin' 
 it." 
 
 Bradley smiled back at him in his wordless way, 
 and caught hold of the first ear. It sent a shiver 
 of pain through him. His fingers, worn to the 
 quick, protruded from his stiff, ragged gloves, and 
 the motions of clasping and stripping the ear were 
 like the rasp of a file on a naked nerve. He 
 shivered and swore, but his oath was like a groan. 
 
 The horses, humped and shivering, looked black 
 and fuzzy, by reason of their erected hair. They 
 tore at the corn-stalks hungrily. Their tails 
 streamed sidewise with the force of the wind, 
 which had a wild and lonesome sound, as it swept 
 
34 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 across the sear stretches of the corn. The stalks 
 towered far above the heads of the Jiuskers, but 
 did little to temper the onslaught of the blast. 
 
 Occasional flocks of geese drifted by in the 
 grasp of the inexorable gale, their necks out-thrust 
 as if they had already caught the gleam of their 
 warm southern lagoons. Clouds of ducks, more 
 adventurous, were seen in irregular flight, rising 
 and falling from the lonely fields with wild clap- 
 ping of wings. Only the sparrows seemed indif- 
 ferent to the cold. 
 
 There was immensity in the dome of the 
 unbroken, seamless, gray threatening sky. There 
 was majesty in the dim plain, across which the 
 morning light slowly fell. The plain, with its 
 dark blue groves, from which thin lines of smoke 
 rose and hastened away, and majesty in the wind 
 that came from the illimitable and desolate north. 
 But the lonely huskers had no time to feel, much 
 less to think, upon these things. 
 
 They bent down to their work and snatched 
 the red and yellow ears bare of their frosty husks 
 with marvelous dexterity. The first plunge over, 
 Bradley found as usual that the sharpest pain was 
 over. The wind cut his face, and an occasional 
 driving flake of snow struck and clung to his face 
 and stung. His coat collar chafed his chin, and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 35 
 
 the frost wet his gloves through and through. 
 But he warmjsd to it and at last almost forgot it. 
 He fell into thought again, so deep that his work 
 became absolutely mechanical. 
 
 "Say, Brad, let's go to that dance over at 
 Davis's," shouted Ike, after an hour of silence. 
 
 "I guess not." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because I aint invited." 
 
 " Oh, that's all right ; Ed, he told me to bring 
 anyone I felt like." 
 
 " I aint going, all the same. I may be in Rock 
 River by next Wednesday." 
 
 "They aint no danger o' you're going to Rock 
 River." 
 
 Bradley fell once more into the circle of his 
 plans and went the round again. He had saved 
 two hundred dollars. It was enough to take him 
 to school a year, but what then ? That was the 
 recurring question. It was the most momentous 
 day in his life. Should he spend his money in 
 this way? Every dollar of it represented toil, 
 long days of lonely plowing or dragging, long 
 days under the burning harvest sun. It was all 
 he had, all he had to show for his life. Was it 
 right to spend it for schooling? 
 
 " What good'll it do yeh ? " Ike asked one day 
 
36 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 when Bradley was feeling out for a little helpful 
 sympathy. " Better buy a team with it and rent 
 a piece of land. What y' goan to do after you 
 spent the money?" 
 
 " I don't know," Bradley had replied in his hon- 
 est way. 
 
 "Wal, I'd think of it a dum long spell 'fore I'd 
 do it," was Ike's reply, and Councill had agreed 
 with it. 
 
 Bradley fell behind Ike, for he wanted to be 
 alone. He had grown into the habit of account- 
 ing to Her for his actions, and when he wished to 
 consult with Her, he wanted to be alone. There 
 was something sacred, even in the thought of 
 Her, and he shrank from having his thoughts 
 broken in upon by any careless or jesting word. 
 
 As he pondered, his hands grew slower in their 
 action and, at last, he stopped and leaned against 
 the wagon-box. Something came into his heart 
 that shook him, a feeling of unknown power, a 
 certainty of faith in himself. He shivered with 
 an electric thrill that made his hair stir. 
 
 He lifted his face to the sky and his eyes saw 
 a crane sailing with stately grace, in measureless 
 circle, a mere speck against the unbroken gray of 
 the sky. There seemed something prophetic; 
 something mystic in its harsh, wild cry that fell, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 37 
 
 like the scream of the eagle, a defiant note 
 against wind and storm. 
 
 "I'll do it," he said, and his hands clinched. 
 At the sound of his voice he shivered again, as if 
 the wind had suddenly penetrated his clothing. 
 His dress made him . grotesque. The spaces 
 around him made him pathetic, but in his golden- 
 brown eyes was something that made him sublime. 
 
 The thought which he dared not utter, but 
 which lay deep under every resolution and action 
 he made, was the hope, undefined and unacknowl- 
 edged to himself, that sometime he might meet 
 her and have her approve his action. 
 
38 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 bradley's trials at school. 
 
 The morning on which Bradley was to begin 
 his term at the seminary was a clear, crisp day in 
 later November. He had rented a room in the 
 basement of a queer old building, known as the 
 Park Hotel, a crazy mansard-roofed structure 
 which held at regular intervals some rash men 
 attempting to run it as a hotel. 
 
 Bradley had rented this cellar because it was 
 the cheapest place he could find. He agreed to 
 pay two dollars a month for it, and the use of the 
 two chairs, and cooking stove, which made up its 
 furnishing. He had purchased a skillet and two 
 or three dishes, Mrs. Councill had lent him a bed, 
 and he seemed reasonably secure against hunger 
 and cold. 
 
 He looked forward to his entrance into the 
 school with dread. All that Monday morning he 
 stood about his door watching for Milton and see- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 39 
 
 ing the merry students in procession up the walk. 
 The girls seemed so bright and so beautiful, he 
 wondered how the boys could walk beside them 
 with such calm unconcern. Their laughter, their 
 mutual greetings threw him into a profound self- 
 pity and disgust. When he joined Milton and 
 Shepard, and went up the walk under the bare- 
 limbed maple trees, he shivered with fear. They 
 all seemed perfectly at home, with the exception 
 of himself. 
 
 Milton knowing what to expect smuggled him 
 into the chapel in the midst of a crowd of five 
 or six others, and thus he escaped the derisive 
 applause with which the pupils were accustomed 
 to greet each new-comer at the opening of a term. 
 He gave one quick glance at the rows of faces, 
 and shambled awkwardly along to his seat beside 
 Milton, his eyes downcast. He found courage 
 to look around and study his fellow-students after 
 a little and discovered that several of them were 
 quite as awkward, quite as ill at ease as himself. 
 
 Milton, old pupil as he was (that is to say, this 
 was his second term), sat beside him and indi- 
 cated the seniors as they came in, and among the 
 rest pointed nut Radbourn- . 
 
 " He's the high mucky-muck o' this shebang," 
 Shep whispered. 
 
40 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "Why so?" asked Bradley, looking carefully 
 at the big, smooth-faced, rather gloomy-looking 
 young fellow. 
 
 Shep hit his own head with his fist in a com- 
 ically significant gesture. " Brains ! What d' 
 ye call 'em, Milt? Correscations of the serry 
 beltum." 
 
 Shepard was a short youth with thick yellow 
 hair, and a comically serious quality in the twist 
 of his long upper lip. 
 
 Milton grinned. "Convolutions of the cere- 
 brum, I s'pose you're driving at. Shep comes to 
 school to have fun," Milton explained to Bradley. 
 
 " Chuss," said Shep, by which he meant yes ; 
 " an' I have it, too, betyerneck. I enter no plea, 
 me lord " — 
 
 There came a burst of applause as a tall and 
 attractive girl came in with her arms laden down 
 with books. Her intellectual face lit up with a 
 smile at the applause, and a pink flush came into 
 her pale cheek. "That's Miss Graham," whis- 
 pered Shepard; "she's all bent up on Radbourn." 
 
 The teachers came in, the choir rose to sing, 
 and the exercises of the morning began. Bradley 
 thought Miss Graham, with . her heavy-lidded, 
 velvety-brown eyes, looked like Miss Wilbur; 
 Her eyes were darker, he decided, and she was 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 41 
 
 taller and paler; in fact, the resemblance was 
 mainly in her manner which had the same dignity 
 and repose. 
 
 At Milton's suggestion Bradley remained in his 
 seat after the rest of the pupils had marched out 
 to the sound of the organ. Then Milton intro- 
 duced him to the principal, who took him by the 
 hand so cordially that his embarrassment was 
 gone in a moment. "Come and see me at 
 eleven," he said. After a short talk with him in 
 his room a couple hours later, his work was 
 assigned. 
 
 " You'll be in the preparatory department, Mr. 
 Talcott, but if you care to do extra work we may 
 get you into the junior class. Jennings, look 
 after him a little, won't you ?" 
 
 The principal was a kind man, but he had two 
 hundred of these rude, awkward farmer-boys, and 
 he could not be expected to study each one 
 closely enough to discover their latent powers. 
 Bradley went away down town to buy his books, 
 with a feeling that the smile of the principal was 
 not genuine, and he felt also that Milton was a 
 little ashamed of him here in the town. Every- 
 thing seemed to be going hard with him. But 
 his hardest trial came when he entered the class- 
 room at one o'clock. 
 
42 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He knew no one, of course, and the loqg, 
 narrow room was filled-with riotous boys and girls 
 all much younger than himself. All the desks 
 seemed to be occupied and he was obliged to run 
 the gauntlet of the entire class in his search for a 
 seat. As he walked down the room so close to 
 the wall that he brushed the chalk of the black- 
 board off upon his shoulder, he made a really ludi- 
 crous figure. All of his fine, free, unconscious 
 grace was gone and his strength of limb only 
 added to his awkwardness. 
 
 The girls were of that age where they find the 
 keenest delight in annoying a bashful fellow such 
 as .they perceived this new-comer to be. His 
 hair had been badly barbered by Councill and his 
 suit of cotton diagonal, originally too small and 
 never a fit, was now yellow on the shoulders 
 where the sun had faded the analine dye, and his 
 trousers were so tight that they clung to the tops 
 of his great boots, exposing his huge feet in all 
 their enormity of shapeless housing. His large 
 hands protruded from his sleeves and were made 
 still more noticeable by his evident loss of their 
 control. 
 
 "Picked too soon," said Nettie Russell, with a 
 vacant stare into space, whereat the rest shrieked 
 with laughter. A great hot wave of blood rushed 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 43 
 
 up over Bradley, making him dizzy. He knew 
 that joke all too well. He looked around blindly 
 for a seat. As he stood there helpless, Nettie hit 
 him with a piece of chalk and someone threw the 
 eraser at his boots. 
 
 " Number twelves," said young Brown, 
 
 "When did it get loose?" 
 
 "Does your mother know you're out ?" 
 
 " Put your hat over it," came from all sides. 
 
 He saw an empty chair and started to sit down, 
 but Nettie slipped into it before him. He 
 started for her seat and her brother Claude got 
 there apparently by mere accident just before 
 him. Bradley stood again indecisively, not daring 
 to look up, burning with rage and shame. Again 
 someone hit him with a piece of chalk, making a 
 resounding whack, and the entire class roared 
 again in concert. 
 
 "Why, its head is wood!" said Claude, in 
 apparent astonishment at his own discovery. 
 
 Bradley raised his head for the first time. 
 There came into his eyes a look that made Claude 
 Russell tremble. He again approached an empty 
 chair and was again forestalled by young Brown. 
 With a bitter curse -he swung his great open 
 palm around and laid his tormenter flat on the 
 'floor, stunned and breathless. A silence fell on 
 
44 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the group. It was as if a lion had awakened 
 with a roar of wrath. 
 
 "Come on, all o' ye!" he snarled through his 
 set teeth, facing them all. As he stood thus the 
 absurdity of his own attitude came upon him. 
 They were only children, after all. Reeking with 
 the sweat of shame and anger which burst from 
 his burning skin, he reached for a chair. 
 
 Nettie, like the little dare-devil that she was, 
 pulled the chair from under him, and he saved 
 himself from falling only by wildly clutching the 
 desk before him. As it was, he fell almost into 
 her lap and everybody shrieked with uncontroll- 
 able laughter. In the midst of it, Miss Clayson, 
 the teacher, came hurrying in to silence the 
 tumult, and Bradley rushed from the room like a 
 bull from the arena, maddened with the spears of 
 the toreador. He snatched his hat and coat from 
 the rack and hardly looked up till he reached the 
 haven of his little cellar. 
 
 He threw his cap on the floor and for a half 
 hour raged up and down the floor, his mortifica- 
 tion and shame and rage finding vent in a fit of 
 cursing such as he had never had in his life 
 before. All awkwardness was gone now. His 
 great limbs, supple and swift, clenched, doubled, 
 and thrust out against the air in unconscious 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 43 
 
 lightning-swift gestures that showed how terrible 
 he could be when roused. 
 
 At last he grew calm enough to sit down, and 
 then his mood changed to the deepest dejection. 
 He sank into a measureless despair. A terrible 
 ache came into his throat. 
 
 They were right, he was a great hulking fool. 
 He never could be anything but a clod-hopper, 
 anyway. He looked down at his great hand, at 
 his short trousers, and the indecent ugliness of 
 his horrible boots, and studied himself without 
 mercy to himself. He acknowledged that they 
 were hideous, but he couldn't help it. 
 
 Then his mind took another turn and he went 
 over the history of that suit. He didn't want it 
 when he bought it, but he found himself like wax, 
 moulded by the soft, white, confidential hands of 
 the Jew salesman, who offered it to him as a spe- 
 cial favor below cost. In common with other 
 young men of his sort he always felt under obli- 
 gation" to buy if he went into a store, even if 
 there were nothing there that suited him. He 
 knew when he bought the suit and paid eleven 
 dollars for it that he would always be sorry, and 
 its cheapness now appalled him. 
 
 He always swore at himself for this weakness 
 before the salesman, and yet, year by year he had 
 
46 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 been cheated in the same way. For the first 
 time, however, he saw his clothing in all its 
 hideousness. Those cruel girls and grinning 
 boys had shown him that clothes made the man, 
 even in a western school. The worst part of it 
 was that he had been humiliated by a girl and 
 there was no redress. His strength of limb was 
 useless here. 
 
 He sat there till darkness came into his room. 
 He did not replenish the coal in the stove that 
 leered at him from the two broken doors in front, 
 and seemed to face him with a crazy, drunken 
 reel on its mis-matched legs. He was hungry> 
 but he sat there enjoying in a morbid way the 
 pang of hunger. It helped him someway to bear 
 the sting of his defeat. 
 
 It was the darkest hour of his life. He swore 
 never to go back again to that room. He 
 couldn't face that crowd of grinning faces. He 
 turned hot and cold by turns as he thought of 
 his folly. He was a cursed fool for ever' think- 
 ing of trying to do anything but just dig away on 
 a farm. He might have known how it would be ; 
 he'd got behind and had to be classed in with the 
 children ; there was no help for it ; he'd never go 
 back. 
 
 The thought of Her came in again and again, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 47 
 
 but the thought couldn't help him. Her face 
 drove the last of his curses from his lips, but it 
 threw him into a fathomless despair, where he no 
 longer denned his thoughts into words. Her face 
 shone like a star, but it stood over a bottomless 
 rift in the earth and showed how impassable its 
 yawning barrier was. 
 
 There came a whoop outside and a scramble 
 at the door and somebody tumbled into the room, 
 
 "Anybody here?" 
 
 " Hello, where are you, Brad ? " 
 
 He recognized Milton's voice. " Yes, I'm here ; 
 but wait a minute." 
 
 " Caesar, I guess we'll wait ! Break our necks 
 if we don't," said the other shadow whom he now 
 recognized as Shep Watson. "Always live in 
 the dark ? " 
 
 They waited while he lighted the dim little 
 kerosene lamp on the table. "O conspiracy, 
 shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by 
 night," quoted Shep in the interim. 
 
 "Been 'sleep?" asked Milton. 
 
 "No. Se' down, anywheres," he added on 
 second thought, as he realized that chairs were 
 limited. 
 
 "Say, Brad, come on; let's go over t' the 
 society." 
 
48 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I guess not,'" said Brad sullenly. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Milton, recognizing some- 
 thing bitter in his voice. 
 
 "Because, I aint got any right to go. I aint 
 goin' t' school ag'in. I'm goin' west." 
 
 " Why, what's up ? " 
 
 "I aint a-goin', that's all. I can't never ketch 
 up with the rest of you fellers." His voice broke 
 a little, " an' it aint much fun havin' to go in with 
 a whole raft o' little boys and girls." 
 
 " Oh, say now, Brad, I wouldn't mind 'em if I 
 was you," said Milton, after a pause. He had 
 the delicacy not to say he had heard the details 
 of Bradley's experience. "We all have to go 
 through 'bout the same row o' stumps, don't we, 
 Shep? The way to do with 'em is to jest pay 
 no 'tention to 'em." 
 
 But the good-will and sympathy of the boys 
 could not prevail upon Bradley to go with them. 
 He persisted in his determination to leave school. 
 And the boys finally went out leaving him alone. 
 Their influence had been good, however ; he was 
 distinctly less bitter after they left him and his 
 thoughts went back to Miss Wilbur. What would 
 she think of him if he gave up all his plans 
 the first day, simply because some mischievous 
 girls and boys had made him absurd ? When he 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 49 
 
 thought of her he felt strong enough to go back, 
 but when he thought of his tormentors and what 
 he would be obliged to endure from them, he 
 shivered and shrank back into despondency. 
 
 He was still fighting his battle, when a slow 
 step came down the stairs ending in a sharp rap 
 upon the door. He said, "Come in," and Rad- 
 bourn, the most powerful and most popular senior, 
 entered the room. He was a good deal of an 
 autocrat in the town and in the school, and took 
 pleasure in exercising his power on behalf of some 
 poor devil like Bradley Talcott. 
 
 "Jennings tells me you're going to give it up," 
 he said, without preliminary conversation. 
 
 Bradley nodded sullenly. "What's the use, 
 anyhow ? I might as well. I'm too old, any- 
 how." 
 
 Radbourn looked at him a moment in silence. 
 " Put on your hat and let's go outside," he said at 
 length, and there was something in his voice that 
 Bradley obeyed. 
 
 Once on the outside Radbourn took his arm 
 and they walked on up the street in silence for 
 some distance. It was still, and clear, and frosty, 
 and the stars burned overhead with many-colored 
 brilliancy. 
 
 " Now I know all about it, Talcott, and I know 
 
50 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 just about how you feel. But all the same you 
 must go back there to-morrow morning." 
 
 "It aint no use talkin', I can't do it." 
 
 " Yes, you can. You think you can't, but you 
 can. A man can do anything if he only thinks 
 he can and tries hard. You can't afford to let a 
 little thing like that upset your plans. I under- 
 stand your position exactly. You're at a disad- 
 vantage," he changed his pace suddenly, stopping 
 Bradley. "Now, Talcott, you're at a disadvantage 
 with that suit. It makes you look like a gawk, 
 when you're not. You're a stalwart fellow, and if 
 you'll invest in a new suit of clothes as Jennings 
 did, it'll make all the difference in the world." 
 
 "I can't afford it." 
 
 "No, that's a mistake, you can't afford not to 
 have it. A good suit of clothes will do more to 
 put you on an equality with the boys than any- 
 thing else you can do for yourself. Now let's 
 drop in here to see my friend, who keeps what you 
 need, and to-morrow I'll call for you and take you 
 into the class and introduce you to Miss Clay- 
 son, and you'll be all right. You didn't start 
 right." 
 
 When he walked in with Radbourn the next 
 morning and was introduced to the teacher, Nettie 
 Russell stared in breathless astonishmemt. He 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 51 
 
 was barbered and wore a suit which showed his 
 splendid length and strength of limb. 
 
 " Well said ! Aint we a big sunflower ! My 
 sakes ! aint we a-coming out ! " " No moon last 
 night." "Must 'a ben a fire." "He got them 
 with a basket and a club," were some of the 
 remarks he heard. 
 
 Bradley felt the difference in the atmosphere, 
 and he walked to his seat with a self-possession 
 that astonished himself. And from that time he 
 was master of the situation. The girls pelted him 
 with chalk and marked figures on his back, but he 
 kept at his work. He had a firm grip on the 
 plow-handles now, and he didn't look back. They 
 grew to respect him, at length, and some of the 
 girls distinctly showed their admiration. Brown 
 came over to get help on a sum and so did Nettie, 
 and when he sat down beside her she winked in 
 triumph at the other girls while Bradley patiently 
 tried to explain the problem in algebra which was 
 his own terror. 
 
 He certainly was a handsome fellow in a rough- 
 angled way, and^ when the boys found he could 
 jump eleven feet and eight inches at a standing 
 jump, they no longer drew any distinctions 
 between his attainments in algebra and their own. 
 Neither did his poverty count against him with 
 
52 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 them. He sawed wood in every spare hour with 
 desperate energy to make up for the sinful extrava- 
 gance of his new fifteen dollar suit of clothes. 
 
 He was sawing wood in an alley one Saturday 
 morning where he could hear a girl singing in 
 a bird-like way that was very charming. He 
 was tremendously hungry, for he had been at 
 work since the first faint gray light, and the 
 smell of breakfast that came to his senses was 
 tantalizing. 
 
 He heard the girl's rapid feet moving about in 
 the kitchen and her voice rising and falling, 
 pausing and beginning again as if she were work- 
 ing rapidly. Then she fell silent, and he knew 
 she was at breakfast. 
 
 At last she opened the door and came, out along 
 the walk with a tablecloth. She shook her cloth, 
 and then her singing ceased and Bradley went on 
 with his work. 
 
 " Hello, Brad ! " called a sudden voice. 
 
 He looked up and saw Nettie Russell's roguish 
 face peering over the board fence. 
 
 "Hello," he replied, and stood an instant in 
 wordless surprise. "I didn't know you lived 
 there." 
 
 " Well, I do. Aint tickled to death to find it 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 53 
 
 out, I s'pose ? Say, you aint so very mad at me, 
 are yeh ? " she added insinuatingly. 
 
 He didn't know what to say, so he kept silent. 
 He noticed for the first time how childishly 
 round her face was ! 
 
 She took a new turn. "Say, aint you hungry?" 
 
 Bradley admitted that he had eaten an early 
 breakfast. He did not say it was composed of 
 fried pork and potatoes and baker's bread, with- 
 out tea, coffee, or milk. 
 
 The girl seemed delighted to think he was 
 hungry. 
 
 "You wait a minute," she commanded,, and her 
 smiling face disappeared from the top of the 
 fence. Brad went to work to keep from catching 
 cold, wondering what she was going to do. She 
 reappeared soon with a fat home-made sausage 
 and a couple of warm biscuits which she insisted 
 upon his taking. 
 
 "They're all buttered and — they've got sugar 
 on 'em," she whispered significantly. 
 
 "Say, you eat now, while I saw," she com- 
 manded, coming around through the gate. 
 
 She had put on her fascinator hood, but her 
 hands and wrists, were bare. She struggled away 
 on a log, putting her knee on it in a comically 
 resolute style. 
 
54 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "The saw always goes crooked," she said in 
 despair. Bradley laughed at her heartily. 
 
 " Say, do you do this for fun ? " she asked, 
 stopping to puff, her cheeks a beautiful pink. 
 
 "No, I don't. I do it because I'm obliged to." 
 
 She threw down the saw. "Well, that beats 
 me; I can't saw, but I can cook. I made them 
 biscuits." She challenged his opinion, as he well 
 knew. 
 
 "They're first rate," he admitted, and . they 
 "were friends. She watched him eat with apparent 
 satisfaction. 
 
 "Say, I can't stay here, I'll freeze. Are yeh 
 going to be here till noon ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, when I whistle you come in and get 
 some grub, will yeh?" Bradley smiled back at 
 her laughing face. 
 
 "This ain't your folks' wood pile." 
 
 "What's the difference?" she replied. "You 
 jest come in, will yeh ? '* 
 
 "Yes, I'll come." 
 
 "Like fun you will ! Honest ? " she persisted. 
 
 " Hope to die," he said solemnly. 
 
 "That's the checker," she said, and disappeared 
 with a click of the tongue. 
 
 Bradley worked away in a glow of cheerfulness; 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 55 
 
 It was astonishing how much this little victory 
 over a roguish girl meant to him. He had 
 changed one person's ridicule to friendship, and it 
 seemed to be prophetic of other victories. 
 
 The time seemed very short that forenoon. 
 Once or twice Nettie came out to bring some 
 news about the cooking. 
 
 " Say, I'm making an apple pie. I'm a dandy 
 on pies and cakes." 
 
 "I guess they would be 'pizen ' cakes." 
 
 She threw an imaginary club at him. 
 
 "Well, if that ain't the sickest old joke! 
 You'll go without any pie if you get off such a 
 thing again." 
 
 But as dinner-time drew on he felt more and 
 more unwilling to go into the kitchen. 
 
 He heard her whistle, but he remained at the 
 saw-horse. It would do in the country, but not 
 here. He had no right to go in there and 
 eat. 
 
 There was a note of impatience in her voice 
 when she looked over the fence and said, " Why 
 don't you come ? " 
 
 "I dassant!" 
 
 " Oh, bother ! What y' 'fraid of ? " 
 
 "What business have I got to eat your dinner? 
 This aint your wood-pile." 
 5 
 
56 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "Say, if you don't come in I'll — I dunno 
 what ! " 
 
 "Bring it out here, it's warm." 
 
 "I won't do it; you've got to come in; the old 
 man's gone up town and mother won't throw you 
 out. There isn't anybody in the kitchen. Come 
 on now," she pleaded. 
 
 Bradley followed her into the house, feeling 
 a good deal like a very large dog, very hungry, 
 who had followed a child's invitation into the par- 
 lor, and felt out of place. 
 
 He sat down by the fire, and silently ate what 
 she placed before him, while she chattered away 
 in high glee. When Mrs. Russell came in, Nettie 
 did not take the trouble to introduce him to her 
 mother, who moved about the room in a wordless 
 way, smiling a little about the eyes. She was 
 entirely subject to her daughter. She heard 
 them discussing lessons and concluded they were 
 classmates. 
 
 Bradley went back to his wood-sawing and soon 
 finished the job. As he shouldered his saw and 
 saw-buck, Nettie came out and peered over the 
 fence again. 
 
 "Say, goin' to attend the social Monday?" 
 
 "Guess not. I ain't much on such things." 
 
 "It's lots o' fun; we spin the platter and all 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 57 
 
 kinds o' things. I'm goin'," she looked archly 
 inviting. 
 
 Bradley colored. He was not astute, but hints 
 like this were not far from kicks. He looked 
 down at his saw as he said, " I guess I won't go, 
 I've got to study." 
 
 "Well, good-by," she said without mortifica- 
 tion. She was so much of a child yet that she 
 could be jilted without keen pain. "See y' Mon- 
 day," she said as she ran into the house. 
 
 Someway Bradley's life was lightened by that 
 day's experience. He went home to his bleak 
 little room in a resolute mood. He sat down at 
 his table upon which lay his algebra, determined 
 to prepare Monday's lessons, but the pencil fell 
 from his hand, his head sank down and lay upon 
 the open page before him. Woodsawing had 
 worn him down and algebra had made him sleep. 
 
58 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 V. 
 BRADLEY RISES TO ADDRESS THE CARTHAGINIANS. 
 
 He was now facing another terror, the Friday 
 afternoon recitals, in which alternate sections of 
 the pupils were obliged to appear before the pub- 
 lic in the chapel to recite or read an essay. It 
 was an ordeal that tried the souls of the bravest 
 of them all. 
 
 Unquestionably it kept many pupils away. 
 Nothing could be more terrible to a shrinking 
 awkward boy or girl from a farm than this 
 requirement, to stand upon a raised platform with 
 nothing to break the effect of sheer crucifixion. 
 It was appalling. It was a pillory, a stake, a burn- 
 ing, and yet there was a fearful fascination about 
 it, and it was doubtful if a majority of the stu- 
 dents would have voted for its abolition. The 
 preps and juniors saw the seniors winning elec- 
 trical applause from the audience and fancied the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 59 
 
 same prize was within their reach. There was no 
 surer or more instant success to be won than that 
 which followed a splendid oratorical effort on the 
 platform. It was worth the cost. 
 
 Each new-comer dreaded it for weeks and 
 talked about it constantly. Bradley, like all the 
 rest before him, could not eat a thing on the 
 morning preceding his trial, and in fact had suf- 
 fered a distinct loss of appetite from the middle 
 of the week. 
 
 Mary Barber, a tall, awkward, badly-dressed 
 girl, met him as he was going up the steps after 
 the first bell. 
 
 "Say, how you feelin' ! I've shook all the 
 mornin'. I don't know what I'm goin' to do. 
 I'm just sick." 
 
 "Why don't you say so an' get off?" Bradley 
 suggested. 
 
 "Because that's what I did last time, and it 
 won't work any more." The poor girl's teeth 
 were chattering with her fright. She laughed at 
 herself in an hysterical way, and wrung her hands, 
 as if with cold, and dropped back into the broad- 
 est kind of dialect. "Oh, I feel 'sif my stomach 
 was all gone." 
 
 Nettie Russell regarded it all as merely another 
 disagreeable duty to be shirked. Nothing troub- 
 
60 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 led her very much. "You just wait and see how 
 I get out of it," she said, as she passed by. At 
 two o'clock the principal came in, and removed 
 even the small pulpit, so that nothing should 
 stand between the shrinking young orators and 
 the keen derisive eyes below. 
 
 The chapel was a very imposing structure to 
 Bradley.- It was square and papered in grey- 
 white with fluted columns of the Corinthian order 
 of architecture, and that touch of history and 
 romance did not fail of its effect on the country 
 boys fresh from the barn-yard and the corn-rows. 
 It added to their fear and self-abasement, as they 
 rolled their slow eyes around and upward. The 
 audience consisted mainly of the pupils arranged 
 according to classes, the girls on the left and the 
 boys on the right. In addition, some of the 
 towns-people, who loved oratory, or were specially 
 interested in the speakers of the day, were often 
 present to add to the terror of the occasion. 
 
 Radbourn came in with Lily Graham, talking 
 earnestly. He was in the same section with 
 Bradley, a fact which did not cheer Bradley at all. 
 Jack Carver came in with a jaunty air. His cuffs 
 and collar were linen, and his trousers were tailor- 
 made, which was distinction enough for him. 
 He had no scruples, therefore, in shirking the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 61 
 
 speaking with the same indifference Nettie Rus- 
 sell showed. 
 
 Milton, who came in the first section, was jok- 
 ing the rest upon their nervousness. 
 
 "Say, when did you eat y'r last meal?"- -he 
 whispered to Bradley. 
 
 "Yesterday morning," Bradley replied, unable 
 to smile. 
 
 All the week the members of the last section 
 had been prancing up and down the various 
 rooms in boarding-houses, to the deep disgust of 
 their fellow students, who mixed harsh comments 
 throughout their practice, as they shouted in 
 thunder tones : 
 
 "I came not here to talk. ^'Then why don't 
 you shut up?') You know too well the story of 
 our thraldom. ('You bet we do, we've heard it 
 all the week.') The beams of the setting sun fall 
 upon a slave. ('Would a beam of some sort 
 would fall on you.') O Rome ! Rome ! "— (' Oh, 
 go roam the wild wood.')" 
 
 All the week the boarding-house mistresses had 
 pounded on the stove-pipe to bring the appeal of 
 " Spartacus to the Romans " down to a key that 
 would not also include all the people in the block. 
 All to no purpose. Spartacus was aroused, and 
 nothing but a glaive or a battle-axe could bring 
 
62 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 him to silence and submission. The first section 
 now sat smiling grimly. Their revenge was 
 coming. 
 
 After the choir had sung, the principal of ora- 
 tory, note-book in hand, came down among the 
 pupils, and began the fateful roll-Gall. 
 
 The first name called was Alice Masters, an 
 ambitious, but terribly plain and awkward girl, 
 She had not eaten anything since the middle of 
 the week, and was weak and nervous with fright. 
 She sprang out of her seat, white as a dead per- 
 son, and rushed up the aisle. As she stepped 
 upon the platform she struck her. toe and nearly 
 fell. The rest laughed, some hysterically, the 
 most of them in thoughtless derision. The blood 
 rushed into her face and when she turned, she 
 seemed to be masked in scarlet. She began, 
 stammeringly, her fingers playing nervously with 
 the seams of her dress. 
 
 "Beside his block the sculptor — 
 
 '•Beside his block — 
 
 "Beside, the sculptor stood beside" — 
 
 She could not think of another word, not one, 
 and she fell into a horrible silence, wringing her 
 hands piteously. It was impossible for her to go 
 on, and impossible for her to leave the floor till 
 the word of release came. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 63 
 
 "That will do," said the principal in calm un- 
 concern, and she rushed from the room, and the 
 next name was called. At length Nettie Russell 
 faced the audience, a saucy smile on her lips, and 
 a defiant tilt to her nose. She spoke a verse of 
 "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," to the vast delight 
 of the preps, who had dared her to do it. The 
 principal scowled darkly, and put a very emphatic 
 black mark opposite her name. 
 
 As name after name was called, Bradley's chill 
 deepened, and the cold sweat broke out upon his 
 body. There was a terrible weakness and nausea 
 at his stomach, and he drew long, shivering inspi- 
 rations like a man facing an icy river, into which 
 he must plunge. His hands shook till he was 
 forced to grasp the desk to hide his tremor. 
 
 He was saved from utter flight by Radbourn, 
 who came before him. Whatever nervousness 
 the big senior had ever felt, he was well over 
 now, for he walked calmly up the aisle, and took 
 his place with easy dignity. He scorned to 
 address the Romans, or the men of England. 
 He was always contemporaneous. He usually 
 gave orations on political topics, or astounded his 
 teachers by giving a revolutionary opinion of 
 some classic. No matter what subject he dealt 
 with, he interested and held his audience. His 
 
64 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 earnest face and deep-set eyes had something 
 compelling in them, and his dignity and self- 
 possession in themselves fascinated the poor fel- 
 lows, who sat there in deathly sickness, shaking 
 with terror. 
 
 Bradley felt again the fascination of an orator, 
 and again his heart glowed with a secret feeling 
 that he, too, could be an orator like that. He felt 
 strong, and cool, and hopeful, while Radbourn was 
 speaking, but afterward that horrible, weakening 
 fear came back upon him. 
 
 He couldn't look at poor Harry Stillman, who 
 came on a few" names further. Harry had 
 pounded away all the week on Webster's reply to 
 Hayne, and he now stood forth in piteous con- 
 trast to his ponderous theme. His thin, shaking 
 legs toed-in like an Indian's, and his trousers were 
 tight, and short, and checked, which seemed to 
 increase the tightness and shortness. He had 
 narrow shoulders and thin, long arms, which he 
 used like a jumping jack, each gesture being curi- 
 ously unrelated to his facial expression, which 
 was mainly appealing and apprehensive. As 
 Shep Watson said, "He looked as if he expected 
 a barn to fall on him." 
 
 At last Bradley's name was spoken, and he 
 rose in a mist. The windows had disappeared. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 65 
 
 They were mere blurs of light. As he walked up 
 the aisle the floor fell away from the soles of his 
 feet. He no longer walked, he was a brain float- 
 ing in space. He made his way. to the stage 
 without accident, for he had rehearsed it all so 
 many times in his mind that unconscious cerebra- 
 tion attended to the necessary motions. When 
 he faced the assembly, he -seemed facing a bound* 
 less sea of faces. They in their turn were awed 
 by something they saw in his eyes. His face was 
 white and his eyes burned with a singular light. 
 A mysterious power emanated from him as from 
 the born orator. 
 
 Like all the rest he had taken a theme that was 
 far beyond his apparent powers, and the apparent 
 comprehension of his audience ; but they had 
 been fed so long upon William Tell, Rienzi, Marc 
 Antony and Spartacus, that every line was famil- 
 iar. Nothing was too ponderous, too lofty, too 
 peak-addressing for them. 
 
 He mispronounced the words, his gestures were 
 awkward and spasmodic, but lofty emotion exalted 
 him and vibrated in his voice. He thrilled every 
 heart. He had opened somewhere, somehow, a 
 vast reservoir of power. A great calm fell upon 
 him. A wild joy of new-found strength that 
 awed and thrilled his own heart. It seemed as if 
 
66 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 a new spirit had taken his flesh. As he went on 
 he grew more dignified and graceful. His great 
 arms seemed to be gigantic, as he thundered 
 against the Carthaginians. Everybody forgot his 
 dress, his freckled face, and when he closed, the 
 applause was instant and generous. 
 
 As he walked back to his seat, the exultant 
 light went out of his eyes, his limbs relaxed, the 
 windows and the sunlight cleared to vulgar day, 
 and his face flushed with timidity. He sat down 
 with a feeling of melancholy in his heart, as if 
 something divine had faded out of his life. 
 
 But Radbourn reached out his hand in the 
 face of the whole school and said, " First rate ! " 
 The pupils had the western love for oratory, and 
 several of them crowded about to congratulate him 
 on his speech. 
 
 Bradley did not feel at all sure of his success. 
 He had been something alien to himself in that 
 speech, and he could not remember what he had 
 said or done. He was not at all sure that he had 
 done the right thing or the best thing. He was 
 suspicious of his power because he no longer felt 
 it. He was like a man who had dreamed of flying 
 and woke to find himself paralyzed. After his 
 triumph he was the same great, awkward, country 
 hired-man. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 67 
 
 "Say, look here, Talcott," said Radbourn, as 
 they met at the door of the chapel going out, 
 "I'm going to propose you as a member of the 
 Delta; come up Monday, and I'll put you 
 through." 
 
 "Oh, they don't want me." 
 
 " Don't be so modest. They're in need of just 
 such men. You'll be in demand now, no fear 
 about that." 
 
 There was a struggle now to get him into the 
 societies, which were, as usual, bitter rivals. He 
 was secretly anxious to be one of the debaters. 
 In fact he had counted more on that than upon 
 all the rest of the advantages of the school. He 
 thought it would please Her better. 
 
 He joined the Delta, over which Radbourn pre- 
 sided, and wore the society pin with genuine 
 pride. He sat for several meetings silently in his 
 seat, awed by the excessive formality of proceed- 
 ings, and the strictness of the parliamentary rules. 
 It was a curious thing to see the meeting come 
 to order out of a chaos of wrestling, shouting, 
 singing members whose excess of life filled the 
 room like a crowd of prize-fighters. 
 
 Rap! Rap! And the sound of the gavel 
 stilled the noise as if each man had received a 
 blow on his head. 
 
68 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 They took their seats while the stern president 
 remained standing. One final rap, and the room 
 was perfectly quiet, and every member an inexo- 
 rable parliamentarian, ready to question decisions, 
 or rise to points of order at the slightest infrac- 
 tion of Cushing's manual. Radbourn ruled with 
 a gavel of iron, but they all enjoyed it the more. 
 Half the fun and probably half the benefit of the 
 society would have been lost with the loss of 
 order. 
 
 This strenuous dignity awed Bradley for a time. 
 His fellows seemed transformed into something 
 quite other than their usual selves, into grave 
 law-makers. This strangeness wore away after a 
 time and he grew more at ease. He began to 
 study Cushing along with the rest. It laid the 
 foundation for a thorough knowledge of the 
 methods of conducting a meeting, which was 
 afterward of so much value to him. 
 
 His first attempt at debating was upon the 
 question, " Should farmers be free traders ? " a 
 question which was introduced by Milton, who 
 was always attempting to introduce questions 
 which would strike fire. Nothing pleased his fun- 
 loving nature more than to take part in a "live 
 debate." 
 
 As real free traders were scarce, Mason, a bril- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 69 
 
 liant young Democrat, requested Radbourn to 
 take the side of free trade, and he consented. 
 Milton formed the third part of the free trade 
 cohort. He liked the fun of trying to debate on 
 the opposite side, a thing which would have been 
 impossible to Bradley's more intense and simple- 
 hearted nature. What he believed he fought for. 
 
 Mason led off with a discussion of the theory 
 of free exchange and made a passionate plea, 
 florid and declamatory, which gave Fergusson, a 
 cool, pointed, scholarly Norwegian, an excellent 
 chance to raise a laugh. He called the attention 
 of the house to the "copperhead Democracy," 
 which the gentleman of the opposition was preach- 
 ing. He asked what the practical application 
 would mean. Plainly it meant cheap goods. 
 
 "That's what we want," interrupted Mason, 
 and was silenced savagely by the chairman. 
 
 "England would flood us with cheap goods." 
 
 "Let "em flood," said somebody unknown, and 
 the chairman was helpless. 
 
 Fergusson worked away steadily and was called 
 down at last. 
 
 He was distinguished as one of the few men 
 who always talked out his ten minutes. 
 
 Radbourn astonished them all by saying with 
 absolute sincerity: "Free trade as a theory is 
 
70 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 right. Considered as a question of ethics, as a 
 question of the trend of things, it's right. The 
 right to trade is as much, my right, as my right to 
 produce. The one question is whether it ought 
 to be put into operation at once. There is no 
 reason why the farmer should uphold protection." 
 
 From this on his remarks had a mysterious 
 quality. "I'm a free trader, but I'm not a Demo- 
 crat. Tariff tinkering is not free trade, and I 
 don't believe the Democrats would do any more 
 than the Republicans, but that aint the question. 
 The question is whether the farmers should be 
 free traders." 
 
 After the discussion along familiar lines had 
 taken place, Radbourn resumed the chair and 
 called on any one in the room to volunteer a word 
 on either side. "We would like to hear from 
 Talcott," he said. 
 
 "Talcott, Talcott," called the rest. 
 
 Bradley rose, as if impelled by some irresistible 
 power within himself. He began stammeringly. 
 He had but one line of thought at his command, 
 and that was the line of thought indicated by 
 Miss Wilbur in her speech at the picnic, the 
 Home Market idea, upon which he had spent a 
 great deal of thought. "Mr. Chairman, I don't 
 believe in free trade. I believe if we had free 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 71 
 
 trade it would make us all farmers for England. 
 It aint what we ought t' do. We've got gold in 
 our hills, an' coal an' timber to manufacture. 
 What we want t' do is to build up our industries ; 
 make a home market." 
 
 As he went on with these stock phrases, he 
 seemed to get hold of things which before had 
 seemed out of his reach, scraps of speeches, 
 newspaper comments, an astonishing flood of 
 arguments, or at least what he took for argu- 
 ments, came rushing into his mind. He reached 
 out his hands and grasped and used phrases not 
 his own as if they were bludgeons. He assaulted 
 the opposition blindly, but with immense power. 
 
 He sat down amid loud applause, and young 
 Mason arose to close the affirmative. He was 
 sarcastic to the point of offence. 
 
 "He has said 'em all," he began, alluding to 
 Bradley, "all the regulation arguments of Repub- 
 lican newspapers. And as for the leader of the 
 opposition, he has got off the usual sneer at cop- 
 perhead Democracy. This debate wouldn't have 
 been complete without that remark from my 
 esteemed leader of the opposition. Where argu- 
 ment fails, misrepresentations and sneers may do 
 service with the injudicious. I trust the judges 
 will remember that the argument has been on 
 
72 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 our side, and the innuendoes on the side of the 
 opposition." 
 
 The verdict of the judges was in favor of the 
 free traders, but the decision of the judges had 
 less effect on Bradley than the surprising revela- 
 tion of Radbourn's thought. There were phrases 
 whose reach and significance he did not realize to 
 the full, but their effect was not lost. He never 
 forgot such things. 
 
 He was thinking how diametrically opposite 
 Miss Wilbur's ideas were, when Radbourn came 
 up, and said with a significant smile: 
 
 "Well, Talcott, you did get hold of all the 
 regulation stock material. The Home Market 
 idea is a great field for you. You think a city is 
 of itself a good thing? You think a city means 
 civilization. Well, I want to tell you, and maybe 
 you won't believe me, cities mean vice, and crime, 
 and poverty, and vast wealth for the few, and as 
 for the Home Market idea, how would it do to let 
 the farmer buy in the same market in which he 
 sells ? He sells in the world's market, but you'd 
 force him to buy in a protected market." 
 
 Radbourn went off with a peculiar smile, which 
 left Bradley uncertain whether he was laughing at 
 him or not. He began from that moment to 
 overhaul his stock of phrases, to see if they were 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 73 
 
 really shopworn and worthless. He was growing 
 marvellously, his whole nature was now awake. 
 He thought, as he sawed wood in the back alleys 
 of the town, and at night he toiled at his books. 
 Those were great days. New powers were swiftly 
 burgeoning. 
 
 Radbourn spoke to several of the politicians of 
 the town about Bradley. 
 
 "There is a good deal in that man Talcott. 
 Of course he's just beginning, but you'll hear 
 from him on the stump. He is an orator that 
 reaches people. He has the advantage of most of 
 us ; he's in dead earnest when he's advocating 
 Republicanism." 
 
 Radbourn had times of saying things like this 
 when his hearers didn't know what to make of 
 him. 
 
 "It's just his way," some one usually said, and 
 the rest sat in silence. They didn't enjoy it, but 
 as Radbourn was not running for any office and 
 was known to be a powerful thinker, they thought 
 it best not to antagonize him. 
 
 "I wonder if he intends the law?" asked Judge 
 Brown. 
 
 "I see what the Judge is driving at," Radbourn 
 said quickly, " he thinks he can make a Democrat 
 of him." 
 
74 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The group laughed. Democrats were in a 
 hopeless minority, but the judge and Colonel 
 Peavey never lost their proselyting zeal. 
 
 "The Judge is always on hand like a sore 
 thumb," said Amos. 
 
 "The Judge'll be on the right side of the tariff 
 one of these fine days, and have the laugh on the 
 lot of yeh." 
 
 "What y' idee about that, Rad?" 
 
 "Good heavens! You don't expect to have 
 protection always, do yeh ? " was his only reply. 
 
 A day or two later he said to Bradley — 
 
 "Talcott, Brown wants to see you. He wants 
 to make you a 'lawyer's hack'! Now I'd say to 
 most men, don't do it, but if he offers to give you 
 a place take it. It won't be worse than sawing 
 wood thirty hours a week." 
 
 Following Radbourn's direction he passed up 
 a narrow, incredibly grimy stairway, and knocked 
 at a door at the end of a hall, whose only light 
 came through the letter-slit in the door. 
 
 " Come in ! " yelled a snarling voice. 
 
 Bradley entered timidly, for the voice was not 
 at all cordial. The Judge, in his own den, was a 
 different man from the Judge at Robie's grocery, 
 and this day he was in bad humor. He sat with 
 his heels on a revolving book-case, a law-book 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 75 
 
 spread out on his legs, a long pipe in his 
 hand. 
 
 If he uttered any words of greeting they were 
 lost in the crescendo growl of a fat bull-dog lying 
 in supple shining length at his feet. 
 
 " Down with yeh ! " he snarled at the dog, who 
 ceased his growling, but ran lightly and with fero- 
 cious suggestiveness toward Bradley and clung sniff- 
 ing about his heels. 
 
 " Si' down ! '.' the Judge said, indicating a chair 
 with his pipe, which he held by the bowl. He 
 made no other motion. 
 
 Bradley sat down. This greeting drove him 
 back into his usual stubborn silence. He waited 
 for developments, his eyes on the dog. 
 
 " Well, young man, what can I do for you ? " 
 asked the lawyer after a long silence, during 
 which he laid down one book, and read a page in 
 another. 
 
 "Nothin', I guess." 
 
 "Well, what the devil did yeh come in here 
 for?" he inquired, with a glare of astonishment. 
 " Want 'o buy a dog ? " 
 
 Bradley was mad. " I came because Radbourn 
 sent me. I c'n git out agin, mighty quick." 
 
 The Judge took down his heels. " Oh, you're 
 that young orator. Why didn't yeh say so,, you 
 
76 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 damned young Indian ? " He now rose and 
 walked over to the spittoon before going on. 
 Bradley knew that this rough tone was entirely 
 different from the first. It was a sort of affec- 
 tionate blackguardism. " I heard you speak last 
 Friday. All you need, young man, is a chance to 
 swing y'r elbows. You want room according to 
 y'r strength, but you never'd find it in the Repub- 
 lican party. It's struck with the palsy." 
 
 The judge had been talking this for two presi- 
 dential campaigns and didn't take himself at all 
 seriously. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 "I don't know, yet." 
 
 " Do you want 'o study law ? " 
 
 " I don't know, sir. Do you think I can be a 
 lawyer ? " 
 
 " If you're not too damned honest. If you 
 want 'o try it, I'll make an arrangement with you, 
 that will be better than sawing wood anyhow, 
 this winter, and you can keep right on with your 
 studies. We'll see what can be done next 
 year." 
 
 The old man had taken a liking to Bradley on 
 account of his oratory, and the possibilities of 
 making him a Democratic leader had really taken 
 possession of him. He had no son of his own, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. H 
 
 and he took a deep interest in young men of the 
 stamp of Milton and Bradley. 
 
 After he reached home that night, Bradley 
 extended his ambitions. He dared to hope that 
 he might be a lawyer, and an orator, which meant 
 also a successful politician to him. Politics to 
 him, as to most western men, was the greatest 
 concern of life, and the city of Washington the 
 Mecca whose shining dome lured from afar. To 
 go to Washington was equivalent to being born 
 again. "A man can do anything if he thinks so 
 and tries hard," he thought, following Radbourn's 
 words. 
 
 He bustled about cheerily, cooking his fried 
 pototoes and scraps of meat, and boiling his tea. 
 The dim light made his large face softer and 
 more thoughtful than it had appeared before, and 
 his cheerfulness over his lonely meal typed forth 
 the sublime audacity, profound ignorance, and 
 pathetic faith with which such a man faces the 
 world's millions and dares to hope for success. 
 
78 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 VI. 
 
 BRADLEY ATTENDS A CONVENTION. 
 
 On a dreamful September day of the following 
 year, Bradley was helping Milton Jennings to dig 
 potatoes. It was nearly time for his return to 
 school and to Judge Brown's office, and the two 
 young men were full of plans. Milton was 
 intending to go back for another year, and Brad- 
 ley intended to keep up with his studies if possi- 
 ble, and retain his place with Brown also. 
 
 " Say," broke out Milton suddenly, "we ought 
 to attend this convention." 
 
 "What convention ?" ^ 
 
 "Why, the nominating convention at Rock. 
 Father's going this afternoon. I never've been. 
 Let's go with him." 
 
 "That won't dig taters," smiled Bradley in his 
 slow way. 
 
 "Darn the taters. If we're goin' into politics 
 we want 'o know all about things." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 7<) 
 
 "That's so. I would like to go if your father'll 
 let us off on the taters." 
 
 Mr. Jennings made no objection. "It'll be a 
 farce, though, the whole thing." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " I'll tell you on the way down. Git the team 
 ready and we'll take neighbor Councill in." 
 
 Bradley listened to Mr. Jennings' explanation 
 with an interest born of his expanding ambition. 
 His marvellously retentive mind absorbed every 
 detail and the situation cleared in his mind. 
 
 For sixteen years the affairs of the country had 
 been managed by a group of persuasive, well- 
 dressed citizens of Rock River, who played into 
 each other's hands and juggled with the county's 
 money with such adroitness and address that their 
 reign seemed hopelessly permanent to the discon- 
 tented and suspicious farmers of the county. 
 Year after year they saw these gentlemen build- 
 ing new houses, opening banks, and buying in 
 farm mortgages "all out of the county," many 
 grangers asserted. 
 
 Year after year the convention assembled, and 
 year after year the delegates from the rural town- 
 ships came down to find their duties purely per- 
 functory, simply to fill up the seats. They always 
 found the slate made up and fine speakers ready 
 
80 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 to put it through with a rush of ready applause, 
 before which the slower-spoken, disorganized 
 farmers were well-nigh helpless. It was a case of 
 perfect organization against disorganization and 
 mutual distrust. Banded officialism fighting to 
 keep its place against the demands of a disorgan- 
 ized righteous mob of citizens. Office is always 
 a trained command. The intrenched minority is 
 capable of a sort of rock-like resistance. 
 
 Rock River and its neighboring village of 
 Cedarville, by pooling together could tie the con- 
 vention, and in addition to these towns they 
 always controlled several of the outlying town- 
 ships by judicious flattery of their self-constituted 
 managers, who were given small favors, put on 
 the central committee, and otherwise made to feel 
 that they were leading men in the township ; and 
 it was beginning to be stated that the county 
 treasurer had regularly bribed other influential 
 whippers-in, by an amiable remission of taxes. 
 
 "Why don't you fight 'em?" asked Milton, 
 after Mr. Jennings had covered the whole ground 
 thoroughly. 
 
 Councill laughed. "We've been a-fightin' um ; 
 suppose you try." 
 
 "Give us a chance, and we'll do our part. 
 Won't we, Brad?" 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 81 
 
 Bradley nodded, and so committed himself to 
 the fight. He was fated to begin his political 
 career as an Independent Republican. 
 
 On the street they met other leading grangers 
 of the county, and it became evident that there 
 was a deep feeling of resentment present. They 
 gathered in knots on the sidewalks which led up 
 under the splendid maples that lined the sidewalks 
 leading toward the court-house. 
 
 The court-house was of the usual pseudo-classic 
 style of architecture, that is to say, it was a brick 
 building with an ambitious facade of four wooden 
 fluted columns. Its halls echoed to the voices 
 and footsteps of the crowd that passed up its 
 broad, worn and grimy steps into the court-room 
 itself, which was grimier and more hopelessly 
 filthy than the staircase with its stratified accumu- 
 lations of cigar stubs and foul sawdust. Its seats 
 were benches hacked and carved like the desks of 
 a country schoolhouse. Nothing could be more 
 barren, more desolate. It had nothing to relieve 
 it save the beautiful stains of color that seemed 
 thrown upon the windows by the crimson and 
 orange maples which stood in the yard. 
 
 They found the room full of delegates, among 
 whom there was going on a great deal of excited 
 conversation. From a side room near the Judge's 
 
82 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 bench there issued, from time to time, messengers 
 who came out among the general mob, and invited 
 certain flattered and useful delegates to come in 
 and meet with the central committee. There was 
 plainly a division in the house. 
 
 "The rusty cusses are on their ears to-day," 
 said Milton, "and there's going to be fun." His 
 blue eyes were beaming with laughter, and his 
 quick wit kept those who were within hearing on 
 the broad grin." 
 
 "Goin' to down 'em t' day?" he asked of 
 Councill. 
 
 "We're goin' t' try." 
 
 In one dishonest way or another the ring had 
 kept its hold upon the county, notwithstanding 
 all criticism, and now came to the struggle with 
 smiling confidence. They secured the chairman 
 by the ready-made quick vote, by acclamation 
 for re-election. The president then appointed 
 the committee upon credentials and upon nomin- 
 ations, and the work of the convention was 
 opened. 
 
 The committee on nominations, in due course 
 presented its slate as usual, but here the real 
 battle began. Bradley suddenly found himself 
 tense with interest. His ancestry must have been 
 a race of orators and politicians, for the atmos- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 83 
 
 phere of the convention roused him till it trans- 
 formed him. 
 
 Here was the real thing. No mere debate, but 
 a fight. There was battle in the air, now blue 
 with smoke and rank with the reek of tobacco. 
 There was fight in the poise of the grizzled heads 
 and rusty, yellow shoulders of the farmers who 
 had now fallen into perfect silence. In looking 
 over them one might have been reminded of a 
 field of yellow-gray boulders. 
 
 Colonel Russell moved the election of the entire 
 slate, as presented by the nominating committee, 
 in whom, he said, the convention had the utmost 
 confidence. Four or five farmers sprang to their 
 feet instantly and Osmond Deering got the floor. 
 When he began speaking the loafers in the gallery 
 stopped their chewing in excess of interest. He 
 was one of the most influential men in the 
 county. 
 
 "Mr. President," he began in his mild way, "I 
 don't want to seem captious about this matter, 
 but I want to remind this convention that this is 
 the eighth-year that almost the same identical slate 
 has been presented to the farmers of Rock County 
 and passed against our wishes. It isn't right that 
 it should pass again. It sha'n't pass without my 
 protest." Applause. " This convention has been 
 
84 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 robbed of its right to nominate every year, and 
 every year we've gone home feeling we've been 
 made cat's paws of, for the benefit of a few citi- 
 zens of Rock River. I protest against the slate. 
 I claim the right to nominate my man. I don't 
 intend to have a committee empowered to take 
 away my rights to " — 
 
 The opposition raised a clamor, "Question! 
 Question ! " attempting to force a vote, but the 
 old man, carried out of himself by his excitement, 
 shook his broad fiat hand in the air, and cried : 
 "I have the floor, gentlemen, and I propose to 
 keep it." The farmers applauded. "I say to this 
 convention, vote down this motion and set down 
 on the old-fashioned slate-making committee busi- 
 ness. It aint just, it aint right, and I protest 
 against it." 
 
 He sat down to wild excitement, his supporters 
 trying to speak, the opposition crying, " Question, 
 Question." Several fiery speeches were made by 
 leading grangers, but they were met by a cool, 
 smooth persuasive speech from the chairman of 
 the nominating committee, who argued that it was 
 not to be supposed that this committee chosen by 
 this convention would bring in a slate which 
 would not be a credit and honor to the country. 
 True, they were mainly from Rock River and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 85 
 
 Cedarville ; but it must be remembered that the 
 population of the county was mainly in these 
 towns, and that no ticket could succeed which did 
 not give a proper proportion of representation to 
 these towns. These men could not be surpassed 
 in business ability. They were old in their office, 
 it was true, but the affairs of the county were 
 passing through a critical period in their history, 
 and it was an old and well-tried saying: "Never 
 swap horses in the midst of a stream," anyhow, 
 he was content to leave the matter to the vote of 
 this convention. 
 
 The vote carried the slate through by a small 
 majority, leaving the farmers again stunned and 
 helpless, and the further business of the conven- 
 tion was to restore peace and good-will, as far as 
 possible among the members. It was amazing to 
 Bradley to find how easily he could be swayed by 
 the plausible speeches of the gentlemanly chair- 
 man of the nominating committee. It was a 
 great lesson to him in the power of oratory. The 
 slate was put through simply by the address of 
 the chairman of the committee. 
 
 On the way out they met Councill and Jen- 
 nings walking out with Chairman Russell, who 
 had his hand on a shoulder of each, and was say- 
 ing, with beautiful candor and joviality: "Well, 
 
86 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 we beat you again. It's all fair in politics, you 
 know." 
 
 "Yes, but it's the last time," said Jennings, 
 who refused to smile. "We can't give this the 
 go-by." 
 
 "Oh, well, now, neighbor Jennings, you mustn't 
 take it too hard ; you know these men are good 
 capable men." 
 
 "They are capable enough," put in Deering, 
 "but we want a change." 
 
 "Then make it," laughed Russell, good-na- 
 turedly defiant. 
 
 "We will make it, bet y'r boots," said Amos 
 Ridings; 
 
 "Let's see yeh," was Russell's parting word, 
 delivered with a jaunty wave of his hand. 
 
 The farmers rode home full of smoldering 
 wrath. They were in fighting humor, and only 
 needed an organizer to become a dangerous force. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 87 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE FARMERS OUST THE RING. 
 
 The following Saturday Bradley, who was still 
 at work with Milton, saw Amos Ridings gallop up 
 and dismount at the gate, and call Jennings out, 
 and during the next two hours, every time he 
 looked up he saw them in deep discussion out by 
 the pig pen. Part of the time Jennings faced 
 Amos, who leaned against the fence and whittled 
 a stick, and part of the time he talked to Jen- 
 nings who leaned back against the fence on his 
 elbows, and studied Amos whittling the rail. 
 Mrs. Jennings at last called them all to din- 
 ner, and still the question remained apparently 
 unsolved, though they changed the conversation 
 to crops and the price of wheat. 
 
 " Brad, set down here and make a lot o' copies 
 of this call. Milt, you help him." 
 
 The call read : 
 7 
 
88 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "A New Deal. Reform in County Politics." 
 
 " A mass convention of the citizens of Rock County will be 
 held at Rock Creek Grove on September 28th, for the purpose of 
 nominating a people's ticket. All who favor reform in politics 
 and rebel against the ring-rule of our county officers are invited 
 to be present. Per order, 
 
 Amos Ridings, 
 John Jennings, 
 William Councill, 
 
 People's Committee. 
 
 "What's all this?" asked Milton of his father. 
 
 "We're going to have a convention of our 
 own." 
 
 "We're on the war path," said Amos grimly. 
 " We'll make them fellers think hell's t' pay and 
 no pitch hot." 
 
 After dinner Amos took a roll of the copies of 
 the call and rode away to the north, and Jennings 
 hitched up his team and drove away to the south. 
 Milton and Bradley went back to their corn-husk- 
 ing, feeling that they were " small petaters." 
 
 "They don't intend to let us into it, that's 
 dead sure," said Milton. "All the samee, I know 
 the scheme. They're going to bolt the conven- 
 tion, and there'll be fun in the air." 
 
 The county woke up the next morning to find 
 its schoolhouse doors proclaiming a revolt of the 
 farmers, and the new deal was the talk of the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 89 
 
 county. It was the grange that had made this 
 revolt possible. This general intelligence and 
 self-cognizance was the direct result of the work 
 of the grange. It had brought the farmers 
 together, and had made them acquainted with their 
 own men, their own leaders, and when they came 
 together a few days later, under the open sky, 
 like the Saxon thanes of old, there was a spirit of 
 rebellion in the air that made every man look his 
 neighbor in the face with exultation. 
 
 It was a perfectly Democratic meeting. They 
 came together that beautiful September day, 
 under the great oaks, a witenagemote of serious, 
 liberty-loving men, ready to follow wherever their 
 leaders pointed. 
 
 Amos Ridings was the chairman, tall, grim- 
 lipped and earnest-eyed. His curt speech carried 
 the convention with him. His platform was a 
 wagon box, and he stood there with his hat off, 
 the sun falling upon his shock of close-clipped 
 stiff hair, making a powerful and resolute figure 
 with a touch of poetry in his face. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, we've come together here 
 to-day to organize to oust the ring that has held 
 our county affairs in their hands so long. We 
 can oust them if we'll stand together. If we 
 don't, we can't. I believe we will stand together. 
 
90 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 •The grange has learned us something. It's mad|j 
 us better acquainted with each other. An' the 
 time has come f'r a fight. The first thing is 
 a permanent chairman. Who'll y' have for 
 chairman?" 
 
 " I nominate Amos Ridings." 
 
 " Second the motion," cried two voices in 
 quick succession. 
 
 The chairman's grim visage did not. relax. • He 
 had no time for false delicacy. "Are y' ready f'r 
 the question ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," shouted the crowd. 
 
 "All in favor, say 'Aye'." 
 
 There was a vast shout of approval. 
 
 Contrary minds ' No ! It's a vote." 
 
 The other officers were elected in the same 
 way. They were there for business. They passed 
 immediately to the nominations, and there was 
 the same unanimity all down the ticket until the 
 nominations for the county auditor began. 
 
 A small man lifted his hand and cried, "I nom- 
 inate James McGann of Rock for auditor." 
 
 There was a little silence followed by murmurs 
 of disapproval. The first false note had been 
 Struck. Someone seconded the motion. The 
 chairman's gavel fell. 
 
 " I want to ask the secretary to take the chair 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 91 
 
 for a few minutes," he said, and there was some- 
 thing in his voice that meant business. Some- 
 thing ominous. The delegates pressed closer. 
 The secretary took the chair. "I've got some- 
 thing to say right here," Ridings began. 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, we're here in a big fight. We 
 can't afford t' make any mistake. We can't afford 
 to be tolled off the track by a bag of anise seed. 
 Who is the man makin' this motion ? Does any- 
 body know him ? I do. He's a spy. He's sent 
 here f'r a purpose. Suppose he'd nominated a 
 better man ? His motion would have been out of 
 place. His nomination of Jim McGann was a 
 trick. Jim McGann can't git a pound o' sugar on 
 credit in his own town. He never had any credit 
 n'r influence. Why was he nominated ? Simply 
 to make us ridiculous — a laughin' stock. I want 
 to put you on your guard. If we win it's got t' 
 be in a straight fight. That's all I've got t' say. 
 Recognize no nomination that don't come from a 
 man y' know." 
 
 The convention clamored its approval, and the 
 small spy and trickster slunk away and disap- 
 peared. There was a certain majesty in the action 
 of this group of roused farmers. Nominations 
 were seconded and ratified with shouts, even down 
 through the most important officers in the county 
 
92 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 and town. It was magnificent to see how deep 
 was the harmony of action. 
 
 Deering was forced to accept the nomination 
 for treasurer by this feeling of the unanimity 
 and genuineness which pervaded each succeeding 
 action, and when the vote was called, and the men 
 thrust their hands in the air and shouted, they 
 had something of the same feeling that lay at the 
 heart of the men of Uri, and Unterwalden, and 
 Schwyz when they shouted their votes together 
 in the valley with the mighty cordon of guarding 
 mountains around them. 
 
 The grange had made this convention and its 
 magnificent action possible. Each leading mem- 
 ber of the grange, through its festivals, and pic- 
 nics, and institutes, had become. known to the 
 rest, and they were able to choose their leaders 
 instantly. The ticket as it stood was very strong. 
 Deering as treasurer and Councill as sheriff, 
 insured success so far as these officers were 
 concerned. 
 
 On the way home Councill shouted back at the 
 young men riding with Jennings : " Now's a good 
 time for you young chaps t' take the field and 
 lection eer while we nominees wear biled collars, 
 and set in the parlor winder." 
 
 "What you want to do is stay at home and dig 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 93 
 
 taters," shouted Milton. "A biled collar would 
 defeat any one of yeh, dead sure." 
 
 This was, in fact, the plan of the campaign. 
 
 Amos Ridings assumed practical direction of 
 it. 
 
 "Now we don't want a candidate to go out — 
 not once. Every man stay at home and not open 
 his head. We'll do the work. You tend your 
 knittin' and we'll elect yeh." 
 
 The boys went out on Friday nights, to election- 
 eer for the Granger ticket, as it was called. 
 
 " It's boss fun," Milton said to his father. 
 " It's ahead o' husking corn. It does tickle me to 
 see the future sheriff of the county diggin' per- 
 taters while I'm ridin' around in my best clo'es 
 makin' speeches." 
 
 "We'll have the whip-row on you when we get 
 into office," replied Mr. Jennings. 
 
 "Don't crow till y'r out o' the woods," laughed 
 Milton. 
 
 The boys really aroused considerable enthusi- 
 asm, and each had stanch admirers, though they 
 were entirely opposed in style. Milton told a 
 great many funny stories, and went off on what 
 he considered to be the most approved oratorical 
 flights. He called on the farmers to stand 
 together. He asked them whether it was fair 
 
94 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 that the town should have all the offices. In 
 short, he made very taking political harangues. 
 
 Bradley always arose in the same slow way. 
 He was a little heavy in getting started. His 
 deep voice was thick and husky at beginning, but 
 cleared as he went on. His words came slowly, 
 as if each were an iron weight. He dealt in 
 facts — or what he believed to be facts. He had 
 carefully collated certain charges which had been 
 made against the officials of the county, and in 
 his perfectly fearless way of stating them, there 
 was immense power. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 95 
 
 . VIII. 
 BRADLEY OFFENDS NETTIE'S FATHER. 
 
 It was a singular thing to see the farmers sud- 
 denly begin to ask themselves why they should 
 stand quietly by while the townsmen monopolized 
 all the offices and defied the farmers to make a 
 change. They laughed at the charges of chican- 
 ery in office, and openly said that " no man with 
 corns on his hands and hayseed in his hair can be 
 elected to office in the county." This speech 
 was of the greatest value to the young champions. 
 It became their text. 
 
 The speech that made Bradley famous among 
 the farmers came about the middle of "October. 
 It was an open-air meeting in the Cottonwood 
 township, one Saturday afternoon. He and Mil- 
 ton drove out to their appointment in a carriage 
 which Milton had borrowed. It was a superb 
 Indian summer day, and they were both very 
 happy. Each had his individual way of showing 
 it. Milton put his heels on the dash-board, and 
 
96 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 sung or whistled all the way out, stopping only 
 occasionally to say : 
 
 " Aint this boss ? This is what I call doin' a 
 thing up brown. Wish I could do this for a 
 stiddy business." 
 
 Bradley smiled at his companion's fun. He 
 felt the pride and glory of it all, but he couldn't 
 express it as Milton did. It was such a magnifi- 
 cent thing to be thus selected to push on a cam- 
 paign. The mere idea of the crowd waiting out 
 there for their arrival had something royal in 
 it. And then this riding away into a practically 
 unknown part of the county to speak before 
 perfect strangers had an epic quality. Great 
 things seemed coming to him. 
 
 They found quite an assembly of farmers, not- 
 withstanding the busy season. It showed how 
 deep was the interest in the campaign, and Milton 
 commented upon it in beginning his speech. . 
 
 " If a farmer ever gets his share of things, he's 
 got to take time to turn out to caucuses and meet- 
 ings, and especially he's got to stop work and 
 vote." 
 
 Bradley arose after Milton's speech, which 
 pleased the farmers with its shrewdness and drol- 
 lery, feeling at a great disadvantage. 
 
 " My colleague," he began (preserving the for- 
 
A SPOIL of office: 97 
 
 mality of the Delta Society debates), "has told 
 you of the ring that has controlled the officers of 
 this county for so long, but he hasn't told you of 
 the inside facts. I aint fightin' in this campaign 
 to put the town people out and the farmers in; 
 I'm fightin' to put thieves out and honest men 
 in." 
 
 This was a blow straight out from the shoulder 
 and was followed by great applause. But a few 
 voices cried : 
 
 " Take that back ! " 
 
 " I won't take anything back that I know is the 
 truth." 
 
 "Yes, you will! That's a lie, an' you know 
 it ! " shouted an excited man a short distance 
 away. 
 
 " Let me tell you a story," Bradley went on 
 slowly. " Last session of court a friend of mine 
 was on the jury. When court adjourned, he took 
 his order on the county to the treasurer and asked 
 for his pay. The treasurer said, ' I'm „ Jterry, 
 but they aint any funds left for the jurors' 
 fees.'" 
 
 "'Can't you give me some out of some other 
 fund ? '" 
 
 '"No, that won't do — can't do that' 
 
 "'Well, when will yeh have some money in?' 
 
98 ' A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "•Well, it's hard tellin' — in two or three 
 months, probably.' 
 
 "•Well, I'd like the money on this order. I 
 need it. Can't I git somebody to cash it for me ? ' 
 
 '• ' Well, I dunno. I guess they'll take it at the 
 store. My brother John might cash it — possi- 
 bly, as an accommodation.' 
 
 ".Well, my friend goes over to Brother John's 
 bank, and Brother John cashes the order, and 
 gives him eight dollars for it. Brother John then 
 turns in the order to the treasurer and gets 
 twelve dollars for it, and then they 'divvy' on the 
 thing. Now, how's that for a nice game ? " 
 
 "It's a damn lie!" shouted an excited man in 
 the foreground. He had his sleeves rolled up 
 and kept up a continual muttering growl. 
 
 "It's the truth," repeated Bradley. There was 
 a strong Russell contingent in the meeting, and 
 they were full of fight. The angry man in front 
 repeated his shout : 
 
 " That's a lie ! Take it back, or I'll yank yeh 
 off'n that wagon box." 
 
 " Come and try it," said Bradley, throwing off 
 his coat. 
 
 The excitement had reached the point where 
 blows begin. Several irresponsible fellows were 
 urging their companion on. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 99 
 
 "Jump'im! Jump 'im, Hank! We'll see fair 
 play." 
 
 "Stand yer ground, Brad!" shouted the 
 friends of the speaker. "We'll see they come 
 one at a time." 
 
 " Oh, see here ! No fightin'," shouted others. 
 The man Hank was not to be silenced. He 
 pushed his way to the wagon-wheel and shook his 
 extended fist at the speaker. 
 
 " Take that back, you " — 
 
 Bradley caught him by his uplifted wrist, and 
 bracing himself against the wheel, jerked his 
 assailant into the wagon-box, and tumbled him 
 out in a disjointed heap on the other side before 
 he could collect his scattered wits. 
 
 Then Bradley stood up in his splendid height 
 and breadth. " I say it's the truth ; and if there 
 are any more rowdies who want 'o try yankin' me 
 out o' this wagon, now's your time. You never'll 
 have a better chance." Nobody seemed anxious. 
 The cheers of the crowd and the young orator's 
 determined attitude discouraged them. "Now 
 I'll tell yeh who the man was who presented that 
 order. It was William Bacon ; mebbe some o' 
 you fellers want to tell him he lies." 
 
 He finished his speech without any marked 
 interruption, and was roundly congratulated by 
 
100 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the farmers. On the way back to Rock River, 
 however, he seemed very much depressed, while 
 Milton exulted over it all. 
 
 " Gosh ! I wish I had your muscle, old man ! I 
 ain't worth a cent in things like that. Csesar! 
 But you snatched him bald-headed." 
 
 "Makes me feel sick," Bradley said. "I ain't 
 had but one squabble before since I was a boy. 
 It makes me feel like a plug-ugly." 
 
 Milton was delighted with it all. It made such 
 a capital story to tell ! " Say Brad, do you know 
 what I thought of when you was yankin' that fel- 
 ler over the wheel? Scaldin' hogs! You pulled 
 on him just as if he was a three-hundred pound 
 shote. It was funny as all time ! " 
 
 But Bradley had trouble in going to sleep that 
 night, thinking about it. He was wondering what 
 She would have thought of him in that disgraceful 
 row. He tried to remember whether he swore or 
 not. He felt, even in the darkness, her grave, 
 sweet eyes fixed upon him in a sorrowful, disap- 
 pointed way, and it made him groan and turn his 
 face to the wall, to escape the picture of himself 
 standing there in the wagon, with his coat off, 
 shouting back at a band of rowdies. 
 
 But the story spread, and it pleased the farmers 
 immensely. The boldness of the charge and the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 101 
 
 magnificent muscle that backed it up took hold of 
 the people's imagination strongly, and added very 
 greatly to his fame. 
 
 When the story reached Judge Brown, he was 
 deeply amused. On the following Monday morn- 
 ing, as Brad was writing away busily, the Judge 
 entered the room. 
 
 "Well, Brad, they say you called the Russells 
 thieves." 
 
 " I guess perhaps I did." 
 
 "Well, aint that goin' to embarrass you a little 
 when- — when you're calling on Nettie?" 
 
 "I aint a-goin' to call there any more." 
 
 " Oh, I see ! Expect the colonel to call on you, 
 eh ? " 
 
 "I don't care what he does," Bradley cried, 
 turning and facing his employer. " I said what I 
 know to be the truth. I call it thieving, and if 
 they don't like it, they can hate it. I aint a-goin' 
 to back down an inch, as long as I know what I 
 know." 
 
 "That's right!" chuckled the Judge. As a 
 Democrat, he rejoiced to see a Republican ring 
 assaulted. " Go ahead, I'll stand by you, if they 
 try the law." 
 
102 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 IX. 
 
 BRADLEY MEETS MRS. BROWN. 
 
 Though Bradley had called a good many times 
 at the Russell house, to accompany Nettie to par- 
 ties or home from school, yet he had never had 
 any conversation to speak of with Russell, who 
 was a large and somewhat pompous man. He 
 knew his place, as a Western father, and never 
 interfered with his daughter's love affairs. He 
 knew Bradley as a likely and creditable young 
 fellow, and besides, his experience with his two 
 older daughters had taught him the perfect use- 
 lessness of trying to marry them to suit himself 
 or his wife. 
 
 He was annoyed at this attack of Bradley upon 
 him and his brother, the treasurer. It was really 
 carrying things too far. Accustomed to all sorts 
 of epithets and charges on the part of opposing 
 candidates, he ought not to have been so sensitive 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 103 
 
 to Bradley's charge, but the case was peculiar. 
 It was exactly true, in the first place, and then it 
 came from a young man whom his daughter had 
 brought into the family, and whom he had begun 
 to think of as a probable son-in-law. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, just as Bradley was tum- 
 bling his dishes into a pan of hot water (" their 
 weekly bath," Milton called it), there came a 
 sharp knock on the door, and a girl's voice called 
 out clearly : 
 
 "Hello, Brad! Can I come in?" 
 
 "Yes, come in." 
 
 Nettie came in, her cheeks radiant with color, 
 her eyes shining. "Oh, washing your dishes? 
 Wait a minute, I'll help." She flung off her 
 coat in a helter-skelter way, and rolled up her 
 sleeves. 
 
 Bradley expostulated : " No, no ! Don't do that ! 
 I'll have 'em done in a jiffy. They aint but a 
 few." 
 
 "I'll wipe 'em, anyway," she replied. "Oh, 
 
 fun ! What a towel ! " she held up the side of a 
 
 flour-sack, on which was a firm-name in brown 
 
 letters. She laughed in high glee. There was a 
 
 delicious suggestion in the fact that she was 
 
 standing by his side helping him in his household 
 
 affairs. 
 
 8 
 
104 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 Bradley was embarrassed, but she chattered 
 away, oblivious of space and time. Her regard 
 for him had grown absolutely outspoken and with- 
 out shame. There was something primitive and 
 savage in her frank confession of her feelings. 
 She had come to make all the advances herself, 
 in a confidence that was at once beautiful and 
 pathetic. She met him in the morning on the 
 way to school, and clung to him at night, and 
 made him walk home with her. She came after- 
 noons with a team, to take him out driving. The 
 presence of the whole town really made no differ- 
 ence to her. She took his arm. just the same, 
 proud and happy that he permitted it. 
 
 "Oh, say," she broke off suddenly, "pa wants 
 to see you about something. He wanted me to 
 tell you to come down to-night." She was dust- 
 ing the floor at the moment, while he was mov- 
 ing the furniture. " I wonder what he wants ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 "I don't know," he replied, evasively. 
 
 "Something about politics, I suppose." She 
 came over and stood beside him in silence. She 
 was very girlish, in spite of her assumption of a 
 young lady's dress and airs, and she loved him 
 devouringly She stood so close to him that she 
 could put her hand on his, as it lay on the table. 
 
A SPOIL 'OF OFFICE. 105 
 
 Her clear, sweet eyes gazed at him with the con- 
 fidence and purity of a child. 
 
 It was a relief to Bradley to hear the last bell 
 ring. She withdrew her hand and threw down 
 the broom which she had been holding in her left 
 hand. "Oh, that's the last bell. Help me on 
 .with my cloak, quick ! " He put her cloak on for 
 her. She stamped her foot impatiently. " Pull 
 my hair outside ! " 
 
 He took her luxuriant hair in both his hands, 
 and pulled it outside the cloak, and fitted the col- 
 lar about her neck. She caught both his hands 
 in hers, and looking up, laughed gleefully. 
 
 " You dassent kiss me now ! " 
 
 He stooped and kissed her cheek, and blushed 
 with shame. On the way up the walk to the 
 chapel, he suffered an agony of remorse. He 
 felt dimly that he had done his ideal an irrepara- 
 ble wrong. Nettie talked on, not minding his 
 silence, looking up into his face in innocent glee, 
 planning some new party or moonlit drive. 
 
 All that morning he was too deep in thought 
 to give attention to his classes, and at noon he 
 avoided Nettie, and went home to think, but try 
 as he might, something prevented him from get- 
 ting, hold of the real facts in the case. 
 
 He was fond of Nettie. She stood near him, 
 
106 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 an embodied passion. His love for Miss Wilbur, 
 ■which he had no idea of calling love, was a vague 
 and massive feeling of adoration, entirely disasso- 
 ciated from the flesh. She stood for him as the 
 embodiment of a world of longings and aspira- 
 tions undeveloped and undefined. 
 
 One thought was clear. He ought not to 
 allow — that is the way it took shape in his 
 mind — he ought not to allow Nettie to be seen 
 with him so much, unless he intended to marry 
 her, and he had never thought of her as a possible 
 wife. 
 
 He didn't know how to meet Russell, so put 
 off going down to his house, as he had promised. 
 He excused himself by saying he was busy mov- 
 ing, anyway. He had determined upon taking a 
 boarding-place somewhere in correspondence with 
 his change of fortunes and when he had spoken 
 of it, the Judge had said : 
 
 " Why not come up to my house ? Mrs. Brown 
 and I get kind of lonesome sometimes, and then 
 I hate to milk, an' curry horses, an' split kind- 
 lings, always did. Come up and try living with 
 us." 
 
 Bradley had accepted the offer with the great- 
 est delight. It meant a great deal to him. It 
 took him out of a cellar and put him into one of 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 107 
 
 the finest houses in town — albeit it was a cold 
 and gloomy house. It was large, and white, and 
 square, with sharp gables, and its blinds were 
 always closed. He went up to dinner that day 
 with the judge, to meet Mrs. Brown, whom he 
 had never seen ; nobody saw her, for she was a 
 " perfect recluse." 
 
 She looked at her husband through her glasses 
 in a calm surprise, as he introduced Bradley, and 
 stated he had invited him to dinner. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Brown, if you will do such things, 
 you must expect your company to take every-day 
 fare." 
 
 " Maybe our every-day fare, Mrs. Brown, will 
 be Sunday fare for this young man." 
 
 They sat down at the table, which Mrs. Brown 
 waited upon herself, rising from her place for the 
 tea or the biscuits. She said very little there- 
 after, but Bradley caught the gleam of her glasses 
 fixed upon him several times. She had a beauti- 
 ful mouth, but the line of her lips seemed to 
 indicate sadness and a determined silence. 
 
 "Mrs. Brown, I wish you'd take care of this 
 young man for a few weeks. He's my clerk, and 
 I — ahem! — I — suppose he's going to milk the 
 cow and split the kindlings for me, to pay for his 
 board in that useful way." 
 
108 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 She looked at him again in silence, and the line 
 of her lips got a little straighter, as she waited 
 for the Judge to go on. 
 
 "This young man is going to study law with 
 me, and I hope to make a great man of him, Mrs. 
 Brown." 
 
 '< Mr. Brown, I wish you'd consult with me 
 once in a while," she said without anger. 
 
 "Mrs. Brown, it was a case of necessity. I 
 was on the point of giving up the milking of that 
 cow, and my back got a crick in it every time I 
 split the kindlings. I consider I've done you a 
 benefit and myself a favor, Mrs. Brown." 
 
 She turned her glasses upon Bradley again, and 
 studied him in silence. She was a very dignified 
 woman of fifty. Her hair was like wavy masses 
 of molasses candy, and her brow cold and placid. 
 Her eyes could not be seen, but her mouth and 
 chin were almost girlish in their beauty. 
 
 The Judge felt that he had done a hazardous 
 thing. He took a new tone, his reminiscent tone. 
 "Mrs. Brown, do you remember the first time 
 you saw me? Well, I was 'pirating' through 
 Oberlin — (chopping wood,- you remember we 
 didn't saw it in those days) and living in a cellar, 
 just like this young man. He's been cookin' his 
 own grub, just as I did then, because he hasn't 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 109 
 
 any money to pay for board. Now I think we 
 ought to give him a lift. Don't you think so, 
 Mrs. Brown ? " 
 
 Her mouth relaxed a little. The glasses turned 
 upon Bradley again, and looked upon him so 
 steadily that he was able to see her gray eyes. 
 
 " Mr. Brown is always doing things without con- 
 sulting me," she explained to Bradley, "but you 
 are welcome, sir, if our lonesome house aint worse 
 than your cellar. Mr. Brown very seldom takes 
 the trouble to explain. what he wants to do, but 
 I'll try to make you feel at home, sir." 
 
 They ate the rest of the meal in silence. The 
 Judge was evidently thinking over old times, and 
 it would be very difficult to say what his wife was 
 thinking of. At last he rose .saying : 
 
 "Now if you'll come out, I'll show you the well 
 and the cow." As he went by his wife's chair, 
 he stopped a moment, and said gently, " He'll do 
 us two lonely old fossils good, Elizabeth." His 
 hand lay on her shoulder an instant as he passed, 
 and when Bradley went out of the room, he saw 
 her wiping her eyes upon her handkerchief, her 
 glasses in her hand. 
 
 The Judge coughed a little. "We never had 
 but one child — a boy. He was killed while out 
 hunting" — he broke off quickly. "Now here's 
 
110 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the meal for the cow. I give her about a panful 
 twice a day — when I don't forget it." 
 
 Somehow, Mrs. Brown didn't seem so hard 
 when he met her again at supper. The line of 
 her mouth was softer. In his room he found 
 many little touches of her motherly hand — a 
 clean, sweet bed, and little hand-made things upon 
 the wall, that made him think of his own mother, 
 who had been dead since his sixteenth year. . He 
 had never had such a room as this. It appeared 
 to him as something very fine. Its frigid atmos- 
 phere and lack of grace and charm did not appear 
 to his eyes. It was nothing short of princely 
 after his cellar. 
 
 His knowledge of the inner life of the common 
 Western homes made him feel that this rigid cold- 
 ness between the Judge and his wife was only 
 their way. The touch of the Judge's hand on her 
 shoulder meant more than a thousand worn 
 phrases spoken every day. Under that silence 
 and reserve there was a deep of tenderness and 
 wistful longing which they could not utter, 
 and dared not acknowledge, even to themselves. 
 Their lonely house had grown intolerable, and 
 Bradley came into it bringing youth and sunlight. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. Ill 
 
 X. 
 
 A COUNTRY POLLING PLACE. 
 
 The suffering of the county papers was acute. 
 They had supported, the "incumbents" for so 
 long, and had derived a reciprocal support so long, 
 that they could not bring themselves to a decision. 
 The Democratic paper, the Call, was too feeble to 
 be anything distinctive at this stage of its career 
 Chard Foster had not yet assumed control of it. 
 It lent a half-hearted support to the Independent 
 movement, and justified its action on the ground 
 that it was really a Democratic movement leading 
 toward reform, and it assumed to be the only 
 paper advocating reform. The other paper, une- 
 quivocally Republican, supported the regular ticket 
 with that single-heartedness of enmity, born of 
 bribery, or that ignorance which shuts out any 
 admission that the other side has a case. 
 
 The Oak Grove schoolhouse was the real storm- 
 
112 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 centre of the election, and there was a great 
 crowd there all day. It was a cold, raw day. 
 The men and boys all came in their overcoats and 
 stood about on the leeward side of the school- 
 house — where a pale sunlight fell — and scuffled, 
 and told stories, and bet cookies and apples on 
 the election. 
 
 Some of the boys made up fires out in the 
 woods near by, to which they ran whooping when- 
 ever the cold became intolerable. They crouched 
 around the flames with a weird return of ances- 
 tral barbarism and laughed when the smoke puffed 
 out into their faces. They made occasional for- 
 ages in company with boys who lived near, after 
 eggs, and apples, and popcorn, which they placed 
 before the fire and ate spiced with ashes. 
 
 Horsemen galloped up at intervals, bringing 
 encouraging news of other voting places. Teams 
 clattered up filled with roughly-dressed farmers, 
 who greeted the other voters with loud and hearty 
 shouts. They tumbled out of the wagons, voted 
 riotously, and then clattered back into the corn- 
 fields to their work, with wild hurrahs for the 
 granger ticket. 
 
 The schoolhouse itself roared with laughter and 
 excited talk, and the big stove in the centre 
 devoured its huge chunks of wood, making the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. H3 
 
 heat oppressive near it. No presidential election 
 had ever brought out such throngs of voters, or 
 produced such interested discussion. 
 
 Bradley had been made clerk. His capital 
 handwriting and knowledge of book-keeping 
 made him a valuable man for that work. He sat 
 behind his desk with the books before him, and 
 impassively performed his duties, but it was his 
 first public appointment, and he was really deeply 
 gratified. He felt paid for all his year's hard 
 .study. 
 
 About two o'clock, when the voters were thick- 
 est at the polls, a man galloped up with ah excited 
 air, and reining in his foaming horse, yelled : 
 
 "Deering has withdrawn in favor of Russell! " 
 The crowd swarmed out. 
 
 " What's the matter ? " 
 
 " Who spoke ? " 
 
 "Deering has withdrawn in favor of Russell. 
 Cast your votes for Russell," repeated the man, 
 and plunged off up the road. 
 
 The farmers looked at each other. " What the 
 hell's all this ? " said Smith. 
 
 " Who was it ? " 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " He's a liar, whoever he is,", said Councill. 
 " Where've I seen him before?" 
 
H4 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I know — it's Deering's hired man." 
 
 " You don't say so ! " This seemed like the 
 truth. 
 
 "I know who it is — it's Sam Harding," 
 shouted Milton. " But that ain't Deering's horse. 
 It's a Republican trick. Jump y'r horse there, 
 Councill." He was carried out of himself by his 
 excitement and anger. The men leaped upon 
 their horses. 
 
 " Some o' you fellers take his back trail," 
 shouted Councill. " He'll come from Shell-rock 
 and Hell's Corner." 
 
 The men saw the whole trick. This man had 
 been sent out to the most populous of the county 
 voting places to spread a lying repoit, trusting to 
 the surprise of the announcement to carry a few 
 indecisive votes for Russell. 
 
 Other men leaped their horses and rode off on 
 Harding's back trail, while Councill, Milton, and 
 old man Bacon rode away after him. Bacon 
 growled as he rode : 
 
 " I'm agin you fellers, but by God ! I b'lieve in 
 a square game. If I kin git my paw on that 
 houn' " — 
 
 They rode furiously in the hope of overtaking 
 him before he reached the next polling-place. 
 Milton was in the lead on his gray colt, a magnifi- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. H5 
 
 cent creature. He was light and a fine rider, and 
 forged ahead of the elder men. But the "spy" 
 was also riding a fine horse, and was riding very 
 fast. 
 
 When they reached the next polling-place he 
 was just passing out of sight beyond. They 
 dashed up, scattering the wondering crowd. 
 
 "It's a. lie! It's a trick!" shouted Milton. 
 "Deering wouldn't withdraw. Cast every vote 
 for Deering. It's all done to fool yeh ! " 
 
 The others came thundering up. " It's a lie ! " 
 they shouted. 
 
 " Come on ! " cried Milton, dropping the rein 
 on Mark's neck, and darting away on the trail of 
 the false courier. 
 
 The young fellows caught the excitement, and 
 every one who had a horse leaped into the saddle 
 and clattered after, with whoop and halloo, as if 
 they were chasing a wolf. 
 
 The rider ahead suddenly discovered that he 
 was being followed, and he urged his horse to a 
 more desperate pace along the lane which skirted 
 the woods' edge for a mile, and then turned 
 sharply and led across the river. 
 
 Along the lane is the chase led. There was 
 something in the grim silence with which Milton 
 and Bacon rode in the lead that startled the spy's 
 
116 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 guilty heart. He pushed his horse unmercifully, 
 hoping to discourage his pursuers. 
 
 Milton's blood was up now, and bringing the 
 fiat of his hand down on the proud neck of his 
 colt — the first blow he ever struck him, he 
 shouted — 
 
 " Get out o' this, Mark ! " 
 
 The magnificent animal threw out his chin, his 
 ears laid flat back, he seemed to lower and 
 lengthen, his eyes took on a wild glare. The 
 air whizzed by Milton's ears. A wild exultation 
 rose in his heart. All the stories of rides and 
 desperate men he had ever read came back in a 
 vague mass to make his heart thrill. 
 
 Mark's terrific pace steadily ate up the inter- 
 vening distance, and Milton turned the corner 
 and thundered down the decline at the very heels 
 of the fugitive. 
 
 "Hey! Hold on there!" Milton shouted, as 
 he drew alongside and passed the fellow. " Hold 
 on there ! " 
 
 "Git out o' my way ! " was the savage answer. 
 
 "Stop right here!" commanded Milton, rein- 
 ing Mark in the way of the other horse. 
 
 The fellow struck Mark. " Git out o' my 
 way ! " he yelled. 
 
 Milton seized the bit of the other horse and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 117 
 
 held it. The fellow raised his arm and struck 
 him twice before Bacon came thundering up. 
 
 " H'yare ! Damn yeh — none o' that ! " 
 
 He leaped from his horse, and running up, tore 
 the rider from his saddle in one swift effort. 
 The fellow struggled fiercely. 
 
 "Let goo" me, 'r I'll kill yeh ! " 
 
 Bacon growled something inarticulate as he 
 cuffed the man from side to side, shook him like 
 a rag, and threw him to the ground. He lay 
 there dazed and scared, while Bacon caught his 
 horse and tied it to a tree. 
 
 He came back to the fellow as he was ris- 
 ing, and again laid his bear-like clutch upon 
 him. 
 
 "Who paid you to do this?" he demanded, as 
 Councill and. the others came straggling up, their 
 horses panting with fatigue. 
 
 The fellow struck him in the face. The old 
 man lifted him in the air and dashed him to the 
 ground with a snarling cry. His gesture was like 
 that of one who slams a biting cat upon the floor. 
 The man did not rise. 
 
 "You've killed him !" cried Milton. 
 
 "Damn 'im — I don't care!" 
 
 The man was about thirty-five years of age, a 
 slender, thin-faced man with tobacco-stained whis- 
 
118 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 kers. The fellows knew him for a sneaking fel- 
 low, but they plead for him. 
 
 "Don't hit 'im agin, Bacon. He's got enough." 
 
 The fellow sat up' and looked around. The 
 blood was streaming from his nose and from a 
 wound in his head. He had a savage and hunted 
 look. He was unsubdued, but was too much 
 dazed to be able to do anything more than swear 
 at them all. 
 
 "What a' yuh chasen* me fur, y' damn cow- 
 ards ? Six on one ! " 
 
 "What're you do-un ridin' across the country 
 like this fur?" 
 
 " None o' your business, you low-lived " — 
 
 Bacon brought the doubled leading-strap which 
 he held in his hand down over the fellow's 
 shoulders with a sounding slap. 
 
 "What you need is a sound tannun," he said. 
 He plied the strap in perfect silence upon the 
 writhing man, who swore and yelled, but dared 
 not rise. 
 
 " Give him enough of it ! " yelled the crowd. 
 
 " Give the fool enough ! " 
 
 Bacon worked away with a curious air of taking 
 a job. The strap fell across the man's upheld 
 hands and over his shoulders, penetrating even 
 the thick coat he wore — but it was not the blows 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. tW 
 
 that quelled him, it was the look in Bacon's eyes. 
 He saw that the old man would stand there 'till 
 sunset and ply that strap. 
 
 " Hold on ! Dam yeh — y' want 'o kill me ? " 
 
 " Got 'nough ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! My God, yes ! " 
 
 " Climb onto that horse there." 
 
 He climbed upon his horse, and with Bacon 
 leading it, rode back along the road he had come, 
 covered with blood. 
 
 "Now I want you to say with y'r own tongue 
 ye lied," Bacon said, as they came to. the last poll- 
 ing-place he had passed. 
 
 The crowd came rushing out with excited 
 questions. 
 
 " What y' got there, Bacon ? " 
 
 "A liar. Come, what ye goun't' say?" he 
 asked the captive. 
 
 "I lied — Deering aint withdrawn." 
 
 They rode on, Councill and Milton following 
 Bacon and his prisoner. At the Oak Grove 
 schoolhouse a great crowd had gathered, and they 
 came out in a swarm as the cavalcade rode up. 
 Bradley left his book and came out to see the poor 
 prisoner, who reeled in his saddle,' covered with 
 blood and dirt. 
 
 They rode on to the next polling-place, relent- 
 9 
 
120 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 lessly forcing the man to undo as much of his 
 villainy as possible. Milton remained with Brad- 
 ley. "That shows how desperate they are," he 
 said as they went back into the schoolhouse. 
 "They see we mean business this time." 
 
 All was quiet, even gloomy, when Bradley and 
 Milton reached Rock River. The streets were 
 deserted, and only an occasional opening door at 
 some favorite haunt, like the drug-store or Robie's 
 grocery, showed that a living soul was interested 
 in the outcome of the election. There were no 
 bonfires, no marching of boys through 'the street 
 with tin pans and horns. 
 
 Some reckless fellows tried it out of devilment, 
 but were' promptly put down by the strong hand of 
 the city marshal, whose sympathies were with the 
 broken " ring." It had been evident at an early 
 hour of the day that the town of Rock River itself 
 was divided. Amos Ridings and Robie had car- 
 ried a strong following over into the camp of the 
 farmers. A general feeling had developed which 
 demanded a change. 
 
 Milton was wild with excitement. He realized 
 more of the significance of the victory than Brad- 
 ley. He had been in politics longer. For the 
 first time in the history of the county, the farmers 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 121 
 
 had asserted themselves. For the first time in 
 the history of the farmers of Iowa, had they felt 
 the power of their own mass. 
 
 For the first time in the history of the American 
 farmer there had come a feeling of solidarity. 
 They perceived, for a moment at least, their com- 
 munity of interests and their power to preserve 
 themselves against the combined forces of the 
 political pensioners of the small towns. They 
 made the mistake of supposing the interests of 
 the merchant, artisan, and mechanic were also 
 inimicable. 
 
 They saw the smaller circle first. They had 
 not yet risen to the perception of the solidarity of 
 all productive interests. That was sure to follow. 
 
122 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XI. 
 
 STUDYING WITH THE JUDGE. 
 
 After this campaign Bradley went back to 
 his studies at the seminary and to his work in 
 Brown's office. Milton did not go back. Deer- 
 ing made him his assistant in the treasurer's 
 office, and he confided to Bradley his approach- 
 ing marriage with Eileen. 
 
 In talking about Milton's affairs to Bradley, 
 Mr. Jennings said sadly : " Well, that leaves me 
 alone. He'll never come ba'ck to the farm. 
 When he was at school I didn't miss him so 
 much, because he was always coming back on a 
 Saturday, but now — well, it's no use making a 
 fuss over it, I s'pose, but it's going to be lone- 
 some work for us out there." 
 
 "Mebbe he'll come back after his term of 
 office is up." 
 
 Mr. Jennings shook his head. "No, town life 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 123 
 
 and office'll spoil 'im — and then he'll get mar- 
 ried. You'll never go back on the farm. Nobody 
 ever does that gets away from it and learns how 
 to get a livin' anywhere else." 
 
 This melancholy sat strangely upon Mr. Jen- 
 nings, who usually took things as they came with 
 smiling resignation. It affected Bradley deeply 
 to see him so gloomy. 
 
 Bradley found a quiet and comfortable .home 
 with Judge Brown and his odd old wife, who man- 
 ifested her growing regard for him by little 
 touches of adornment in his room, and by infre- 
 quent confidences. As for the- Judge, he took an 
 immense delight in the young fellow, he made 
 such a capital listener. Between Bradley and the 
 grocery he really found opportunity to tell all his 
 old stories and philosophize upon every conceiv- 
 able subject. He talked a deal of politics, 
 quoting Jefferson and Jackson. He criticised 
 members of Congress, and told what he would 
 have done in their places. He criticised, also, 
 the grange movement, from what he considered 
 to be a lofty plane. 
 
 "They profess to have for a motto 'equal 
 rights to all and special privileges to none,' and 
 then they go off into class legislation. It's easy 
 to talk that principle, but it means business when 
 
124 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 you stand by it. I haint got the sand to stand 
 by that principle myself. It goes too deep for 
 me, but it's something you young politicians 
 ought to study on. One o' these days that prin- 
 ciple will get life into it, and when it does things 
 will tumble. The Democratic party used to be 
 a party that meant that, and if it ever succeeds 
 again it must head that way. That's the reason 
 I want to get you young fellows into it." 
 
 These talks didn't mean as much to Bradley 
 as they should have done. He was usually at 
 work at something and only half listened while 
 the Judge wandered on, his heels in the air, 
 his cheek full of tobacco. Old Colonel Peavy 
 dropped in occasionally, and Dr. Carver, and then 
 the air was full of good, old-time Democratic 
 phrases. At such times the Judge even went so 
 far as to quote Calhoun. 
 
 "As a matter of fact, Calhoun was on the 
 right track. If he hadn't got his States' Rights 
 doctrine mixed up with slavery, he'd 'a' been all 
 /right. What he really stood for was local govern- 
 ment as opposed to centralized government. 
 We're just comin' around back to a part of Cal- 
 houn's position." 
 
 This statement of the Judge stuck in Bradley's 
 mind; months afterward it kept coming up and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 125 
 
 becoming more significant each time that he 
 talked upon it. 
 
 He thought less often of Miss Wilbur now, 
 and he could hear her name mentioned without 
 flushing. She had become a vaguer but no less 
 massive power in his life. That beautiful place 
 in his soul where she was he had a strange rever- 
 ence for. He loved to have it there. It was an 
 inspiration to him, and yet he did not distinctly 
 look forward to ever seeing her, much less to 
 meeting her. 
 
 Indefinite as this feeling was, it saved him 
 from the mistake of marrying Nettie. Poor girl! 
 She was in the grasp of her first great passion, 
 and was as helpless as a broken-winged bird in 
 the current of a river. She was feverishly happy 
 and unaccountably sad by turns. The commands 
 of her father not to see Bradley only roused her 
 antagonism, and her mother's timid entreaties 
 made no impression upon her. Not even Brad- 
 ley's unresponsiveness seemed to have a decided 
 discouraging effect. 
 
 Her classmates laughed at her, as they did at 
 three or four other pairs in the school who pro- 
 claimed their devouring love for each other by 
 walking to and from the chapel with locked arms, 
 or who sat side by side in their classes with 
 
126 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 clasped hands, indifferent to any rude jest, repri- 
 mand from the teacher, or slyly-flung eraser. 
 The principal gave it up in despair, calling it a 
 " sort of measles which they'll outgrow." 
 
 It was really pitiful to the comprehending 
 observer. There was so much that was pain 
 mixed with this pleasure. There were so many 
 keen and benumbing disappointments, like that 
 of waiting about the door of the office for Bradley 
 to come dow-n, and then to see him appear in 
 company with some client of Judge Brown. Not 
 that the client made so much difference, but the 
 cold glance of Bradley's eyes did. At such' times 
 she turned away with quivering lip and choking 
 throat. 
 
 She had lost much of her pertness and bright- 
 ness. She talked very little at home, and it was 
 only when with Bradley that she seemed at all 
 like her old bird-like self. Then she chattered 
 away in a wild delight, if he happened to be in 
 a responsive mood, or feverishly and with a 
 forced quality of gayety if he were cold and 
 unresponsive. 
 
 • Bradley knew he ought to decide one way or 
 the other, and often he promised himself that he 
 would refuse to walk or ride with her, but the 
 next time she came he weakly relented at sight of 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 127 
 
 her eager face. It took so little to make her 
 happy, that the temptation was very great to 
 yield, and so their lives went along. He took her 
 to the parties and sleigh-rides with the young 
 people, but on his return he refused to enter the 
 house. He met her at the gate, and left her there 
 upon his return. 
 
 The colonel had met him shortly after the elec- 
 tion, and had threatened to whip him for his 
 charges against him as an office-holder. He con- 
 cluded not to try it, however, and contented him- 
 self by saying, "Don't you never darken my door 
 again, young man." 
 
 But in general Bradley's life moved on unevent- 
 fully. He applied himself studiously to his work 
 in the office. He was getting hold of some 
 common law, and a great deal of common sense, 
 for the Judge was strong on both these points. 
 
 "Young man," said the Judge one day, after 
 Bradley, had returned from a sleigh-ride with Net- 
 tie, " I see that the woman-question is before you. 
 Now don't make a mistake. Be sure you are 
 right. In nine cases out of ten, back out and 
 you'll be right." 
 
 Bradley remained silent over by the rickety red- 
 hot stove, warming his stiffened fingers. The 
 Judge went on in a speculative way : 
 
128 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I believe I notice a tendency in the times 1:hat 
 makes it harder for a married man to succeed than 
 
 ■ 
 
 it used to be. I think, on the whole, my advice 
 would be to keep out of it altogether. More men 
 fail on that account, I observe, than upon any 
 other. You see it's so infernally hard to tell what 
 kind of a woman your girl is going to turn out." 
 
 " You needn't worry about me," said Bradley a 
 little sullenly. 
 
 "That's what Mrs. Brown said. I just thought 
 I'd say a word or two, anyway. If I've gone too 
 far, you may kick my dog over there." 
 
 Bradley looked at the sleeping dog, and back at 
 the meditative Judge, and smiled. He sat down 
 at his work and said no more upon the subject. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 129 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE JUDGE ADVISES BRADLEY. 
 
 It was at the Judge's advice that he decided to 
 take a year at the law-school at Iowa City. He 
 had been in the office over a year and a half, and 
 though he had not been converted to Democracy, 
 the Judge was still hopeful. 
 
 " Oh, you'll have to come into the Democratic 
 camp," he often said. "You see, it's like this: 
 the Republicans are so damn proud of their record, 
 they're going to ossify, with their faces turned 
 backward. They have a past, but no future. 
 Now the Democratic party has no past that it 
 cares particularly to look back at, and so it's got 
 to look into the future. You progressive young 
 fellows can't afford to stand in a party where 
 everything is all done, because that leaves nothing 
 for you to do but to admire some dead man. 
 You'll be forced into the party of ideas, sure. I 
 
130 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 aint disposed to hurry you, you'll come out all 
 right when the time comes." 
 
 Bradley never argued with him. He had simply 
 shut his lips and his mind to- it all. Democracy 
 had lost some of its evil associations in his -mind, 
 however, and Free Trade and Secession no longer 
 meant practically the same thing, as it used to 
 do. 
 
 "Now people are damn fools — excepting you 
 an' me, of course," yawned the Judge, one day in 
 midsummer. " What you want to do is to take a 
 couple of years at Iowa City and then come back 
 here and jump right into the political arena and 
 toot your horn. They'll elect you twice as quick 
 if you come back here with a high collar and a 
 plug-hat, even these grangers. They distrust a 
 man in 'hodden gray' — no sort of doubt of it. 
 Now you take my advice. People like to be 
 pollygoggled by a sleek suit of clothes. And 
 then, there is nothing that impresses people with 
 a man's immense accumulation of learning and 
 dignity like a judicious spell of absence." 
 
 It was very warm, and they both sat with coats 
 and vests laid aside. The fat old bull-dog was 
 panting convulsively from the exertion of having 
 just climbed the stairs. The Judge went on, after 
 looking affectionately at the dog : 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 131 
 
 "Ah, we're a gittin' old together, Bull an' me. 
 We like the shady side of the street. Now you 
 could make a good run in the county to-day, as 
 you are, but your election would be doubtful, and 
 we can't afford to take any chances. There are a 
 lot o' fellers who'd say you hadn't had experience 
 enough — too young, an' all that kind o' thing. 
 We'll suppose you could be elected auditor. It 
 wouldn't pay. It would only stand in the way of 
 bigger things. Now you take my advice." 
 
 " I'd like, to, but I can't afford it, Judge." 
 
 " How much you got on hand ? " 
 
 "Oh, couple of hundred dollars or so." 
 
 The Judge ruminated a bit, scratching his chin. 
 "Well, now, I'll tell yeh, Mrs. Brown and I had 
 a little talk about the matter last night, and she 
 thinks I ought to lend you the money, and — she 
 thinks you ought to take it. So pack up y'r duds 
 in September and start in." 
 
 Bradley's first impulse, of course, was to refuse, 
 because he felt he had no claim upon the Judge's 
 charity. It took hold of his imagination, however, 
 and he talked it all over thoroughly during the 
 intervening weeks, and the Judge put it this way: 
 
 "Now, there's no charity about this thing — I 
 simply expect to get three hundred per cent, on 
 my money, so you go right along and when you 
 
132 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 come back we'll have a new shingle painted — 
 'Brown & Talcott.' We aint anxious to lose yeh. 
 As a matter of fact, Mrs. Brown and I'll be pretty 
 lonesome for the first few weeks after you go 
 away — and what I'll do about that cussed cow 
 and kindling-wood I really don't know. Mrs. 
 Brown suggested we'd better take in another 
 homeless boy, and I guess that's what we'll do." 
 
 A couple. of nights later, while Bradley was sit- 
 ting before his trunk, which he had begun to pack 
 like the inexperienced traveller he was, several 
 days in advance, Mrs. Brown came to the stairway 
 to tell him Nettie was below and wanted to see 
 him. 
 
 The poor girl had just heard that he was going 
 away and she met him with a white, scared face. 
 He sat down without speaking, for he had no 
 defence, except silence, for things of that nature. 
 The girl's fury of grief appalled him. She came 
 over and flung herself sobbing upon his lap, her 
 arms about his neck. 
 
 " Oh, Brad ! Is it true ? Are you going away ? " 
 
 "I expect to," he replied coldly. 
 
 "You mustn't! You sha'n'U I won't let 
 you ! " she cried, tightening her arms about him, 
 as if that would detain him. From that on, there 
 was nothing but sobs on her side, and expla- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 133 
 
 nations on his — explanations to which her love, 
 direct and selfish, would not listen for a moment. 
 The unreserve and unreason of her passion at last 
 disgusted him. His tone grew sharper. 
 
 "I can't stay here,". he said. "You've no busi- 
 ness to ask me to. I can't always be a lawyer's 
 hack. I want to study and go higher. I've got 
 to leave this town, if I ever amount to anything in 
 the world." 
 
 "Then take me with you ! " she cried. 
 
 " I can't do that ! I can't any more'n make a 
 livin' for myself. Besides, I've got to study." 
 
 "I'll make father give you some money," she 
 said. 
 
 He closed his lips sternly, and said nothing fur- 
 ther. Her agony wore itself out after a time, and 
 she was content to sit up and look at him and 
 listen to him at last while he explained. And her 
 suppressed sobs and the tears that stood in her 
 big childish eyes moved him more than her unre- 
 strained sorrow. It was thus she conquered him. 
 
 He promised her he would come home often, 
 and he promised to write every day, and by impli- 
 cation, though not in words, he promised to marry 
 her — that is to say, he acquiesced in her plans 
 for housekeeping when he returned and was estab- 
 lished in the office. He ended it all by walking 
 
134 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 home with her and promising to see her every day 
 before he went, and as he kissed her good-night 
 at the gate, she was smiling again and quite 
 happy, although a little catching of the breath 
 (even in her laughter) showed that she was not 
 yet out of the ground-swell of her emotion. 
 
 Mrs. Brown was waiting for him when he 
 returned, and as he sat down in the sitting-room, 
 where she was busy at her sewing, she looked at 
 him in her slow way, and at last arose and came 
 over near his chair. 
 
 "Have you promised her anything, Bradley?" 
 she asked, laying her thimbled hand upon his 
 shoulder, as his own mother might have done. 
 Bradley lifted his gloomy eyes and colored a little. 
 
 "I don't know what I've said," he answered, 
 from the depth of his swift reaction. " More.'n I 
 had any business to say, probably." 
 
 " I thought likely. You can't afford to marry 
 a girl out of pity for her, Bradley — it won't do. 
 I've seen how things stood for some time, but I 
 thought I wouldn't say anything." She paused 
 and considered a moment, standing there by his 
 side. " It's a good thing for both of you that 
 you're going away. You hadn't ought to have 
 let it go on so long." 
 
 "I couldn't help it," he replied with more 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 135 
 
 sharpness in his voice than he had ever used in 
 speaking to her. 
 
 Her hand dropped from his shoulder. " No, I 
 don't s'pose you could. It aint natural for young 
 people to stop an' think about these things. I 
 don't suppose you knew y'rself just Where it was 
 all leading to. Well, now, don't worry, and don't 
 let it interfere with your plans. She'll outgrow 
 it. Girls often go through two or three such 
 attacks. Just go on with your studies, and when 
 you come back, if you find her unmarried, why, 
 then decide what to do." 
 
 Her touch of cynicism was accounted for, per- 
 haps, by the fact that she had never had a 
 daughter. 
 
 10 
 
136 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 BRADLEY SEES IDA AGAIN. 
 
 Bradley felt that the world was widening for 
 him, as he took the train for Iowa City a few 
 days later. He was now very nearly thirty years 
 of age, and was maturing more rapidly than his 
 friends and neighbors knew, for the processes of 
 his mind, like those of an intricate coil of machin- 
 ery, were hidden deep away from the casual 
 acquaintance. 
 
 He had secured, in the two years at the semi- 
 nary, a fairly good groundwork of the common 
 English branches, and his occasional reading, and 
 especially his attendance upon law-suits,, had 
 given him a really creditable understanding of 
 common law. The Judge always insisted that 
 law was simple, but it wasn't as profitable as — 
 chicanery, 
 
 "Any man, from his fund of common sense, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 137 
 
 can settle nine tenths of all law-suits, but that 
 aint what we're here for. A successful lawyer is 
 the fellow who tangles things up and keeps com- 
 mon law and common sense subordinated to chi- 
 canery and precedent. Damn precedent, anyway. 
 It means referring to a past that didn't know, and 
 didn't want to know, what justice was." 
 
 In the atmosphere of lectures like these, Brad- 
 ley had unconsciously absorbed a great deal of 
 radical thought about law-codes, and now went 
 about the study of the history of enactments and 
 change of statutes without any servile awe of the 
 past. The Judge's irreverence had its uses, for it 
 put a law on its merits before the young student. 
 
 He found the law-school a very congenial place 
 to study. He passed the examinations quite 
 decently. 
 
 His life there was quiet and studious, for he 
 felt that he had less time than the younger men. 
 His age seemed excessive to him, by contrast. 
 He was very generally respected as a quiet, 
 decent fellow, who might be a fine consulting 
 lawyer, but not a good man in the courts. They 
 changed this opinion very suddenly upon hearing 
 him present his first plea. 
 
 His life consisted for the most part of passing 
 to and fro from his boarding-place to his recitation- 
 
138 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 room, or to long hours of digging in the library. 
 He saw from time to time notices of Miss Wil- 
 bur's lectures in the interests of the grange and 
 upon literary topics. He determined to hear her 
 if she came into any neighboring city. There was 
 no one to spy upon him, if he made an expedition 
 of that sort. 
 
 One beautiful winter day he read in the weekly 
 paper of the town that she was about to appear at 
 the Congregational church in a lecture entitled, 
 "The Real Woman-question." He had an impulse 
 to sing, which he wisely repressed, for he couldn't 
 sing — that is, nothing which the hearer would 
 recognize as singing. The Fates seemed working 
 in his favor. 
 
 He had preserved a marked sweetness and pur- 
 ity of thought through all his hard life that made 
 him a good type of man. His clear, steady eyes 
 never gave offence to any woman, for nothing but 
 sympathy and admiration ever looked out of them. 
 The very thought that she was coming so near 
 brought a curious numbness into his muscles and 
 a tremor into his hands. He looked forward now 
 to the evening of the lecture with the keenest 
 interest he had ever felt. 
 
 The dazzling winter day seemed more radiant 
 than ever before, when he heard some ladies in 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 139 
 
 the post-office say Ida was in town. The blue 
 shadows lay on the new-fallen snow vivid as steel. 
 The warm sun showered down through the clear 
 air a peculiar warmth that made the eaves begin 
 to drop in the early morning. Sleighs were mov- 
 ing to and fro in the streets, and bright bits of 
 color on the girls' hoods and in the broad knit 
 scarfs which the young men wore, formed pleas- 
 ing reliefs from the dazzling blue and white. 
 Bells filled the air with jocund music. 
 
 Bradley walked straight away into the country. 
 He- wanted to be alone. It seemed so strange 
 and sweet to be thus shaken by the coming of a 
 woman. In the first few minutes he gave himself 
 up to the thought that she was near and that he 
 was going to hear her speak again. It made his 
 hand shake and his heart beat quick. 
 
 He wondered if she would be changed. She 
 would be older a little, but she would look just 
 the same. He saw her stand again under the 
 waving branches of the oaks, the flickering shadow 
 on her brown hair, speaking again the words 
 which had become the measure of his ambition, 
 the prophecy of a social condition : 
 
 " I want to have everything I do to help us all 
 on toward that time when the country will be 
 filled with happy young people, and hale and 
 
140 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 hearty old people, when the moon will be brighter, 
 and the stars thicker in the skies." 
 
 This was his thought. He had not risen yet to 
 the conception of the real barrenness and squalor 
 of the life he had lived. 
 
 His studies had made him a little more self- 
 analytical, but there were inner deeps where he 
 did not penetrate and there was one sacred place 
 which he dared not enter. A whirl of thought 
 confused him, but out of it all he returned con- 
 stantly to the thought that he should hear her 
 speak again. 
 
 That evening he dressed himself with as much 
 care as if he were to call upon her alone, and he 
 dressed very well now. His clothes were sub- 
 stantial and fitted him well. His year's immunity 
 from hard work had left his large hands supple 
 and delicate of touch, and his face had attained 
 refinement and mobility. His eyes had become 
 more introspective and had lost entirely the 
 ox-like roll of the country-born man. He was a 
 handsome and dignified young man. His bearing 
 on the street was noticeably manly and unaffected. 
 
 The lecture was in the church and the seats 
 were all filled. It gratified him, at the same time 
 that it hopelessly abased him to observe all this 
 evidence of her power. As he waited for her to 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. \±\ 
 
 appear that tremor came into his hands again, 
 and that breathlessness, and curiously enough he 
 felt that horrible familiar sinking of the heart which 
 he always felt just before he himself rose to speak. 
 
 Somebody started to clap hands, and the rest 
 joined in, as two or three ladies entered the back 
 part of the church and passed up the aisle. He 
 looked up as they went by him, and caught a 
 glimpse of a stately head of brown hair, modestly 
 bent in acknowledgment of the applause, and he 
 caught a whiff of the delicate odor of violets. His 
 eyes followed the strong, firm steps of the young 
 woman who walked between the two older women. 
 There was something fine and dignified in her 
 walk, and the odor of her dress as she passed 
 lingered with him, but he did not feel that this 
 was the same woman, till she turned and faced 
 him on the platform. 
 
 He sat impassively, but his pulse leaped when 
 her clear brown eyes running calmly over the 
 audience seemed to fall upon him. She was the 
 same woman, his ideal and more. She was fuller 
 of form and the poise of her head was more 
 womanly, but she was the same spirit that had 
 come to be such a power and inspiration in his 
 life. 
 
 As a matter of fact she had grown also. If 
 
142 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 she had not, she would have seemed girlish to him 
 now ; growing as he grew, she seemed the same 
 distance beyond him. Her self-possession in the 
 face of the audience appealed to him strongly. 
 Something in her manner of dress pleased him, it 
 was so individual, so like her simple, dignified, 
 beautiful self in every line. 
 
 She spoke more quietly, more conversation- 
 ally than when he heard her before, but her voice 
 made him shudder with associated emotions. Its 
 cadences reached deep, and the words she spoke 
 opened long vistas in his mind. She was defend- 
 ing the right of women to live as human beings, 
 to act as human beings, and to develop as freely 
 as men. 
 
 " I claim the right to be an individual human 
 eing first and a woman afterward. Why should 
 the accident of my sex surround me with conven- 
 tional and arbitrary limitations? I claim the same 
 right to find out what I can do and can't do that 
 a man has. Who is to determine what my sphere 
 is — men and men's laws or my own nature ? 
 These are vital questions. I deny the right of 
 any man to mark out the path in which I shall 
 walk. I claim the same right to life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness that men are demanding. 
 
 "It is not a question of suffrage merely — 
 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 143 
 
 suffrage is the smaller part of the woman-question 
 — it is a question of equal rights. It is a ques- 
 tion of whether the law of liberty applies to 
 humanity or to men only. Absolute liberty 
 bounded only by the equal liberties of the rest of 
 humanity is the real goal of the race — not of man 
 .only, but woman too." 
 
 The ladies dimly feeling that liberty was a safe 
 thing to cheer, clapped their hands softly under 
 the cover of the nosier clapping of a few radicals 
 who knew what the speaker was really saying. 
 Bradley did not cheer — he was thinking too 
 deeply. 
 
 "The woman question is not a political one 
 merely, it is an economic one. The real problem 
 is the wage problem, the industrial problem. The 
 real question is woman's dependence upon man 
 as the bread-winner. So long as that dependence 
 exists there will be weakness. No individual can 
 stand at their strongest and best while leaning 
 upon some other. I believe with Browning and 
 Ruskin that the development of personality is the 
 goal of the race." 
 
 The ladies took it for granted that this was true 
 as it was bolstered by two great names. A few, 
 however, sat with wrinkled brows scenting some- 
 thing heretical in all that. 
 
144 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "The time is surely coming when women can 
 no longer bear to be dependent, to be pitied or 
 abused by men. They will want to stand upright 
 and independent by their husbands, claiming the 
 same rights to freedom of action, and demanding 
 equal pay for equal work. She must be able to 
 earn her own living in an honorable way at a 
 moment's notice. Then she will be a free woman 
 even if she never leaves her kitchen." 
 
 It was trite enough to a few of the audience, 
 but, to others, it was new, and to many it was 
 revolutionary. She was destined to again set a 
 stake in Bradley's menial horizon. The woman 
 question had not engaged his attention ; at least 
 not in any serious way. He had not thought of 
 woman as having any active part in living. In 
 the thoughtless way of the average man, he had 
 ignored or idealized women according as they 
 appealed to his eye. He had not risen to the 
 point of pitying or condemning, or in any way 
 consciously placing them in the social economy. 
 
 The speaker had appealed to his imagination 
 before, and now again he sat absolutely motionless 
 while great new thoughts and impersonal emotions 
 sprang up in his brain. He saw women in a new 
 light, and the aloofness of the speaker grew upon 
 him again. He felt that she was holding her 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 145 
 
 place as his teacher. Around him he heard the 
 rustle of approval upon the gown she wore, upon 
 her voice, and some few favorable comments upon 
 her ideas. He saw some of the people crowd 
 forward to shake her hand, while others went out 
 talking excitedly. 
 
 He lingered as long as he dared, longing to go 
 forward to greet her, but he went slowly out at 
 last, home to his boarding place and sat down in 
 his habitual attitude when in deep thought, his 
 elbow on his knee, his chin in his palm. He 
 wanted to see her, he must see her and tell her 
 how much she had done for him. 
 
 How to do it was the question which absorbed 
 him now. He got away from the noisy merri- 
 ment of the house, out into the street again. 
 The stars were more congenial company to him 
 now; under their passionless serenity he could 
 think better. He felt that he must come to an 
 understanding with himself soon, but he put it 
 off and turned his attention to his future, and 
 more immediately to the plans which must be 
 carried out, of seeing her. 
 
 When he came in he was desperately resolved. 
 He would go to see her on the next day in her 
 hotel. He justified himself by saying that she 
 was a lecturer, a person before the public, and 
 
146 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 that she would not think it strange; anyhow, he 
 was going to do it. 
 
 In the broad daylight, however, it was not so 
 easy as it seemed under the magic of the moon. 
 The conventions of the world always count for 
 less in the company of the moon and the stars. 
 He heard during the morning that she was going 
 away in the afternoon, and he was made desper- 
 ate. He started out to go straight to the hotel, 
 and he did, but he walked by it, once, twice, a 
 half dozen times, each time feeling weaker and 
 more desperate in his resolution. 
 
 At Length he deliberately entered and aston- 
 ished himself by walking up to the clerk and 
 asking for Miss Wilbur. 
 
 The clerk turned briskly and looked at the 
 pigeon-holes for the keys. "I think she is. 
 Send up a card ? " 
 
 True, he hadn't thought of that. He had no 
 cards. He received one from the clerk that 
 looked as if it had done duty before, and scrawled 
 his name upon it, and gave it to the insolent lit- 
 tle darky who served as "Front." 
 
 "Tell her I'd like to see her just a few 
 minutes." 
 
 On the stairs he tried to prepare what he 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 147 
 
 should say to her. His mouth already felt dry, 
 and his brain was a mere swirl of gray and white 
 matter. Almost without knowing how, he found 
 himself seated in the ladies' parlor, to which the 
 boy had conducted him. It was a barren little 
 place, in spite of its excessively florid gilt and 
 crimson paper, and its ostentatious harsh red- 
 plush furniture. 
 
 His heart sent the blood into his throat till it 
 ached with the tension. His lips quivered and 
 turned pale as he heard the slow sweep of a 
 woman's dress, and there she stood before him, 
 with smiling face and extended hand. " Are you 
 Mr. Talcott ? Did you want to see me ?" 
 
 She had the frank gesture and ready smile a 
 kindly man would have used. Instantly his brain 
 cleared, his heart ceased to pound, and the numb- 
 ness left his limbs. He forgot himself utterly. 
 He only saw and heard her. He found himself 
 saying : 
 
 "I wanted to come in and tell you how much 
 I liked your speech last night, and how much I 
 liked a speech you made up at Rock River, at the 
 grange picinic." 
 
 " Oh, did you hear me up there ? That was 
 one of my old speeches. I've quite outgrown 
 that now. You'll be shocked to know I don't 
 
148 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 believe in a whole lot of things that I used to 
 believe in." As she- talked, she looked at him 
 precisely as one man looks at another, without the 
 slightest false modesty or coquettishness. She 
 evidently considered him a fellow-student on social 
 affairs. "I'm glad you liked my talk on the 
 woman question. It was dreadfully radical to the 
 most Of my audience." 
 
 " It was right," Bradley said, and their minds 
 seemed to come together at that point as if by an 
 electrical shock. " I never thought of it before. 
 Women have been kept down. We do claim to 
 know better what she ought to do than she knows 
 herself. The trouble is we men don't think about 
 it at all. We need to have you tell us these 
 things." 
 
 "Yes, that's true. As soon as I made that 
 discovery I began talking the woman question. 
 One radicalism opened -the way to the other. 
 Being a radical is like opening the door to the 
 witches. Are you one ? " she asked, with a sud- 
 den smile, "I mean a radical, not a witch." 
 
 "I don't know," he replied simply, "I'm a 
 student. I know I can't agree with some people 
 on these things." 
 
 " Some people ! Sometimes I feel it would be 
 good to meet with a single person — a single. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. f|| 
 
 one — I could agree with ! But tell me of your- 
 self — are you in the grange movement ?" 
 
 "Well, not exactly, but I've helped all I 
 could." 
 
 "What is the condition of the grange in your 
 county ? " 
 
 "It seems to be going down." 
 
 She was silent for some time. Her face sad- 
 dened with deep thought. "Yes, I'm afraid it 
 is. The farmers can't seem to hold together. 
 Strange, aint it ? Other trades and occupations 
 have their organizations and stand by each other, 
 but the farmer can't seem to feel his kinship. 
 Well, I suppose he must suffer greater hardships 
 before he learns his lesson. But God help the 
 poor wives while he learns ! But he must learn," 
 she ended firmly. " He must come some day to 
 see that to stand by his fellow-man is to stand by 
 himself. That's what civilization means, to stand 
 by each other." 
 
 Bradley did not reply. He was looking upon 
 her, with eyes filled with adoration. He had 
 never heard such words from the lips of anyone. 
 He had never seen a woman sit lost in philoso- 
 phic thought like this. Her bent head seemed 
 incredibly beautiful to him, and her simple flow- 
 ing dress, royal purple. Her presence destroyed 
 
150 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 his power of thought. He simply waited for her 
 to go on. 
 
 " The farmer lacks comparative ideas," she went 
 on. "He don't know how poor he is. If he once 
 finds it out, let the politicians and their masters, 
 the money-changers, beware ! But while he's find- 
 ing it out, his children will grow up in ignorance, 
 and his wife die of overwork. Oh, sometimes I 
 lose heart." Her voice betrayed how strongly 
 she perceived the almost hopeless immensity of 
 the task. "The farmer must learn that to help 
 himself, he must help others. That is the great 
 lesson of modern society. Don't you think so ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I'm losing my hold on things 
 that I used to believe in. I've come to believe 
 the system of protection is wrong." He said this 
 in a tone absurdly solemn as if he had somehow 
 questioned the law of gravity. 
 
 "Of course it is wrong," she said. "The 
 moment I got East, I found free-trade in the air, 
 and my uncle, who is a manufacturer, admitted it 
 was all right in theory, but it wouldn't do as a 
 practical measure. That finished me. I'm a 
 woman, you know, and when a thing appears right 
 in theory, I believe it'll be right in practice. 
 Expediency don't count with me, you see. But 
 tell me, do you still live in Rock River ? " 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE, 151 
 
 " Yes, I'm only studying law down here." 
 
 "Oh, I see. I suppose you know many of the 
 people at Rock River." She asked about Milton, 
 whom she remembered, and about Mr. Deering. 
 Then she returned again to the subject of the 
 grange. " Yes, it has been already a great force, 
 but I begin to suspect that the time is coming 
 when it must include more or fail, I don't know 
 just what — I aint quite clear upon it — but as it 
 stands now, it seems inadequate." 
 
 She ended very slowly, her chin in her palm, 
 her eyes on the floor. She made a grand picture 
 of thought, something more active than medita- 
 tion. Her dress trailed in long, sweeping lines, 
 and against its rich dark purple folds her strong, 
 white hands lay in vivid contrast. The most 
 wonderful charm of her personality was her com- 
 plete absorption in thought, or the speech of her 
 visitor. She was interested in this keen-eyed, 
 strong-limbed young fellow as a possible convert 
 and reformer. She wanted to state herself clearly 
 and fully to him. He was a fine listener. 
 
 "I'm afraid I see a tendency that is directly 
 away from my ideal of a farming community. 
 There is a force operating to destroy the grange 
 and all other such movements," 
 
 " You mean politics ? " 
 
152 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "No, I mean land monopoly. I believe in 
 thickly settled farming communities, communities 
 where every man has a small, highly cultivated 
 farm. That's what I've been advocating and 
 prophesying, but I now begin to see that our 
 system of ownership in land is directly against 
 this security, and directly against thickly-settled 
 farming communities. The big land owners are 
 swallowing up the small farmers, and turning them 
 into renters or laborers. Don't you think so ? " 
 
 " I hadn't though of it before, but I guess that's 
 so — up in our county, at least." 
 
 " It's so everywhere I've been. I don't under- 
 stand it yet, but I'm going to. In the meantime 
 I am preaching union and education. I don't see 
 the end of it, but I know" — Here she threw 
 off her doubt — "I know that the human mind 
 cannot be chained. I know the love of truth and 
 justice cannot be destroyed, and marches on from 
 age to age, and that's why I am full of confidence. 
 The farmer is beginning to compare his mortgaged 
 farm with the banker's mansion and his safe, and 
 no one can see the end of his thinking. The 
 great thing is his thinking." 
 
 She arose and gave him her hand. " I'm glad 
 you came in. Give my regards to Mr. Deering 
 and other friends, won't you ? Tell them not to 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 1S3 
 
 think I'm not working because I'm no longer their 
 lecturer. You TDUght to be in the field. Will you 
 read something which I'll, send ? " she asked, the 
 zeal of the reformer getting the upper hand 
 again. 
 
 " Certainly. I should be very glad to." 
 
 "I'll send you some pamphlets I've been read- 
 ing." Her voice seemed to say the interview was 
 ended, but Bradley did not go. He was strug- 
 gling to speak. After a significant pause, he said 
 in a low voice : 
 
 "I'd — I'd like to write to you — if you don't 
 — mind." 
 
 Her eyes widened just a line, but they did not 
 waver. "I should like to hear from you," she 
 said cordially. " I'd like to know what you think 
 of those pamphlets, which I'll surely send." 
 
 He had the courage to look once more into her 
 brown eyes, with their red T gold deeps, as he shook 
 hands. The clasp of her hand was firm and 
 frank. 
 
 " Good-by ! I hope I shall see you again. My 
 address is always Des Moines, though I'm on the 
 road a great deal." 
 
 < Out into the open air again he passed like a 
 man sanctified. It seemed impossible that he had. 
 not only seen her, but had retained his self-pos- 
 
154 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 session, and had actually dared to ask permission 
 to write to her ! 
 
 The red-gold sunlight was flaming across the 
 snow, and the shadows stood out upon the shin- 
 ing expanse vivid as stains in ink. The sky, 
 aflame with orange and gold clouds, was thrown 
 into loftier relief by the serrate blue rim of trees 
 that formed the western horizon. As he walked, 
 he had a reckoning with himself. It could not 
 longer be delayed. 
 
 He had been a boy to this day, but that hour 
 made him a man, and he knew he was a lover. 
 Not that he used that word, for like the farm-born 
 man that he was, he did not say, "I love her," 
 but he lifted his face to the sky in an unuttered 
 resolution to be worthy her. 
 
 He had come under the spell of her womanly 
 presence. He had seen her in her house-dress, 
 and his admiration for her intellect and beauty 
 had added to itself a subtle quality, which rose 
 from the potential husbandship and fatherhood 
 within him. 
 
 Now that he was out of her immediate pres- 
 ence, thoughts came thick and fast. Every word 
 she had spoken seemed to have a magical power 
 of arousing long trains of speculation. He 
 walked far out into the quiet evening, walked 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 155 
 
 until he grew calmer, and the emotion of the hour 
 faded to a luminous golden dusk in his mind as 
 the day changed into the beautiful winter night. 
 
 As he sat down at his desk, an hour later, he 
 saw a letter lying there. It was one of Nettie's 
 poor little school-girl love letters. A feeling of 
 disgust and shame seized him. He crumpled the 
 letter in his hands, and was on the point of throw- 
 ihg it away, when his mood changed, and he soft- 
 ened. By the side of Miss Wilbur poor little 
 Nettie was a willful child. 
 
 A few days after there came to him a pamphlet 
 directed in a woman's hand. Its title page struck 
 him as something utterly new, but it was only the 
 first of a flood of similar publications. 
 
 "The Coming Conflict. A Series of Lectures 
 prophetic of the Coming Revolution of the Poor, 
 when they will rise against the National Banks 
 and against all Indirect Taxation." 
 
 Its dedication was marked with a pencil and he 
 read it over and over : " To the Toiling Millions 
 who produce all the wealth, yet because they have 
 never controlled legislation, have been impover- 
 ished by unjust laws made in the interests of the 
 Land-holder and the Money-changer, who seize 
 upon and hold the surplus wealth of the nation by 
 
156 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the same right that the slave-master held his 
 slave, legal right and that alone, this tract is 
 inscribed by the author." 
 
 It was Bradley's first intimation of the mighty 
 forces beginning to stir in the deeps of American 
 society. He found the pamphlet filled with great 
 confusing thoughts. He confessed frankly in his 
 letter to Miss Wilbur that he got nothing satis- 
 factory out of it, though it made him think. 
 
 It was astonishing to himself to find his 
 thoughts flowing out to her upon paper with the 
 greatest ease. He was stricken with fear after 
 he had mailed his letter, it was so bulky. He 
 was appalled at the length of time which must 
 pass before he might reasonably expect to hear 
 from her. He counted the days, the hours that 
 intervened. Her note came at last, and it made 
 his blood leap as the clerk flung it out with a 
 grin. " She's blessed yeh this time ! " It was a 
 red-headed clerk, and his grin, by reason of a quid 
 of tobacco in his thin cheek, was particularly 
 offensive. Bradley felt an impulse to call him 
 out of his box and whip him. 
 
 When he opened the letter in his own room he 
 felt a sort of fear. How would she reply ? The 
 letter gave out a faint perfume like that he 
 remembered floated with her dress. It was a 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 157 
 
 rather brief note, but very kind. She called his 
 attention to two or three passages in the pam- 
 phlet, and especially asked him to read the chap- 
 ters touching on the land and money questions. 
 But the part over which he spent the most time 
 was the paragraph at the close : 
 
 " I liked your letter very much. It shows a sincere desire for 
 the truth. You will never stop short of the truth, I'm sure, but 
 yon will have sacrifices to make — you must expect that. I shall 
 take great interest in your work. 
 
 " Very sincerely, 
 
 "Ida Wilbur." 
 
158 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XIV. 
 BRADLEY CHANGES HIS POLITICAL VIEWS. 
 
 The West had always been Republican. Its 
 States had come into the Union as Republican 
 States. It met the solid South with a solid 
 North-west year after year, and it firmly believed 
 that the salvation of the nation's life depended on 
 its fidelity to the war traditions and on the princi- 
 ple of protection to American industries. 
 
 Its orators waved the bloody shirt to keep the 
 party together, though each election placed the 
 war and its issues farther into the background 
 of history, and an increasing number of people 
 deprecated the action of fanning smouldering 
 embers into flame again. Iowa and Kansas and 
 Nebraska were Stalwarts of the Stalwart. Kan- 
 sas was the battle-ground of the old Abolition and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 159 
 
 Free Soil forces, and their traditions kept alive a 
 love and reverence for the Republican party long 
 after its real leaders had passed away, and long 
 after it had ceased to be the party of the people. 
 
 Iowa was hopelessly Republican, also. A strong 
 force in the Rebellion, dominated by New Eng- 
 land thought, its industries predominantly agricul- 
 tural, it held rigidly to its Republicanism, and 
 trained its young men to believe that, while "all 
 Democrats were not thieves, all thieves were 
 Democrats," and, when pressed to the wall, 
 admitted, reluctantly, that there were "some good 
 men among the Democrats." 
 
 In the fall of Bradley's last year at Iowa City, 
 another presidential campaign was coming on, 
 but few men considered that there was any 
 change impending. Local fights really supplied 
 the incitement to action among the Republican 
 leaders. There was no statement of a general 
 principle, no discussion of economic issues by 
 their political leaders. They carefully avoided 
 anything like a discussion of the real condition 
 of the people. 
 
 Rock County had been the banner Republi- 
 can-county. For years the Democrats of Rock 
 County had met in annual convention to nom- 
 inate a ticket which they had not the slightest 
 
160 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 expectation of electing. There was something 
 pathetic in the habit. It was not faith — it was a 
 sort of desperation; and yet the Republicans as 
 regularly had their joke about it, regardless of 
 the pathos presented in the action of a body of 
 men thus fighting a forlorn and hopeless battle. 
 Each year some old-fashioned Democrat dropped 
 away into the grave, and yet the remnant met and 
 nominated a complete ticket, and voted for it 
 solemnly, even religiously. 
 
 The young Republicans of the county called 
 this remnant "Free traders" and "Copperheads," 
 exactly as if the terms were synonymous. The 
 Republican boys of the country felt that, there 
 was something mysteriously uncanny in the term 
 " Free Trader " (and always associated " Copper- 
 head " with the yellow-backed rattlesnakes that 
 made their dens in the limestone cliffs), and in 
 their snowballing took sides with these mysterious 
 words as shibboleths. 
 
 In truth, many of these Democrats were very 
 thoughtful men — old-line Jeffersonians, who held 
 to a principle of liberty. Others had been born 
 Democrats a half-century ago, and had never been 
 able to make any change. They continued the 
 habit of being Democrats, just as they continued 
 the habit of wearing fuzzy old plug hats, of old- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. \Q\ 
 
 fashioned shapes, and long, polished frock coats. 
 Then there were a few of that perpetually cross- 
 grained class who will never agree with anybody 
 else if they can help it. They belonged to the 
 Democracy because the Democrats were in the 
 minority, and' considered it wrong to belong to a 
 majority, anyhow. Of this sort were men like 
 Colonel Peavy and old JuddColwell. 
 
 The Colonel had been nominated for treasurer 
 and Colwell for sheriff on the Democratic ticket 
 year after year, and each year the leaders of the 
 party had prophesied decided gains, but they did 
 not come. The State remained apparently hope- 
 lessly Republican. The forces which were really 
 preparing for change were too far below the sur- 
 face for these old-line politicians to understand 
 and measure. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the schools and debating 
 clubs and newspapers were preparing the whole 
 country for a political revolution. Radicals were 
 everywhere being educated. Men like Radbourn, 
 who still remained nominally a Republican, and a 
 host of other young men and progressive men 
 were becoming disabused of the protective idea, 
 and were ready for a revolt. There needed but a 
 change of leadership to make a change of the 
 relation of parties and of party names. 
 
162 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The Grange, which was still non-partisan, 
 seemed not destined to play a very strong part 
 in politics, though it was still at work wresting 
 some advanced forms of legislation from one or 
 the other of the old parties. 
 
 But the deeper change was one which Judge 
 Brown and a few of the progressive men had only 
 just dimly perceived. The war and the issues of 
 the war were slowly drawing off. The militant 
 was being lost in the problems of the industrial. 
 Each year a larger mass of people practically said, 
 "The issues of to-day are not the issues of 
 twenty-five years ago. The bloody shirt is an 
 anachronism." 
 
 Here and there a young man coming to matur- 
 ity caught the spirit of the new era, and turned 
 away from the talk of the solid South, and 
 addressed himself to a consideration of the ques- 
 tions of taxation and finance. These men formed 
 a growing power in the State, and chafed under 
 the restraint of their leaders. 
 
 And above all, death, the great pacificator, 
 unlooser of bonds, and aider of progress, was 
 doing his work. The old men were dying and 
 carrying their prejudices with them, while each 
 year thousands of young voters, to whom the war 
 was an echo of passion, sprang to the polls and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 163 
 
 faced the future policy of the parties, not their 
 past. Not only all over the State of Iowa, but 
 all over the West, they were silent factors, in many 
 cases kept so by the all-compelling power of party 
 ties ; but they represented a growing power, and 
 they were to become leaders in their turn. 
 
 This spreading radicalism reached Bradley in 
 the quiet of his life in Iowa City. The young 
 fellows in the school were debating it with fierce 
 enthusiasm, and several of them capitulated. 
 They all recognized that the liquor question once 
 out of the way, the tariff was the next great State 
 issue. At the Judge's suggestion, Bradley did 
 not return to Rock River during vacation, but 
 spent the time reading with a prominent lawyer 
 of the town who had a very fine law library. 
 
 He did not care to return particularly, for the 
 quiet studious life he led, almost lonely, had grown 
 to be very pleasant to him. He read a great deal 
 outside his law, and enjoyed his days as he had 
 never done before. Uuconsciously he had fallen 
 into a mode of life and a habit of thought which 
 were unfitting him for a politician's career. He 
 gave very little thought to that, however; his 
 ambition for the time had taken a new form. He 
 wished to be well read ; to be a scholar such as 
 he imagined Miss Wilbur to be. 
 
164 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He began reading for that purpose, and kept at 
 it because he really had the literary perception. 
 He wrote to her of his reading; and when in her 
 reply she mentioned some book which he had not 
 read, he searched for it, and read it as soon as 
 possible. In this quiet way he spent his days, 
 the happiest he had ever known. 
 
 He had just two disturbing factors : one was 
 Nettie's relation to him, and the other was his 
 desire to see Miss Wilbur. Nettie wrote quite 
 often at first, letters all very much alike, and very 
 short, sending love and kisses. She was not a 
 good letter writer, and even under the inspiration 
 of love could not write above two pages of rep- 
 etitious matter. "It's dreadfully hard work to 
 write," she kept saying. "I wish you was to 
 home. When are you coming back?" 
 
 It was very curious to see the different way in 
 which he came to the writing of letters to these 
 two persons. 
 
 "Dear Nettie," he would begin, with a scowl- 
 ing brow, "I cant write any oftener, because in 
 the first place I'm too busy, and in the second 
 place nothing happened here that you would care 
 to hear about. I don't know when I'll be home. 
 I ought to finish my course here. No, I don't 
 expect you to mope. I expect you to have a 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 165 
 
 good time, go to parties and dances all you 
 want to." 
 
 But when Miss ■ Wilbur's letters arrived, he 
 devoured them with tremulous eagerness, and sat 
 up half the night writing an elaborate answer, 
 while Nettie's letters lay unanswered for days. 
 
 "Miss Ida Wilbur, Dear Miss." (That was 
 the way he addressed her. He was afraid to call 
 her Dear Miss Wilbur, it seemed a little too famil- 
 iar.) In the body of his letters there was no 
 expressed word of his regard for her. It was 
 only put indirectly into the length of his letters, 
 and was shown in the eager promptness of his 
 reply. She wrote kindly, scholarly replies, giving 
 him a. great deal to think about. Her letters 
 were very far apart, however, as she was moving 
 about so much. She advised him to read the 
 modern books. 
 
 " I'm always on the wrong side of everything," 
 she wrote once, "so I'm on the side of the mod- 
 ern novel. I champion Mr. Howells. Are you 
 reading his story in the Century? I like it 
 because it isn't like anybody else ; and Mr. Cable, 
 too, you should read, and Henry James and Miss 
 Jewett; they're all of this modern school, that 
 most Western people know nothing about. The 
 West is so afraid of its own judgments. My 
 
166 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 friends go about praising the classics because 
 they know it's safe to do so, I suppose, while I 
 am an image breaker to them. Mr. Howells says 
 the idea of progress in art does not admit of the 
 conception that any art is finished. Just like the 
 question of social advance, there is always new 
 work to be done and new victories to be won." 
 
 But more often she wrote upon economic sub- 
 jects, as being more impersonal ; and then her 
 wish to make Bradley a reformer was greater than 
 her desire to make him a lover of modern art. 
 
 "The spirit of reform is beginning to move 
 over the face of the great deep," she wrote at 
 another time. " No one who travels about as I 
 do, can fail to see it. The labor question in the 
 cities, and the farmer question in the country, 
 will soon be the great disturbing factors in poli- 
 tics. The protective theory will go down : it is 
 based on a privilege; and the new war, like the 
 old war, is going to be against all kinds of special 
 privileges." 
 
 It was with a peculiar feeling of pain and relief 
 that he read Miss Wilbur's renunciation of her 
 home-market idea. It seemed as if something 
 sweet and fine had gone with it ; and yet it 
 strengthened him, for he had come to believe that 
 a home-market built up by legislation was unnatu- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. J.G7 
 
 ral and a mistake. Judge Brown's constant ham- 
 merings had left a mark. 
 
 He wrote to her something of his hesitation, 
 and she replied substantially that there was no 
 abandonment of the home-market idea ; only the 
 method of bringing it about had changed. She 
 had come to believe in what was free and natural, 
 not what was artificial and forced. 
 
 "If you will study the past," she went on, "you 
 •will find that advance in legislation has always 
 been in the direction of less law, less granting of 
 special privileges. Take the time of the Stuarts, 
 for example, when the king granted monopolies in 
 the sale of all kinds of goods. It is abhorrent to 
 us, and yet I suppose those protected merchants 
 believed their monopolies to be rights. Slowly 
 these rights have come to be considered wrongs, 
 and the people have abolished them. So all other 
 monopolies will be abolished, when people come 
 to see that it is an infringement of liberty to have 
 a class of men enjoying any special privilege 
 whatever. The way to build up a home-market is 
 to make our own people able to buy what they 
 want. 
 
 " There never was a time when our own people 
 were not too poor to buy what they wanted. 
 Goods lie rotting in our Eastern factories, and we 
 
 12 
 
168 4 SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 export many products which the farmer would be 
 very glad to consume, if he were able. The 
 farmer is poor; but it isn't because he needs 
 protection, it isn't because he doesn't produce 
 enough — it's because what he does produce is 
 taken from him by bankers and corporations." 
 
 Bradley read her letters over and over again. 
 Every word which she uttered had more signifi- 
 cance than words from any one else. She seemed 
 a marvellous being to him. He looked eagerly in 
 every letter for some personal expression, but she 
 seemed carefully to avoid that ; and though his 
 own letters were filled with personalities, she 
 remained studiously impersonal. She replied cord- 
 ially and kindly, but with a reserve that should 
 have been a warning to him; but he would not 
 accept warnings now — he was too deeply moved. 
 Under the influence of her letters he developed a 
 tremendous capacity for work. The greatest stim- 
 ulus in the world had come to him, and remained 
 with him. If it should be withdrawn at any time, 
 it would weaken him. He did not speculate on 
 that. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 169 
 
 XV. 
 
 HOME AGAIN WITH THE JUDGE. 
 
 The day that came to close his work at Iowa 
 City had something of an awakening effect in it. 
 The mere motion of the train brought back again 
 in intensified form the feelings he had experienced 
 on the day he left Rock River. Life was really 
 before him at last. His studies were ended, and 
 he was prepared for his entrance into law. He 
 looked forward to a political career indefinitely. 
 He left that in the hands of the Judge. 
 
 It was in June, and the country was very beau- 
 tiful. Groves heavy with foliage, rivers curving 
 away into the glooms of bending elm and bass- 
 wood trees, fields of wheat and corn alternating 
 with smooth pastures where the cattle fed — a 
 long panorama of glorified landscape which his 
 escape from manual labor now enabled him to see 
 the beauty of, its associations of toil and dirt no 
 longer acutely painful. 
 
170 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 ■ He thought of the June day in which he had 
 first met Miss Wilbur — just such a day! Then 
 he thought of Nettie with a sudden twinge. She 
 had not written for several weeks ; he really didn't 
 remember just when she had written last. He 
 wondered what it meant ; was she forgetting him ? 
 He hardly dared hope for it ; it was such an easy 
 way out of his difficulty. 
 
 The Judge met him at the depot with a car- 
 riage. There were a number of people he knew 
 at the station, but they did not recognize him : 
 his brown beard had changed him so, and his silk 
 hat made him so tall. 
 
 "Right this way, colonel," said the Judge, in a 
 calm nasal. He was filled with delight at Brad- 
 ley's appearance. He shook hands with dignified 
 reserve, all for the benefit of the crowd standing 
 about. " You paralyzed 'em," he chuckled, as 
 they got in and drove off. " That beard and hat 
 will fix 'em sure. I was afraid you wouldn't carry 
 out my orders on the hat." 
 
 " The hat was an extravagance for your benefit 
 alone. It goes into a band-box to-morrow," replied 
 Bradley. "How's Mrs. Brown." 
 
 " Quite well, thank you ; little older, of course. 
 She caught a bad cold somewhere last winter, and 
 she hasn't been quite so well since. We keep a 
 
A SPOIL ,OF OFFICE. 1.71 
 
 girl now; I forced the issue. Mrs. Brown had 
 done her own work so long she considered it a 
 sort of high treason to let any one else in." 
 
 Mrs. Brown met him at the door; and she 
 looked so good and motherly, and there was such 
 a peculiar wistful look in her eyes, that he put 
 his arm around her in a sudden impulse and kissed 
 her. It made her lips tremble, and she was 
 obliged to wipe her glasses before she could see 
 him clearly. Supper was on the table for him, 
 and she made him sit right down. 
 
 " How that beard changes you, Bradley ! I 
 would hardly have known you. What will Nettie 
 think?" 
 
 " How is Nettie ? " 
 
 " Haven't you heard from her lately ? " 
 
 "Not for some weeks." 
 
 "Then I suppose the neighborhood gossip is 
 true." He looked at her inquiringly, and she 
 went on, studying his face carefully, "They say 
 she's soured on you, and is sweet on her father's 
 new book-keeper." 
 
 Bradley took refuge in silence, as usual. His 
 face became thoughtful, and his eyes fell. 
 
 "I've hoped it was true, Bradley, because she 
 was no wife for you. You'd outgrown her, and 
 she'd be a drag about your neck. I see her out 
 
172 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 riding a good deal with this young fellow; he's 
 just her sort, so I guess she isn't heart-broken 
 over your absence." 
 
 There was a certain shock in all this. He 
 recurred to his last evening with her, when in her 
 paroxysm of agony she had thrown herself at his 
 feet. Much as he had desired such an outcome, 
 it puzzled him to find her in love with some one 
 else. It was not at all like books. 
 
 "Well, Mrs. Brown, what do you think of my 
 junior partner?" said the Judge, coming in and 
 looking down on Bradley with a fatherly pride. 
 
 "I suppose, Mr. Brown, you refer to our 
 adopted son." 
 
 Bradley dressed for church the next day with a. 
 new sort of embarrassment. He felt very con- 
 scious of his beard and of his tailor-made clothes, 
 for he knew everybody would observe any change 
 in him. He knew he would be the object of 
 greater attention than the service ; but he determ- 
 ined to go, and have the whole matter over at 
 once. 
 
 The windows were open, and the sound of the 
 bell came in mingled with the scent of the sunlit 
 flowers, the soft rustle of the maple leaves, and 
 the sound of the insects in the grass. . His heart 
 turned toward Miss Wilbur now whenever any 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 173 
 
 keen enjoyment came to him ; instinctively turned 
 to her, with the wish that she might share his 
 pleasure with him. He sat by the open window, 
 dreaming, until the last bell sounded through the 
 heavy leaf-scented air. 
 
 "Won't you go to church with me, Judge?" he 
 said, going out. 
 
 The Judge turned a slow look upon him. He 
 was seated on the shady porch, his feet on the 
 railing, a Chicago daily paper in his lap. He said 
 very gravely: "Mrs. Brown, our boy is going to 
 church." 
 
 " Can't you let him, Mr. Brown ? It'll do him 
 good, maybe," said Mrs. Brown, who was at work 
 near the window. 
 
 " Goes to see the girls. Know ail about it my- 
 self. Go ahead, young man, and remember the 
 text now, or we'll put a stop to this " — Bradley 
 went off down the walk. He passed by a tiny 
 little box of a house where a man in his shirt 
 sleeves was romping with some children. 
 
 " Hello, Milton," called Bradley cheerily. 
 
 The young man looked up. His face flashed 
 into a broad smile. "Hello! Brad Talcott, by 
 thunder ! Well, well. When'd you get back ? " 
 
 " Last night. Yours ? " he inquired, nodding 
 toward the children. 
 
174 "* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " Yep. Well, how are you, old man ? You 
 look well. Couldn't fool me with that beard. 
 Come in and sit down, won't yeh ? " 
 
 "No, I'm on my way to church. Can't you 
 come ? " 
 
 " Great Caesar, no ! not with these young hyenas 
 to attend to." He had grown fat, and his chin 
 beard made him look like a Methodist minister; 
 but his sunny blue eyes laughed up into Bradley's 
 face just as in the past. " Say ! " he exclaimed, 
 " you struck it with the old Judge, didn't you ? 
 He's goin' to run you for governor one of these 
 days. County treasurer ain't good enough for 
 you. But say," he said, as a final word, " I guess 
 you'd better not wear that suit much ; it's too 
 soft altogether. Stop in when you come back. 
 Eileen'U be glad to see you," he called after him. 
 
 The audience had risen to sing as he entered, 
 and he took his place without attracting much 
 attention. As he stood there listening to the 
 familiar Moody and Sankey hymn, there came 
 again the touch of awe which the church used to 
 put upon him. He was not a " religious " man. 
 He had no more thought of his soul or his future 
 state than a powerful young Greek. His feeling 
 of awe arose from the association of beauty, music, 
 and love with a church. It was feminine, some 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 175 
 
 Way, and shared his reverence for a beautiful 
 woman. 
 
 The churches of the town were the only things 
 of a public nature which had any touch of beauty 
 or grace. They were poor little wooden boxes at 
 best ; and yet they had colored windows, which 
 seemed to hush the dazzling summer sun into a 
 dim glory, transfiguring the shabby interior, and 
 making the bent heads of the girls more beautiful 
 than words can tell. It was the one place which 
 was set apart for purposes not utilitarian, and a 
 large part of what these people called religious 
 reverence was in fact a pathetic homage to beauty 
 and poetry, and rest. 
 
 When they all took their seats, and while the 
 preacher was praying, Bradley was absorbing the 
 churchy smell of fresh linen, buoyant perfumes, 
 (camphor, cinnamon, violets, rose) and the hot, 
 sweet odor of newly-mown grass lying under the 
 sun just outside of the windows. The wind pulsed 
 in through the half-swung window, a bee came 
 buzzing wildly along, a butterfly rested an instant 
 on the window sill, and the preacher prayed on in 
 an oratorical way for the various departments of 
 government. 
 
 Bradley felt a sharp eye fixed upon him, and, 
 turning cautiously, caught Nettie looking at him. 
 
176 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 She nodded and smiled in her audacious way. 
 •Two or three of the young fellows saw him and 
 nodded at him, but mainly the people sat with 
 bowed heads, feeling some presence that was full 
 of grace and power to banish, for a short time at 
 least the stress of the struggle to live. 
 
 The young fellows were mainly in the back 
 seats; and while they were decorously quiet, it 
 was evident that they had very little interest in 
 the prayer. Death and hell and the gravel 
 Why should one trouble himself about such things 
 when the red blood leaped in the heart, and the 
 June wind was flinging a flickering flight of leaf 
 shadows across the window pane ? There sat the 
 girls with roguish eyes, the rounded outline of 
 their cheeks (as tempting as peaches), displayed 
 with miraculous skill at just their most taking 
 angle. Their Sunday gowns and gloves and hats 
 transfigured them into something too dainty and 
 fine to be touched, and yet every glance and 
 motion was an invitation and a lure. 
 
 Here was the proper function of the church ; to 
 enable these young people to see each other at 
 their best, and to bring into their sordid lives 
 some hint, at least, of music and beauty. 
 
 Bradley did not hear the sermon. He was 
 wondering just what Nettie's smile meant, and 
 
A SPOTL OF OFFICE. 177 
 
 what he was going to say to her. He was not 
 subtle enough to take a half-way or an ambiguous 
 stand. He must either treat her tenderness as a 
 forgotten thing or hold himself to his promise as 
 something which he was under orders from his 
 conscience to fulfill. 
 
 When the service was over he went out into 
 the anteroom with the young fellows, who were 
 anxious to meet him. Quite a number of farmers 
 were in from the country, and they all crowded 
 about, shaking his hand with great heartiness. 
 He moved on with them to the sidewalk, where 
 many of the congregation stood talking subduedly 
 in groups. The women came by in their starched 
 neatness, leading rebellious boys in torturing 
 suits of winter thickness topped with collars, stiff 
 as sauce pans; while the little girls walked as 
 upright as dolls, looking disdainfully at their sulk- 
 ing brothers. Some of the merchants passing by 
 discussed the sermon, some talked about crops 
 with the farmers, and those around Bradley 
 dipped into the political situation guardedly. 
 
 While he was talking to some of the town peo- 
 ple, he saw Nettie come up and join a young man 
 at the door whom he had recognized as the tenor 
 in the choir; and they sauntered off together 
 under the full-leafed maples — she in dainty white 
 
178 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 and pink, he in a miraculously modish suit of 
 gray, a rose in his lapel. Bradley looked after 
 them without special wonder. It was only as he 
 went back to his room that he began to see how 
 fully Nettie had outgrown her passion for him. 
 
 He met her the next day as he was going home 
 from the office. 
 
 "Hello, Bradley," she said, without blushing, 
 though her eyes wavered before his. 
 
 He held out his hand with a frank smile. 
 " Hello, Nettie, Which way are you going ? " 
 
 "Going home now, been up to the grocery. 
 Want to go 'long? " 
 
 " I don't mind. How are you, anyway ? " 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right. Say ! that beard of yours 
 makes you look as funny as old fun." 
 
 " Does it ? " he said. 
 
 " You bet ! It makes you look old enough to 
 go to Congress. Say ! heard from Radbourn 
 lately?" Bradley shook his head. "Well, I 
 haven't, but Lily has. He's writing — writing 
 for the newspapers, she said." 
 
 "Is that so? I haven't heard it." 
 
 " E-huh ! Say, do you know Lily's all bent on 
 him yet ! Funny, ain't it ? I ain't that way, am 
 I ? " she ended, with her customary audacity. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 3f| 
 
 "No, it's out o' sight, out o' mind with you," 
 he replied, with equal frankness. 
 
 "Oh, not quite so bad as that. Ain't yeh 
 comin' in ? " They were at the gate. 
 
 " Guess not. You remember your father's 
 command ; I must never darken his door." 
 
 She laughed heartily. " I guess that don't 
 count now." 
 
 " Don't it ? Well, some other time then." 
 
 "All right, but gimme that basket. Goin' to 
 lug that off with you ? " 
 
180 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 NOMINATION. 
 
 On the Monday evening following Bradley's 
 return, there was quite a gathering at Robie's 
 along about sundown. Colonel Peavy and Judge 
 Brown came down together, and Ridings and 
 Deering were there also, seated comfortably under 
 the awning, in mild discussion with Robie, who 
 had taken the side of free trade, to be contrary, as 
 Deering said. 
 
 "No, sir; I take that side for it's right." 
 There was something sincere in his reply, and 
 RidingS stared. 
 
 " How long since ? " 
 
 "About a week." 
 
 "What's got into yeh, anyhow ? " 
 
 "A little horse sense," said Robie. "I've been 
 a readin' the other side ; an' if a few more of yeh'd 
 do the same, you'd lose some of your damn pig- 
 headed nonsense." The Democrats cheered, but 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 181 
 
 the Republicans stared at Robie, as if he had sud- 
 denly become insane. 
 
 " Well, I'll be dinged ! " said Smith, his brother- 
 in-law. "I'd like to know what you'd been a 
 readin' to make a blazin' old copperhead of you." 
 
 Robie held up two or three fracts. The Judge 
 took them, looked them over, and read the titles 
 out loud to the wondering crowd. 
 
 "'The Power of Money to Oppress.' 'Free 
 Trade Philosophy/ 'The Money Question.' 'The 
 Right to the Use of the Earth,' by Herbert 
 Spencer. 'Land and Labor Library.' 'Progress 
 and Poverty,' by Henry George." 
 
 " Oh, so you've got hold of Spencer and George, 
 have you ? " said the Judge. 
 
 "No; they've got hold 'f me." 
 
 " Spencer! " said Smith, in vast disgust. " What 
 the hell has he to do with it ? " The rest sat in 
 silence. The occasion was too momentous for 
 jokes. 
 
 "Where'd you get hold o' these?" said the 
 Judge, fingering the leaves. 
 
 " Radbourn sent 'em out." 
 
 " I'll bet yeh ! If there was a rank, rotten book 
 anywhere on God's green footstool, that feller'd 
 have it," said Smith. 
 
 The Judge ruminated : " Well, if that's the 
 
182 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 effect, guess I'll circulate a few copies 'mong the 
 young Republicans of the county. Gentlemen, 
 this is our year." 
 
 "You've been a sayin' that for ten years, 
 Judge," said Ridings. 
 
 "And it's been a comin' all the time, gentle- 
 men. I tell you, I've had my ear to the ground, 
 and there's something moving. The river is shift- 
 ing its bed. Look out for a flood. I'm going to 
 make an entirely new move this fall ; I'm going 
 to put up a man for legislature that'll sweep the 
 county ; and you'll all vote for 'im, too. He's 
 young, he's got brains, he's an orator, and he can't 
 be bought." 
 
 Robie brought his fist down on the counter in 
 an excitement such as he had never before mani- 
 fested. " Brad Talcott ! We'll elect him sure as 
 hell ! " 
 
 Amos hastened to put in a word. "Brad's a 
 Republican." 
 
 "He's a Free Trade Republican," said the 
 Judge, quietly. 
 
 " How do yeh know ? " 
 
 " Oh, I know. Haven't I been a workin' 'im 
 for these last two years ? Did you expect a man 
 to live with me and not become inoculated with 
 the Simon-pure Jefferson ian Democracy ?" 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 183 
 
 "I don't believe it," Amos replied; "and I 
 won't till I hear him say so himself. I want to 
 see him go to Des Moines, but I want to see him 
 go as a Republican." 
 
 " Well, you attend the Independent convention 
 next week, and you'll hear something that'll set 
 you thinking. Your Grange is losing force. You 
 failed to elect your candidate last year. Now, if 
 we put up a man who is a farmer and a clean 
 man — a man that can sweep the county and 
 carry Rock River — why not join in and elect 
 him ? " 
 
 The railroad interest was the great opposing 
 factor ; and the Judge, who was a great politician, 
 had calculated upon a fusion of the farmer Repub- 
 licans and the Democrats. He was really the 
 ablest man in that part of the State, and could 
 wield the Democratic party like a pistol. He 
 succeeded in getting Amos, Councill, Jennings, 
 and a few other leading grangers to sign his call 
 for a people's convention to nominate county offi- 
 cers and the member of the legislature. It really 
 amounted to a union of the independent Repub- 
 licans and the young Democrats. 
 
 The old liners, however, were there, and set 
 out from the first to control the convention, as 
 was shown in the opening words of the chairman, 
 13 
 
1S4 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 old man Colwell, whom the Judge had kindly 
 allowed in the chair, in order that he might have 
 a chance to speak on the floor. 
 
 "This is a great day for us," said the chairman. 
 "We've waited a long time for the people to see 
 that Republican rings were sapping the founda- 
 tions of political honesty, but they see it now. 
 This crowded convention, fellow-citizens, shows 
 that the deathless principles of Jacksonian Dem- 
 ocracy still slumber under the ashes of defeat." 
 
 He went on in this strain, calmly taking to 
 himself and the other old moss-backs (as young 
 Mason contemptuously called them). all the credit 
 of the meeting, and bespeaking, at the same time, 
 all the offices. 
 
 Following this intimation, Colonel Peavy pre- 
 sented a slate, wherein all the leading places on 
 the ticket had been given "to the men who stood 
 so long for the principles of Jackson and Jeffer- 
 son. It was fitting that these men should be 
 honored for their heroic waiting outside the gates 
 of emolument." 
 
 Young Mason was on his feet in an instant. 
 "Mr. Chairman," he said, penetratingly. 
 
 "Mr. Mason." 
 
 "While I appreciate, sir, the fortitude, the 
 patience, of the men who have been waiting out- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 185 
 
 side the gates of emolument so long, I want to 
 say distinctly, that if that slate is not broken, 
 we'll all wait outside the gates of emolument 
 twenty years longer. But I want to say further, 
 Mr. Chairman, that the strength of this new 
 movement is in its freedom from spoils-seeking; 
 is in its independence from the old party lines. 
 Its strength is in its appeal to the farmer, in 
 its support of his war against unjust tariff and 
 against railway domination. Its strength also is 
 .in its appeal to the young men of this county, 
 sir." 
 
 Applause showed that the young orator had his 
 audience with him. He was a small man, but his 
 voice was magnificent, and his oratory powerful, 
 sdf-contained, full of telling points. 
 
 "If we win, gentlemen of this convention," he 
 said, turning, " we must put at the head of this 
 movement a man who is absolutely incorrupti- 
 ble — a man who can command the granger vote, 
 the temperance vote, the young man's vote, and 
 the Independent vote. That man" — 
 
 "Mr. Chairman," snarled Colonel Peavy, rising 
 with impressive dignity and drawing his coat 
 around him with ominous deliberation. 
 
 " Colonel Peavy," acknowledged the chairman. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman," shouted young Mason, "I 
 
186 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 have the floor. I deny the right of your recogni- 
 tion of another member while I'm speaking." 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of information," 
 said the Colonel. 
 
 " State your point, Colonel." 
 
 " I would like to ask this young gentleman who 
 holds the floor how many votes he has cast in his 
 whole life." 
 
 Young Mason colored with anger, but his voice 
 was cool and decisive. " For the gentleman's 
 information, Mr. Chairman, I will say that I have 
 voted once, but that vote entitles me to stand 
 here as a delegate, and I have the floor." 
 
 The delegates were mainly with young Mason, 
 and the Colonel sat down grimly in the midst of 
 the Old Guard. Milton and Bradley, sitting to- 
 gether, rejoiced in the glorious attitude of the young 
 champion, who went on — 
 
 " I say, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that we 
 cannot win this election on old party lines. I'm 
 a Democrat." (Applause.) " But we are not 
 strong enough as a party in this district to elect, 
 and I'm willing to work with the Independents. 
 There is just one man who can be elected from 
 this convention. He is a young man ; he is 
 sound on the tariff; he is an orator; he can 
 sweep the county. I present, as nominee for our 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 187 
 
 next representative, Bradley Talcott, of Rock 
 River." 
 
 Bradley sat still, stunned by the applause which 
 burst forth at the mention of his name. Brown 
 had prepared him for the presentation of his 
 name, but he had not dared to hope that any 
 considerable number of delegates would support 
 him. 
 
 Judge Brown rose to his feet. " I second the 
 nomination, Mr. Chairman. I am a Democrat — 
 an old Democrat, but I'm damned if I'm a moss- 
 back. I don' allow any young man to get ahead 
 of me on radicalism. I stand for progress ; and 
 because I know Bradley Talcott stands for prog- 
 ress, I second his nomination. His canvass will 
 be an honor to himself, and a historical event in 
 this county." 
 
 Amos Ridings arose. " Mr. Chairman, I second 
 that nomination as a Granger-Republican. I sec- 
 ond it because I know Brad Talcott can't be 
 bought, and because I know he's honest in his 
 convictions. I'll stand by him as long as he 
 stands by principle." 
 
 This practically brought to Bradley's support 
 the winning force, for Amos was a power in the 
 county. Somebody called for Milton Jennings, 
 and after some hesitation he got upon his feet. 
 
188 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, I'm not a delegate to this 
 convention, and so it isn't my place to speak here; 
 but I want to say that if I was, I should second 
 this nomination. It's a complete surprise to me 
 to have him nominated. If I had known of it 
 before, I would have been working for him all 
 along. I'm pledged in another direction ; but if 
 I could honorably withdraw my support from 
 the regular nominee, I would do everything I 
 could to elect my old classmate and esteemed 
 colleague." 
 
 With this boom, the vote was wildly enthusi- 
 astic. The chairman pronounced it unanimous. 
 
 "Give us a speech !" shouted the crowd. 
 
 Young Mason leaped up, a sardonic gleam in 
 his eye. "Mr. Chairman, I move that Colonel 
 Peavy and Amos Ridings escort the nominee to 
 the platform." 
 
 The motion was put and carried amid laughter. 
 As they dragged Bradley out of his chair and 
 pushed him up the aisle, everybody laughed and 
 cheered. William Councill kicked the Colonel as 
 he went past and Robie hit him a sounding slap 
 between the shoulders. The Colonel bore it all 
 with astonishing good nature. As they reached 
 the platform, young Mason stepped into the aisle 
 and shouted : 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 189 
 
 "Three cheers for the Honorable Bradley 
 Talcott ! " 
 
 With the roar of these cheers in his ears, Brad- 
 ley turned and faced his fellow-citizens. His 
 knees shook, and his voice was so weak he could 
 hardly be heard. 
 
 "Fellow-citizens, do you know what you're 
 doing ? " he said, in a curiously colloquial tone. 
 
 "You bet we do!" roared the crowd. "What 
 d'ye think we've done?" 
 
 "You've nominated a man for your legislature 
 who hasn't got a dollar in the world." 
 
 "So much the better! The campaign '11 be 
 honest ! " shouted young Mason. 
 
 Bradley's throat was too full to speak, and his 
 head whirled. " I can't make a speech now, gen- 
 tlemen ; I am all out o' breath. All I can say is, 
 I'm very thankful to have such friends, and I'll 
 try to do my duty in the campaign, and in the 
 legislature, if I'm elected." 
 
 The delegates swarmed about him to shake his 
 hand and promise him their support. Bradley, 
 dazed by the suddenness of it, could only smile 
 and grip each man's hand. The Judge was jubi- 
 lant. Had Bradley been his son, he couldn't have 
 felt more sincerely pleased. 
 
 "We'll see such a campaign this fall as this 
 
190 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 county never had," he said to everybody; "a 
 campaign with a principle; a campaign that will 
 be educational." 
 
 Bradley had now a greater work before him 
 than he had ever undertaken before. He had 
 now to go to his old friends and neighbors in a 
 new light, practically as a Democrat. He had 
 to face audiences mainly hostile to his ideas, and 
 defend opinions which he knew not only cut 
 athwart the judgment of the farmers of the county, 
 but squarely across their prejudices. 
 
 But he had something irresistible on his side ; 
 he was debating a principle. He was widening 
 the discussion, and he made men feel that. He 
 rose above local factions and local questions to the 
 discussion of the principles of justice and freedom. 
 He voiced this in his speech of acceptance in the 
 Opera House the next day. The house was 
 packed to its anteroom with people from every 
 part of the county. A curious feeling of expect- 
 ancy was abroad. Men seemed to feel instinct- 
 ively that this was the beginning of a change in 
 the thought of Rock River. Everybody remarked 
 on the change in Bradley, and his beard made 
 him look so much older. 
 
 Judge Brown and Dr. Carver sat on the stage 
 with the speakers, young Mason and Bradley. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 191 
 
 The Judge was very dignified, but there was an 
 exultant strut in his walk and a special deliber- 
 ation in his voice which proclaimed his pride in 
 his junior partner. He alluded, in his dry, nasal 
 way, to the pleasure it gave him to inaugurate 
 the new era in politics in Rock River. "The 
 liquor question I regard as settled in this State," 
 he said. " And now the discussion of the tariff 
 has free sailing. But you don't want to hear us 
 old fellows, with our prejudices; you want to hear 
 our young leaders, with their principles." 
 
 He introduced young Mason, who made one of 
 his audacious speeches. "Death is a great friend 
 of youth and progress," he said. "The old men 
 die, off, thank God ! and give young men and 
 new principles a chance. I tell you, friends and 
 neighbors, the Democratic party is being born 
 again — it must be born again, in order to be 
 worth saving." 
 
 When Bradley stepped forward, he was very 
 pale. 
 
 "Friends and fellow-citizens," he began, after 
 the applause had ended, "I can't find words to 
 express my feeling for the great honor you have 
 done me. I thank the citizens of Rock River for 
 their aid, but I want to say — I'm going to run 
 this campaign in the farmers' interest, because 
 
192 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the interests of this county and of this State are 
 agricultural, and whatever hurts the farmer hurts 
 every other man in the State. There is no war 
 between the town and the country. The war is 
 between the people and the monopolist wherever 
 he is, whether he is in the country or in the town. 
 It is not true that the interests of the town dweller 
 and of the farmer are necessarily antagonistic ; 
 the cause of the people is the same everywhere. 
 It's like the condition of affairs between England 
 and Ireland. People say that Ireland is fighting 
 England — fighting the English people, but that 
 is not the fact. The antagonism is between the 
 Irish people and the English landlord. So the 
 fight in America is the people against the special 
 privileges enjoyed by a few. It's because these 
 few generally live in towns that we seem to be 
 fighting the towns. 
 
 "As the Judge said, we've settled the liquor 
 question in this State ; it won't come up again 
 unless office seekers drag it up. It has been our 
 State issue — that and the railroads; and now 
 that is settled, we can turn our attention to the 
 finishing up of the railway problem and to the 
 discussion of the tariff." 
 
 " And the money ! " shouted some one; "abol- 
 ish the national banks I " 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 193 
 
 Bradley hesitated a little. " No, we can't do 
 that, but we can destroy any special privilege they 
 hold. But the first thing that stares us in the 
 face is the war tariff that is eating us up. I'm 
 going to state just what I think in this campaign, 
 and you can vote for me or not. It is sheer 
 robbery to continue a tariff that was laid at a time 
 when we needed enormous revenue. See the 
 surplus piling up in the public vault. You say 
 it's better to have a surplus than a deficit. Yes, 
 but I'd rather have the surplus in the pockets of 
 the people. This taxing the people to death, in 
 order to have a surplus to expend in senseless 
 appropriations, is poor policy." 
 
 In this strain his whole speech ran, and it had 
 an electrical effect. They cheered him tremen- 
 dously, and the meeting broke up, and discussion 
 burst out all over the hall with appalling fury, 
 and continued each day thereafter. The railroad 
 question and the tariff question began right there 
 to divide the county into two camps. The young 
 leader carried the same disturbing influence into 
 every township in which he spoke, and the whole 
 county became a debating school. It took a posi- 
 tion far ahead of the other counties of the State 
 in the questions. 
 
 Men stopped each other, and talked from plow 
 
194 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 to plow across the line fence. They met in. the 
 road upon dusty loads of wheat, and sat hours at 
 a time under the burning August sun to discuss 
 the matter of railroad commissions, and the fixing 
 of rates, and the question or reducing the surplus 
 in the treasury. 
 
 The old greenbackers came out of their tempo- 
 rary retirement, and helped Bradley's cause simply 
 because he was young and a dissenter. They 
 were a power, for most of them were deeply read 
 on the tariff and on the railroad problem ; in fact, 
 were all round radicals and fluent speakers. 
 
 Judge Brown kept out of it. "I don't want to 
 seem too prominent in this campaign," he said to 
 Colonel Peavey. "We old Mohawks are a dam- 
 age to any man's campaign just now. The time 
 is coming, Colonel, when we'll help, but not now. 
 We've set the mischief afoot; now let the young 
 fellows and the farmers do the rest of it. Be- 
 sides, my young man here is quite able to look 
 out for himself. All that scares me is he'll get 
 too radical, even for the Democracy, one of these 
 days. If he does, all is we 11 have to build a 
 party up to his principle, for he'll be right, Colo- 
 nel ; there's no two ways about that." 
 
A SrOIL OF OFFICE. 195 
 
 XVII. 
 
 ELECTION. 
 
 The interest of the election was very great; 
 and as the vote of Rock River practically settled 
 the contest, the centre of interest was the Court 
 House, which was crowded to suffocation on 
 election night. There was a continual jam and 
 a continual change. Crowds stood around the 
 doorway, or moved up and down the sidewalk. 
 Crowds were constantly running up and down the 
 stairway, and crowding in and out the dingy, 
 dimly lighted court-room, which was roaring with 
 voices, blue with smoke, and foul as a dungeon — 
 with tobacco and vitiated breaths. 
 
 All the men of the town seemed to be pres- 
 ent, from old man Dickey, the chicken thief and 
 fisherman, to cold, aristocratic R. F. Russell, the 
 banker. Rowdyish boys pushed and banged and 
 howled, playing at hide-and-seek among the legs of 
 
196 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the men, who filled every foot of standing space, 
 or were perched on the railings or tables near the 
 Judge's bench, from which the returns were being 
 called. The kerosene lamp shed a dim light, 
 through the smoke. There was no fire, and the 
 excited partisans kept their hats and coats on, 
 and warmed themselves by wild gestures and 
 stamping. 
 
 Occasionally a boy's shrill yell or whistle, or 
 some excited Democrat's calling, "It's a whack! 
 I'll take yeh ! " rose above the clamor. Upon 
 the benches piled up along the wall, to leave the 
 middle space free, groups of the less demonstra- 
 tive citizens of both parties sat discussing the 
 chances of the different candidates. Bradley was 
 not there, but young Mason and Milton were con- 
 sidered his representatives, and were surrounded 
 by a constant crowd of sympathizers. It was 
 about nine o'clock at night before the decisive 
 returns began to come in. 
 
 Occasionally the sound of furious pounding was 
 heard, and a momentary lull was enforced while 
 the clerk read some telegraphic message or report 
 of a neighboring town. While he stood upon the 
 Judge's bench, at about nine o'clock, the crowd, 
 aware in some mysterious way of the arrival of 
 decisive news, made a wild surge toward the clerk, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 197 
 
 and shouted for silence, while he announced in a 
 high nasal key : " Rock River gives a hundred 
 and ninety-one for Kimball, two hundred and 
 twenty-five for Talcott." At this a wild cheer 
 broke forth, led by Milton and young Mason. 
 
 "That means victory!" said Milton. 
 
 "Don't be too sure of it ! Wait for Cedarville." 
 
 The reading went on, with occasional yells from 
 either the Democrats or Republicans, according 
 to the special quality of the report, but it was 
 plain that the most interest was centered in the 
 contest for representative. 
 
 As the evening wore on, messengers clattered 
 up on horseback from other towns of the county, 
 and amid yells and cheers were hustled up the 
 stairway, through the crowd to the clerk, carry- 
 ing in their hands envelopes fillqd with election 
 returns. These returns from the townships were 
 almost entirely in Bradley's favor, but Cedarville 
 was the decisive vote. Messengers from the little 
 telegraph station dashed to and fro, and the excite- 
 ment was fanned into greater fury by the accounts 
 of Democratic gains from other counties and other 
 States. "It is a political landslide," exclaimed 
 Mason. "The Democrats are in it this time." 
 
 At length there rose the cry of " Cedarville ! 
 Cedarville!" and a messenger bearing a telegraph 
 
198 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 blank was rushed through to the reading-desk, 
 where his message was snatched by the clerk. 
 Again there was a wild surge toward the desk, 
 and a silence, broken only by derisive cheers from 
 the boys, while the clerk glanced over it. 
 
 "Cedarville gives seventy votes for Kimball, 
 and a hundred and ten for Talcott." 
 
 The Independents shouted themselves hoarse, 
 and flung their caps in the air. Talcott had 
 carried both of the towns of the county ; he was 
 sure of the farmers. The boys howled like sav- 
 ages, and tripped each other over the railings and 
 seats, boxed hats, punched the men in the back, 
 and hid around their legs; while the clerk went 
 on with his reading, at more and more frequent 
 intervals, of reports from other States and dis- 
 tricts of the congressional field. The old-line 
 Democrats were delirious with joy. The promised 
 land was in sight. 
 
 It was about half past twelve o'clock when 
 Colonel Russell conceded Bradley's election, and 
 two stout men toiled up the stairs, bringing his 
 forfeit of two barrels of apples. Amid wilds yells 
 from the crowd, they threw the barrels to the 
 floor, where they burst, and sent Northern Spys 
 rolling in every direction. 
 
 Then came a wilder roar and scramble, that 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 199 
 
 outdid everything that had gone before, and a 
 surging mass of struggling men and boys covered 
 the apples. They threw themselves upon each 
 other's backs. They clawed like wild-cats, barked 
 like wolves. They kicked each other out of the 
 way, and scratched and mauled each other, crush- 
 ing hats, tearing coats, bruising shins. As fast 
 as one man filled his hands or arms or pockets, 
 the others set upon him, struck them from his 
 arm, snatched them from his hands, tore them 
 from his pockets, or tripped him headlong to the 
 floor, where he rolled in the filthy sawdust, under 
 the feet of the crazy mob. 
 
 The wrestle of starving wild hogs for corn or 
 potatoes could not have been more tumultuous or 
 ear-splitting than this ferocious, jovial scramble. 
 It ceased only when the last apple was secured, 
 so that none could snatch it away. Then began 
 the fusilade of cores and parings. Shining stove- 
 pipe hats were choice game, and to throw a core 
 clean through a silk hat was a distinction which 
 everybody seemed to covet. In five "minutes not 
 a tall hat was to be seen. Colonel Peavy wrapped 
 his handkerchief around his, thus, drawing upon 
 himself the attack of the entire crowd,, and he 
 was forced to retreat. 
 
 Then they threw at faces and bald heads. The 
 14 
 
200 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 uproar redoubled. No one was drunk, no one 
 was mad; but the scene was furious with mirth. 
 It was contagious. Word spread outside, and the 
 whole male population of the town jammed into 
 the stairway, and struggled furiously to reach the 
 court-room, where, the fun was going on. A 
 stranger would have imagined it the loosing of 
 the hordes of hell. 
 
 In the streets of the town, the boys, without 
 the slightest care about who was elected, were 
 stealing kerosene barrels and dry-goods boxes, in 
 order to keep the bonfire going. When they 
 heard of the free apples which they had missed 
 by their zeal in bonfiring, a bitterness came upon 
 them, and they came together and tried to organ- 
 ize a committee to go down and see Judge Brown 
 and state their grievance. 
 
 At last one desperate young fellow took the 
 lead, and the rest marched after. He moved off 
 down the street, shouting through his closed lips 
 "Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum!" The rest took 
 up the drum-like cry, and marched after him two 
 and two. 'They made straight toward Judge 
 Brown's office, where they knew Bradley was. 
 They halted and raised a great shout. 
 
 "Three cheers for the Honorable Brad," and 
 gave them wildly. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 201 
 
 This brought the Judge out; and when they 
 saw him, they yelled in lugubrious tones, as if 
 they were starving, "Apples ! apples!" 
 
 The Judge shouted down, " " All right, boys, I'll 
 send Robie up. He'll roll out all the apples you 
 want." The boys gave another cheer, and left. 
 
 Bradley sat there in the Judge's office in a sort 
 of daze. He could not say a word. His thought 
 was not clear. He was not at all anxious. 
 Somehow he could not feel that it was his fate 
 that was being decided. On the contrary, it 
 seemed to be some other person. He was not 
 excited ; he was only puzzled and wondering. 
 
 At last the crowd was heard coming from the 
 Court House. Wild cheers sounded faintly far 
 up the street. The sound of a band was heard, 
 and the marching of feet, rhythmic on the side-, 
 walks. There came the sound of rapid footsteps,, 
 and. so familiar was Bradley with the sidewalk 
 that he knew exactly where the runners were by 
 the different note given out by each section of 
 planking. They were crossing the street. Now 
 they came across the warped and clattering length 
 before the butcher shop. Then over the crisp, 
 solid planking before Robie's. Then came a rush, 
 up the stairway, and Milton and young Mason 
 burst into the room. 
 
202 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " Hurrah, we've carried you through ! You're 
 elected, sure as guns ! " 
 
 "Three cheers for Democracy and progress," 
 shouted the Judge, in high excitement, from the 
 open windows. They were given with tremend- 
 ous vigor by the crowd from below and the band 
 
 struck up " Hail Columbia." 
 
 *#**■** 
 
 It was two o'clock when Bradley and the Judge 
 got away from the crowd and went home to bed. 
 They found Mrs. Brown sitting up. With the 
 customary thoughtlessness of men, neither of 
 them had taken her anxiety into account. 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Brown, are you up ? " 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Brown; I wanted to hear the news. 
 You didn't suppose I could go to bed without it," 
 she replied calmly, though she was trembling with 
 eagerness. 
 
 "Well, we're elected, Mrs. Brown," said . the 
 Judge proudly. 
 
 She came up to Bradley timidly, a longing 
 mixed with pride expressed in her face. Bradley 
 took her in his arms, and laid her cheek on his 
 shoulder. She stood before him like a mother 
 now. He felt her pride in him, and she had 
 grown very dear to him. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 203 
 
 XVIII. 
 "don't blow out the gas." 
 
 Des Moines appeared to Bradley to be very 
 great and very noisy. It was the largest city he 
 had ever seen. He was born in Eastern Wiscon- 
 sin on a farm, and his early life had been spent 
 far from any populous centre; very largely, in- 
 deed, in the timber-lands. He had been in 
 Lacrosse, that is to say, he changed cars there, 
 and Rock River and Iowa . City were the only 
 towns he had ever lived in. 
 
 He had the preconception that Des Moines was 
 a fine city, but its streets seemed endless to him 
 that cold, clear night that he got off the train and 
 walked up the sidewalk. He had been told to go 
 right to the Windom House, because there was 
 the legislative headquarters. He walked, carry- 
 ing his valise in his hand, and looking furtively 
 about him. He knew he ought not to do so, 
 
204 ■* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 but the life about him and the endless rows of 
 vast buildings fascinated him — drew his attention 
 constantly. 
 
 The portico of the hotel awed him with its red 
 sandstone magnificence, and he moved timidly on 
 toward the centre of the rotunda with hesitating 
 and uncertain steps. It seemed to be the realiza- 
 tion of his imaginings of Chicago. It subdued 
 him into absolute clownishness ; and the porter 
 who rushed toward him and took his valise from 
 his hands, classified him off-hand as another one 
 of those country fellows who must be watched 
 and prevented from blowing out the gas. Brad- 
 ley signed his name on the book without any 
 flourishes, and without writing the " Honorable " 
 before his name, as most of the other members 
 had done. 
 
 "Front!" yelled the clerk, in an imperative 
 voice. Bradley started, and then grew hot over 
 his foolishness. " Show this gentlem'an to No. 30, 
 Like dinner?" the clerk asked, in a kindly inter- 
 est. Bradley nodded, suddenly remembering that 
 in fashionable life dinner came at six o'clock. 
 "All ready in about ten minutes," the clerk said, 
 looking at the clock. 
 
 Bradley followed the boy to the elevator. He 
 noticed that the darkey did not enter with him, 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 205 
 
 but ran up the stairs. He could see him rushing 
 around the curves, his hands sliding on the rail- 
 ings. He met him at the door of the elevator and 
 motioned to him — "This way, suh." There was 
 something in his tone that puzzled Bradley ; and 
 as he walked along the hall, he thought of the soft 
 carpet under his feet (it must have been two 
 inches thick) and of that tone in the boy's voice. 
 
 A dull fire of soft coal was burning on the 
 grate, and the boy punched it up, and said, 
 "'Nother gent.jes' left. I git some mo' coal." 
 
 The room, like all hotel rooms, was a desolate 
 place, notwithstanding its one or two elaborate 
 pieces of furniture, its fine carpet, and its easy 
 chair. It had a distinctly homeless quality. Brad- 
 ley sat down in the big chair before the fire, and 
 took time to think it all over. He was really 
 here as a legislator for a great State. The 
 responsibility and honor of the position came 
 upon him strongly as he sat there alone in this 
 great hotel looking at the fire. That he, of all 
 the men in his county, should have been selected 
 for this office, was magnificent. He drew a long 
 sigh, and said inwardly : 
 
 "I'll be true to my trust." And he meant, in 
 addition, to be so dignified and serious that he 
 would not seem young .to the other legislators. 
 
206 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He was reading, from a little frame on the wall, 
 the rules of the house when the boy knocked on 
 the door, and started away toward the fire so that 
 the boy should not suspect what he had been 
 doing. He returned to the reading, however, 
 after the boy had gone out. He read "Don't 
 Blow out the Gas," without feeling it an imperti- 
 nence, and went over to read the code of signals 
 posted above the bell punch. 
 
 Ring once for Bell Boy. 
 Ring twice for Ice Water. 
 Ring three for Fire. 
 Ring four for Chambermaid. 
 
 His mind went off in a pursuit of trivial mat- 
 ters concerning this code. What would happen 
 if he rang three times — which he thought stood 
 for alarm of fire. In imagination he heard the out- 
 cries throughout the various floors and rooms of 
 the house. Then his mind went back to the fact 
 that the boy was not allowed to ride in the eleva- 
 tor. He wondered if this touch of southern feel- 
 ing would ever get any farther north. For the 
 first time in his life he had met the question of 
 caste. 
 
 He went down to supper, as he called it hin> 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 207 
 
 self, in the dining-room, which he found to be a 
 very large and splendid apartment. A waiter in 
 a dress coat (he had never seen a live figure in a 
 dress coat before) met him at the door, and with 
 elaborate authority called another darkey, in a 
 similar dress coat, to show him to a chair. 
 
 The second darkey led his way down the pol- 
 ished floor (which Bradley walked with difficulty), 
 his coat tails wagging in a curious fashion, by 
 reason of the action of his bow legs. He was 
 obliged to take the uncomprehending Bradley by 
 the arm, while he shoved the chair under him; 
 but he did it so courteously that no one noticed 
 it. He was accustomed to give this silent instruc- 
 tion in ceremonials. Bradley noticed that, not- 
 withstanding the splendor of his shirt-front, col- 
 lar and dress-coat, his shoes were badly broken, 
 though highly polished. 
 
 A man sat at the opposite side of the table 
 reading a paper over his coffee. He attracted 
 Bradley's attention because he had a scowl on 
 his face, and his hair was tumbled picturesquely 
 about his forehead. Even his brown moustache 
 contrived to have an oddly dishevelled look. 
 
 They ate in silence for some time, or rather 
 Bradley did ; the other man read and sipped his 
 coffee, and continued to frown and swear under 
 
208 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 his breath. At length he burst forth in a sup- 
 pressed exclamation: "Well, I'll be damned." 
 When he looked at Bradley, his eyes were 
 friendly, and he seemed to require some one 
 to talk to. 
 
 "These devilish railroads will own the country, 
 body and breeches yet." 
 
 "What are they up to now?" said Bradley. 
 
 "They've secured Joe Manley as their attorney, 
 one of the best lawyers in the State. It's too 
 cussed bad." He looked -sad. "I can't account 
 for it. I suppose he got hard up, and couldn't 
 stand the pressure. I wonder if you know how 
 these infernal corporations capture a State ! " 
 
 "No, but I'd like to know. I'm down here to 
 fight 'em." 
 
 " That so ? From where ? " 
 
 "From Rock County. I'm the representative; 
 Talcott is my name," Bradley said, seizing an 
 excuse to announce himself. 
 
 "Is that so! Well, now, I'm an old cock in 
 the pit, and I want to warn you. I've known 
 many a fine, honest fellow to get involved. Now 
 I'll tell you how it's done. Before you have been 
 here a week, some of these railroads will send for 
 you, and tell you they've heard of you as a promi- 
 nent young lawyer of the State. Oh, they've 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 209 
 
 heard of you, we've all heard of your canvass; 
 and as they are in need of an attorney in your 
 county, they'd like very much to have you take 
 charge, etc., of any legislation that may arise 
 there, amd so on. There may not be a week's 
 work during the year, and there may be a great 
 deal, etc., but they will be glad to pay you six 
 hundred dollars or eight hundred dollars, if you 
 will take the position. 
 
 "Well, we'll suppose you take it. You go 
 back to Rock, there is very little business for the 
 railroad, but your salary comes in regularly. You 
 say to yourself that, in case any work comes in 
 which is dishonorable, you'll refuse to take hold 
 of it. But that money comes in nicely. You 
 marry on the expectations of its continuance. 
 You get to depending upon it. You live up to it. 
 You don't find anything which they demand of 
 you really dishonest, and you keep on ; but really 
 cases of the railroad against the people do come 
 up, and your sense of justice isn't so acute as it 
 used to be. You manage to argue yourself into 
 doing it. If you don't do it, somebody else will, 
 etc., and so you keep on." 
 
 After an impressive pause, during which the 
 speaker gazed in his face, he finished : " Suddenly 
 the war of the corporation against the people is 
 
210 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 on us, and you find you are the paid tool of the' 
 corporation, and that the people are distrustful of 
 you, and that you are practically helpless." 
 
 The man spoke in a low voice, but somehow 
 his words had the quality of exciting the imagina- 
 tion. Bradley thrilled at the picture of moral 
 disintegration hinted at. The imaginative tragedy 
 was brought very close to him. 
 
 "Do they really do that?" he asked. 
 
 "That's a part of their plan. The proof of it 
 will be in the offer which they'll make to you in 
 less than ten days. They're always on the look- 
 out for such men, especially men who have the 
 confidence of the farmers. The next war in this 
 State and in the nation is to be a railway war." 
 
 "You think so. I think the tariff" — 
 
 "What is the tariff, compared to the robbery 
 that makes Gould and Sage and Vanderbilt? I 
 tell you, young man, the corporations in this 
 country are eating the life out of it. This power 
 of three men to get together, steal the privilege 
 from the people, and by their joint action to pro- 
 duce a fourth body (corpus), behind which they 
 hide and push their schemes — an intangible some- 
 thing which outlives them all — that is the power 
 that is undermining this government. It's against 
 the Constitution. Old Chief Justice Marshall in 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 211 
 
 his verdict (which ushered in the reign of corpo- 
 rations, in this country) distinctly said that it 
 was based on usurpation, dating back to the 
 Stuarts or the Georges ; and the hint in that was, 
 that it was un-American and un-Constitutional." 
 
 Bradley perceived that he was in the presence 
 of another reformer like himself. He wondered 
 if he- seemed so cranky to other men. He was 
 interested by the man's evident thought and hon- 
 esty of purpose and by the sympathy of a city 
 man with a farmer's fight. 
 
 "You're with us in our fight against the 
 railroads ? " 
 
 The man threw one arm back over the top of 
 his chair and looked at Bradley out of his half- 
 closed eyes. "Of course. Only you're so damned 
 narrow. Excuse me. You don't see that you've 
 got to kill every corporation. Every corporation 
 is an infringement of individual rights. When 
 three men go into business as a firm, they should 
 every one be liable for every contract which they 
 make. The creation of an intangible corporate 
 personality is a trick to evade liability. Make 
 war against the whole system," he said, rising. 
 " Don't go fooling about with regulating fares and 
 forming commissions. Declare corporations ille- 
 gal, and let the people know their practices." 
 
212 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 They went down to the rotunda floor together. 
 The electric lights flooded the brilliant marbles 
 with a dazzling light. Groups of men were gath- 
 ered around spittoons, talking earnestly, gesticu- 
 lating with fists and elaborate broad-hand, free- 
 arm movements — political gestures, as Bradley 
 recognized. 
 
 "These are your colleagues and their parasites," 
 said Bradley's companion, whose name was Car- 
 gill. " Know any of 'em ? " 
 
 "No ; I don't know any of the legislators." 
 
 Cargill led Bradley up to 1 a group which sur- 
 rounded a gigantic old man who leaned on a cane 
 and gesticulated with his powerful left hand. 
 
 "Senator Wood, let me introduce Hon. Brad- 
 ley Talcott, of Rock." 
 
 "Ah, glad to see you, sir. Glad to see you. 
 Gentlemen, this is the young man who made that 
 gallant fight up in Rock. This is the Hon. Jones 
 of Boone, Mr. Talcott, and this is Sam Wells of 
 Cerro Gordo, one of the most remorseless jokers 
 in the House. Look out for him ! " 
 
 After shaking hands all about, Bradley hastened 
 to say, "Don't let me interrupt. Go on, senator. 
 I want to listen." This made a fine impression 
 on the senator, who loved dearly to hear t,he 
 sound of his own voice. He proceeded to enlarge 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 213 
 
 upon his plan for gerrymandering the state — to 
 the advantage of the Democratic party, of course. 
 
 In the talk which followed, Bradley was brought 
 face to face with the fact that these men were 
 more earnest in maintaining the hold of their par- 
 ties upon the offices than principles of legislation. 
 They were not legislators in any instances; they 
 were gamesters. 
 
 "Now, let me tell you something more," said 
 Cargill, as he led his way. back to a settee near 
 the wall. He drew up a chair for his feet, lighted 
 his cigar, pulled his -little soft hat down to the 
 bridge of his nose, put one thumb behind his 
 vest, and began in a peculiarly sardonic tone; 
 "Now, here is where the legislation really takes 
 place — here and at the Iowa House. See those 
 fellows?" He waved his hand in a circle around 
 the rotunda, now filled with stalwart men laugh- 
 ing loudly or talking in confidential, deeply inter- 
 ested groups, with their heads close together. 
 "There are the supposed law-makers of the State. 
 What do you think of- them, anyway?" 
 
 • Bradley was silent. He was so filled with new 
 sensations and ideas that he could not talk. 
 
 • Cargill mused a little. "I suppose it all 
 appears to you as something very fine and very 
 important. Now, don't make a mistake. The 
 
214 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 most of these fellows are not even average men. 
 I have a theory that, take it one ten years with 
 another, the legislatures of our country must be 
 necessarily beneath the average, because the man 
 who is a thinker or a moralist necessarily repre» 
 sents a minority. Anyhow, these men support 
 my theory, don't they?" 
 
 There was a distinct bitterness in his tone that 
 made his words sink deep. There was a touch of 
 literary grace also in his phrases, quite unlike 
 anything Bradley had ever heard. "You imagine 
 these men honest. You say 'they differ from 
 me ' honestly. But I know there is no question 
 of principle in their action. They simply say 
 No. i first, party next, and principle last of all. 
 I remember how awe-struck I was during my first 
 term. Now, don't waste any nervous energy oq 
 admiring these men or standing in awe of them. 
 Jump right in and take care of yourself. Vote 
 for party, but make arrangements before you vote 
 — no; I forgot. You stand for a real principle, 
 and success may lie for you in standing by it. 
 Yes, on the whole, I believe I would stand by 
 principle; it will bring you out in greater relief 
 from the rest of them, and then the people may 
 begin to think. I doubt it, however." 
 
 "You are a pessimist, then," said Bradley, feel- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 215 
 
 ing that there was an undercurrent of dark philos- 
 ophy in Cargill's voice. 
 
 "I am. The whole damned thing is a botch, 
 in my opinion. You may find it different," he 
 said, with a mocking gleam in his eyes as he rose 
 and walked away. Bradley did not believe the 
 man meant half he said, and yet his bitterness 
 had thrown a sombre shadow over his heart. 
 The vista ahead was not quite so bright as it had 
 been except where Miss Wilbur seemed to walk. 
 He longed to go. out and find her, and tried to 
 content himself with walking up. and down the 
 street, which seemed incredibly brilliant with its 
 lighted windows and streams of gay young people 
 coming and going. 
 
 At last he came to a corner where he saw the 
 name of her street upon the lamp post, and the 
 hunger to see her was irresistible. He rushed up 
 the street with desperate haste. He wished he 
 had started sooner. It was eight o'clock and 
 there was danger that she might be gone out. 
 The electric cars hardly diverted him as they 
 came floating weirdly down the line — the trolley, 
 invisible, the wheels emitting green sheets of 
 light at the crossings. 
 
 The street grew more quiet as it climbed the 
 hill, and at last became quite like Rock River, 
 15 
 
216 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 with its rows of small wooden houses on each side 
 of the maple-lined streets, through which the 
 keen wind went hissing. The stars glittered 
 through the clear cold air like crystals of green 
 and gold and white fire. As he walked along, 
 his newly acquired honors fell away from him, 
 together with his ' war for the grange, and his 
 ambitious plans displayed their warmer side. He 
 began to feel that all he was and was to do must 
 be shared with a woman in order that he could 
 enjoy it himself, and he had known for a long 
 time that Ida was that woman. 
 
 His face lifted to the stars as he implored their 
 aid in a vast and dangerous enterprise. It meant 
 all or nothing to him. He was in the mood to 
 risk all his life and plans that night if she had 
 been with him. The strangeness of the city had 
 exalted him to the mood where his timidity was 
 gone. 
 
 When he came to the house, he found it all 
 dark save a dim light in the rear, and it made him 
 shiver with a premonition of failure. A servant 
 girl answered his ring. He had the hope that 
 this was the wrong house after all. 
 
 "Can you tell me if Miss Wilbur lives here ?" 
 
 "Yassir, but she nat haar," answered the girl, 
 with the Norwegian accent. 
 
^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " Where is she ? " 
 
 "Ay nat know. Ay tank she ees good ways 
 off ; her moder she ees gawn to churtz." 
 
 Bradley no longer looked at the stars as he 
 walked along the street. All his doubts and fears 
 and his timidity and his reticence came back upon 
 him, and something warm and sweet seemed to 
 go out of the far vista of his life. He felt that 
 he had lost her. 
 
218 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XIX. 
 CARGILL TAKES BRADLEY IN HAND. 
 
 Cargill was not at the table the next morn- 
 ing, but he came in later, and greeted Bradley 
 brusquely, as he flung his rag of a hat on the 
 floor. 
 
 "Well, legislator, what is on the tapis this 
 morning ? Anything I can do for you ? " 
 
 "No, I guess not. I am going to look up a 
 new boarding-house." 
 
 " What's the matter with this ? " 
 
 "Too rich for my blood." 
 
 "Just repeat that, please." 
 
 "Can't stand the expense." 
 
 Cargill poured the cream on his oatmeal before 
 he replied : " But, dear sir, nothing is too good for 
 a representative. Young man, you don't seem to 
 know how to farm yourself out." 
 
 All day Saturday the Windom rotunda was 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 219 
 
 crowded with men. The speakerships, the house 
 offices, were being contested for here; the real 
 battle was being fought here, and under Cargill's 
 cynical comment the scene assumed great signifi- 
 cance to Bradley's uninitiated eyes. They took 
 seats on the balcony which ran around the 
 "bear pit," as he called it. Around them, 
 flitting to and fro, were dozens of bright, rather 
 self-sufficient young women. 
 
 "This is one of the most dangerous and demor- 
 alizing features of each legislature," he said to 
 Bradley. "These girls come down here from 
 every part of the State to cajole and flatter their 
 way into a State House office. You see them 
 down there buttonholing every man they can get 
 an introduction to, and some of them don't even 
 wait for an introduction. They'd be after you if 
 you were a Republican." 
 
 Bradley looked out upon it all with a growing 
 shadow in his eyes. He suddenly saw terrible 
 results of this unwomanly struggle for office. 
 He saw back of it also the need for employ- 
 ment which really forced these girls into such a 
 contest. 
 
 "They soon learn," Cargill was saying, "where 
 their strength lies. The pretty ones and the 
 bold ones succeed where the plain and timid ones 
 
220 •* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 fail. It has its abuses. Good God, how could it 
 be otherwise ! It's a part of our legislative rot- 
 tenness. Legal labor pays so little, and vice and 
 corruption pay so well. Now see those two girls 
 button-holing that leprous old goat Bergheim! If 
 it don't mean ruin to them both, it will be because 
 they're as knowing as he is. Every year this 
 thing goes on. What the friends and parents of 
 these girls are thinking of, I'll be damned if I 
 know." 
 
 Bradley was dumb with the horror of it all. 
 He had such an instinctive reverence for women 
 that this scene produced in him a profound, almost 
 despairing sorrow. He sat there after Cargill left 
 him, and gazed upon it all with stern eyes. There 
 was no more tragical thing to him than the woman 
 who could willingly allure men for pay. It made 
 him shudder to see those bright, pretty girls go 
 down among those men, whose hard, peculiar, 
 savage stare he knew almost as well as a woman. 
 
 They did not know that he was a legislator, 
 and he escaped their importunities; but he over- 
 heard several of them, as they came up with some 
 .member — sometimes a married man — and took 
 seats on the balcony near him. 
 
 "But you had no business to promise Miss 
 Jones ! How could you when I was living?" 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 221 
 
 "But I didn't know you then!" 
 
 " Well, then, now you've seen me, you can tell 
 Miss Jones your contract don't go," laughed the 
 girl. 
 
 "Oh, that wouldn't do, she'd kick." 
 
 " Let'er kick. She aint got any people who are 
 constituents. My people are your constituents." 
 
 Bradley walked away sick at heart. As he 
 passed a settee near the stairway, he saw another 
 girl with a childish face looking up at a hard- 
 featured young man, and saying with eager, wist- 
 ful voice, her hands clasped, " Oh, I hope you can 
 help me. I need it so much." 
 
 Her sweet face haunted him because of its 
 suggested helplessness and its danger. His heart 
 swelled with an indefinable and bitter rebellion. 
 Everywhere was a 'scramble for office — every- 
 where a pouring into the city from the farms- and 
 villages. Why was it ? Was he not a part of the 
 movement as well as these girls ? Did it not all 
 spring from the barrenness and vacuity of rural 
 life ? 
 
 Bradley went to church, for the reason that he 
 had nothing better to do, and, in order to get as 
 much out of it as possible, went to the largest 
 sanctuary in the city. The hotels were thronged 
 by men who took little thought of the day. The 
 
222 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 rotunda echoed with roaring laughter and the 
 tramp of feet. Every new member was being 
 introduced and manipulated, but Bradley shrank 
 from declaring himself. His name, B. Talcott, 
 conveyed no information to those who saw it on 
 the register, and so he sat aside from the crowd 
 all day, untouched by the male lobbyist or the 
 girl office seekers. 
 
 He went next day, according to promise, to call 
 at Cargill's office, which was on the fifth floor of 
 a large six-story building on the main street. 
 There were two ornamental ground-glass doors 
 opening from the end of a narrow hall. One was 
 marked, "Bergen & Cargill, Commission Mer- 
 chants, Private," and Bradley entered. A man 
 seated at a low table was operating a telegraphic 
 machine. He was in his shirt sleeves, and wore 
 blue checked over-sleeves, and carried a handker- 
 chief under his chin to keep his collar from get- 
 ting soiled. He sat near two desks which sepa- 
 rated the private room from the larger room, in 
 which were seated several men looking at one 
 side of the wall, which was a blackboard jcbscked 
 off in small squares by red lines. Columns of 
 figures in chalk were there displayed. 
 
 Cargill did not seem to be about, and the busy 
 operator did not see the visitor. A brisk young 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 223 
 
 man of Scandinavian type was walking about in 
 the larger office with a piece of chalk in his hand. 
 He came to the desk and looked inquiringly at 
 Bradley, who started to speak, but the sonorous 
 voice of the operator interrupted him. 
 
 "Three eighths bid on wheat," he called, and 
 handed a little slip of paper to the brisk young 
 man with the flaxen mustache. 
 
 "Wheat, three eighths," he repeated in a reso- 
 nant tone, and proceeded to put the figures in a 
 small square under the section marked "Wheat" 
 on the blackboard. When he came back, Bradley 
 asked for Cargill. 
 
 "He'll be in soon ; take a seat." 
 
 "Three eighths bid. They still hammer the 
 market, as they sold short," shouted the operator. 
 
 Bergen repeated the telegram to the crowd. 
 "Of course they'll do that," said one of the 
 smokers, a young man with an assumption of 
 great wisdom on all matters relating to wheat. 
 He looked prematurely knowing, and spit with a 
 manly air. 
 
 As Bradley took a seat at the desk, Bergen 
 was calling into the telephone in a high, sonorous, 
 monotonous voice, "Wheat opened at ninety-three, 
 three quarters; sold as high as ninety-four; is 
 now ninety-three and three eighths. Corn opened 
 
224 * SrOIL OF OFFICE. • 
 
 at forty-two; is now forty-one and seven eighths. 
 Bradstreet's decrease on both coasts the past 
 week, two and a quarter millions. Cables very 
 strong." 
 
 Cargill came in a little later, and greeted Brad- 
 ley with a nod while crossing the room to look 
 at the blackboard. 
 
 "Draw up a chair," he said, and they took a 
 seat at the table, while the business of the office 
 went on. " You'll be interested in knowing some- 
 thing about this business," he said to Bradley. 
 "It's as legitimate as buying or selling real estate 
 on a commission ; but so far as the popular 
 impression goes, there is no difference between 
 this and a bucket-shop." 
 
 "It's all very new to me," said Bradley. "I 
 don't know the difference between this and the 
 bucket-shop." 
 
 "Ninety-three and seven eighths bid on wheat," 
 called Bergen from a slip, as he walked-. back and 
 chalked the latest intelligence upon the board. 
 
 "Well, there is a difference. In this case, we 
 simply buy and sell on commission. These are 
 real purchases and sales. The order for wheat is 
 transmitted to Chicago and registered, and has its 
 effect upon the market ; whereas in a bucket-shop 
 the sale does not go out of the office, and, if there 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 225 
 
 is a loss to the customer, the proprietor gains it. 
 In other words, we buy and sell for others, with 
 no personal interest in the sale ; the bucket-shop 
 is a pure gambling establishment, where men bet 
 on what other men are going to do. But that 
 ain't what I had you call to talk over. I want 
 you to meet Bergen. Chris, come over here," 
 he called. " I want to introduce the Honorable 
 Talcott of Rock River. Pie's started in, like 
 yourself, to reform politics. 
 
 "The reason why I wanted you to meet Ber- 
 gen," Cargill went on, "is because he is a sincerer 
 lover of literature than myself, and like yourself, I 
 imagine, believes thoroughly in the classics. He's 
 translating Ibsen for the Square Table Club. 
 His idea of amusement ain't mine, I needn't say." 
 
 " New York still hammers away on the market. 
 Partridge quietly buying to cover on the decline." 
 
 "Excuse me a moment," said Bergen, returning 
 to business. 
 
 Cargill took an easy position. " I don't know 
 why I have sized you up as literary in general 
 effect, but I have. That's one reason why I took 
 to you. It's so damned unusual to find a politi- 
 cian that has a single idea above votes. And 
 then I'm literary myself," he said, his face a mask 
 of impenetrable gravity. " I wrote up the sheep 
 
226 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 industry of Iowa for the Agricultural Encyclopse 
 dia. That puts me in the front rank of Des 
 Moines literary aspirants. 
 
 "Towns like this," he said, going off on a 
 speculative side track, "have a two-per-cent. popu- 
 lation who are inordinately literary. They recog- 
 nize my genius. The other ninety-eight per cent, 
 don't care a continental damn for Shakespeare or 
 anybody else, barring Mary Jane Holmes, of 
 course, and the five-cent story papers. But liter- 
 ary Des Moines is literary. They stand by 
 Shakespeare and Homer, I can tell you, and they 
 recognize genius when they see it. By the way, 
 Bergen," he said, calling his brother-in-law to him 
 again, " we must make this young man acquainted 
 with our one literary girl." 
 
 "Wheat is ninety-four bid. New York strong." 
 It was impossible to hold Bergen's attention, how- 
 ever, with a sharp bulge on the market, and Car- 
 gill was forced to turn to Bradley again. 
 
 "There is a girl in this town who has the liter- 
 ary quality. True, she has recognized my ability, 
 which prejudices me in her favor, of course. In 
 turn I presented her with my report on the sheep 
 industry." 
 
 Bradley laughed, but Cargill proceeded as if 
 there were nothing funny in the situation — 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 227 
 
 "And she read it, actually, and quoted it in 
 one of her great speeches. It made the reporter 
 bug out his eyes. He said he had observed of 
 late quite a vein of poetry running through Miss 
 Wilbur's speeches, which lifted them out of the 
 common rut." 
 
 Bradley lost sight of the humor in this speech 
 at the sound of Ida's name, and his face flushed. 
 He had not heard her name spoken by a third 
 person in months, and had never dared to say it 
 out loud himself. 
 
 Cargill went on : " She's an infernal heretic 
 and suffragist and all that, but she's a power. 
 Her name is Wilbur — Ida Wilbur. Used to lec- 
 ture for the Grange or something of that kind. 
 Is still lecturing, I believe, but the Grange has 
 snuffed out." 
 
 Six or eight men came into the larger room 
 talking loudly and excitedly about, the market, and 
 Cargill's attention was drawn off by the resonant 
 reports of the Chicago market. 
 
 " The market shows great elasticity. Western 
 advices contribute to the Bull feeling." 
 
 "Do you know Miss Wilbur?" Bradley asked 
 when Cargill came back, being afraid Cargill 
 might forget the topic of conversation. 
 
 "Yes, I meet her occasionally. I meet her at 
 
228 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the Square Table Club, where we fight on lit- 
 erature. They call it the Square Table Club, 
 because they disagree with the opinions of the 
 most of us real literary people of the town." 
 
 Bradley managed to say, in a comparatively 
 firm tone of voice, that he had heard of Miss Wil- 
 bur as a Grange lecturer, and that he would like 
 to know more about her. 
 
 "Well, I'll introduce you. She aint very easy 
 to understand. She is one of these infernal 
 advanced women. Now, I like thinkers, but 
 what right has a woman to think? To think 
 is our manly prerogative. I'm free to admit that 
 we don't exercise it to much better advantage 
 than we do our prerogative to vote; but then, 
 damn it, how could we stand wives that think ? " 
 
 Bradley had given up trying to understand 
 when Cargill was joking and when he was in 
 earnest. He knew this was either merciless 
 sarcasm or the most pig-headed bigotry. Any- 
 how he did not care to say anything for fear of 
 drawing him off into a discussion of an. imper- 
 sonal subject, just when he seemed likely to tell 
 something about Ida's early life. 
 
 It was a singular place to receive this informa- 
 tion. He sat there with his elbow on the desk, 
 leaning his head on his palm, studying Cargill's 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 229 
 
 face as he talked. Over at the other enc! oi the 
 room, the operator was feeding himself on a 
 pickle with his left hand, and receiving the tele- 
 grams from the far-off, roaring, tumultuous wheat 
 exchange,, every repeated message being a sort of 
 distant echo of the ocean of cries and the tumult 
 of feet in the city. They were as much alone 
 and talking in private as if they were in Cargill's 
 own room at the hotel. Cargill talked on, un- 
 mindful of the telephone, the telegraphic ticking, 
 and the brisk, business-like action of his partner. 
 
 "Yes, I have known her ever since she was a 
 girl. Her father was a queer old seed of a farmer, 
 just out of town here, cranky on religion — a Uni- 
 versalist, I believe. Had the largest library of 
 his town; I don't know but the largest private 
 library outside of a city in the State. His house 
 was literally walled with books. How he got 'em 
 I don't know. It was currently believed that he 
 was full of information, but I never heard of any 
 one who was able to get very much out of him. 
 His wife had been a beauty ; that was her dowry 
 to her daughter. 
 
 "The girl went to school here at sixteen. I 
 was a student then, six or seven years older than 
 she, and I remember there were about six of us 
 who used to stand around the schoolhouse door to 
 
230 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 carry her books for her; but she just walked past 
 us all without a turn of the head. She didn't 
 seem to know what ailed us. She was one of 
 these girls born all brains, some way. I never 
 saw her face flushed in my life, and her. big eyes 
 always made me shiver when she turned them on 
 me." 
 
 "Wheat falls to ninety-three and a fourth. 
 There is a break in the market. New York is 
 still hammering," called the operator, his mouth 
 full of pie. 
 
 Cargill was distinctly talking to himself, almost 
 as much as to Bradley. The hardness had gone 
 out of his eyes, and his voice had a touch of 
 unconscious sadness in it. 
 
 "Does Miss Wilbur live here?" Bradley asked, 
 to start him off again. 
 
 "Yes, she went into the Grange when she was 
 eighteen, just after she graduated from our uni- 
 versity here. Had a good deal of your enthusi- 
 asm, I should judge. Expected to revolutionize 
 things some way. I don't take very much inter- 
 est in her public work, but I thoroughly appre- 
 ciate her literary perception." He had got back 
 to his usual humor. 
 
 "Chris, when does the club meet next?" 
 
 "Friday night, I believe." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 231 
 
 "All right. I'll take you up, and introduce 
 you into the charmed circle. They pride them- 
 selves on being modern up there, though I don't 
 see much glory in being modern." 
 
 Bradley stood for a moment at the door, look- 
 ing at this strange scene. It appealed to him 
 with its strangeness, and its suggestion of the 
 great battles on the street which he had read of 
 in the papers. The telegraph machine clicked 
 out every important movement in Chicago and 
 New York. The manager called up his custom- 
 ers, and bawled into the telephone the condition 
 of the market and the significant gossip of the far- 
 off exchange halls. It w.as so strange, and yet so 
 familiar, that he went away with his head full of 
 those cabalistic sentences — 
 
 "New York still hammering away. Partridge 
 quietly buying to cover on the decline." 
 
 16 
 
232 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XX 
 
 AT THE STATE HOUSE. 
 
 That the invitation to attend the Square Table 
 Club over-shadowed the importance and signifi- 
 cance of Bradley's entrance into public life, was 
 an excellent commentary upon his real character. 
 The State House, however, appealed to his imag- 
 ination very strongly as he walked up its unfin- 
 ished lawn, amid the heaps of huge limestone 
 blocks, his eyes upon the looming facade of the 
 west front. He walked the echoing rotunda with 
 a timid air; and the beautiful soaring vault was 
 so majestic in his eyes, he wondered if Wash- 
 ington could be finer. There were a few other 
 greenhorns, like himself, looking the building 
 over with the same minute scrutiny. He entered 
 all of the rooms into which it was possible to 
 penetrate, and at last into the library, a cheerful, 
 rectangular room, into which the sun streamed 
 plenteously. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 2f$i 
 
 There was hardly any one in either the Senate 
 or the Representative Halls except farmer-like 
 groups of people, sometimes a family group of 
 four or five, including the grandmother or grand- 
 father. They were mainly in rough best suits of 
 gray, or ostentatiously striped cassimere. The 
 young men wore wide hats, pushed back, in some 
 cases, to display a smooth, curling wave of hair, 
 carefully combed down over their foreheads. He 
 was able to catalogue them by reference to his old 
 companions, . Ed Blackler, Shep Watson, Sever 
 Anderson, and others. 
 
 Soon the crowds thickened, and groups, of men 
 entered, talking and laughing loudly. They were 
 wholly at their ease, being plainly old and experi- 
 enced members. They greeted each other with 
 boisterous cries and powerful handshaking. 
 
 "Hello, Stineberg, I hoped you'd git snowed 
 under. Back again, eh ? " 
 
 "Well, I'll be damned! Aint your county got 
 any more sense than to send such a specimen 
 as you back? Why weren't you around to the 
 caucus ? " 
 
 Bradley stood around awkwardly alone, not 
 knowing just what to do. Perhaps some of these 
 men would be glad to see him if they knew him, 
 but he could not think of going to introduce himr 
 
234 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 self. Being new in politics, there was not a man 
 there whose face he recognized. The few that he 
 had met at the hotel were not in sight. He felt 
 as if he had been thrust into this jovial company, 
 and was unwelcome. 
 
 The House was called to order by one of the 
 members of the capital county, and prayer was 
 offered. He sat quietly in his seat as things went 
 on. The session adjourned after electing tem- 
 porary speaker, clerk, etc. Bradley felt so alien 
 to it all that he scarcely took the trouble to 
 vote ; and when the committee on credentials was 
 appointed, he felt nervously in his pocket to see 
 that his papers were safe. He felt very much as 
 he used to when, as a boy, he went to have his 
 hair cut, and sat in torture during the whole oper- 
 ation, in the fear that his quarter (all he had with 
 him) might be lost, and trembling to think what 
 would happen in such a case. 
 
 That night he moved to a new boarding-place. 
 He secured a room near the Capitol, and went to 
 supper in a small private house near by, which 
 had a most astonishing amplitude of dining-room. 
 He felt quite at home there, for the food was put 
 on the table in the good old way, and passed 
 around from hand to hand. The mashed potato 
 tasted better, piled high, with a lump of butter in 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 235 
 
 the top of it; and the slices of roast beef, out- 
 spread on the platter, enabled him to get the crisp 
 outside, if it happened to start from his end of the 
 table. There were judges and generals and sena- 
 tors and legislators of various ranks all about him. 
 Crude, rough, wholesome fellows, most of them, 
 with big, brawny hands like his own, and loud, 
 hearty voices. It was impossible to stand in awe 
 of a judge who handled his knife more deftly than 
 his fork, and spooned the potato out of the big, 
 earthen-ware dish with a resounding slap. He 
 began to see that these men were exactly like the 
 people he had been with all his life. He argued, 
 however, that they were perhaps the poorer and 
 the more honorable part of the legislature. 
 
 He wrote a note to Judge Brown, telling him 
 that he was settled, but was taking very little part 
 in the organizing of the House. He did not say 
 that he was disappointed in his reception, but he 
 was ; his vanity had been hurt. His canvass had 
 attracted considerable attention from the Demo- 
 cratic press of the country, and he expected to be 
 received with great favor by them. He had come 
 out of Republicanism for their sake, and they 
 ought to recognize him. He did not consider 
 that no one knew him by sight, and that recogni- 
 tion was impossible. 
 
236 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He was at the Capitol again early the next 
 morning, and' found the same scene being re-en- 
 acted. Straggling groups of roughly-dressed farm- 
 ers loitered timidly along the corridors, brisk clerks 
 dashed to and fro, and streams of men poured in 
 and out the doors of the, legislative halls. Brad- 
 ley entered unobserved, and took a seat at the rear 
 of the hall on a sofa. He did not feel safe in tak- 
 ing a seat. 
 
 It was a solemn moment to the new legislator 
 as he stood before the clerk, and, with lifted 
 hand, listened to the oath of office read in the 
 clerk's sounding voice. He swore solemnly, with 
 the help of God, to support the Constitution, and 
 serve his people to the best of his ability ; and he 
 meant it. It did not occur to him that this oath 
 was a shuffling and indefinite obligation. The 
 room seemed to grow a little dimmer as he stood 
 there; the lofty ceiling, rich in its colors, grand 
 and spacious to him, seemed to gather new maj- 
 esty, just as his office as lawmaker gathered a vast 
 and sacred significance. 
 
 But as he came back to his seat, he heard a 
 couple of old members laugh. "Comin' down to 
 save their country. They'll learn to save their 
 bacon before their term is up. That young feller 
 looks like one of those retrenchment and reform 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 237 
 
 cusses, one of. the fellers who never want to 
 adjourn — down here for business, ye know." 
 
 Their laughter made Bradley turn hot with 
 indignation. 
 
 The selection of seats was the next great feat- 
 ure. The names of all the members were written 
 upon slips of paper and shaken together in a box, 
 while the members stood laughing and talking in 
 the back part of the house. A blind-folded mes- 
 senger boy selected the slips; and as the clerk 
 read, in a sounding voice, the name on each slip, 
 the representative so called went forward and 
 selected his seat. 
 
 Bradley's name was called about the tenth, and 
 he went forward timidly, and took a seat directly 
 in the centre of the House. He did not care to 
 seem anxious for a front seat. The Democratic 
 members looked at him closely, and he stepped 
 out of his obscurity as he went forward. 
 
 A young man of about his own age, a stalwart 
 fellow, reached about and shook hands. "My 
 name is Nelson Floyd. I wanted to see you." 
 
 Floyd took the first opportunity to introduce 
 him to two or three of the Democratic members, 
 but he sat quietly in his seat during the whole 
 session, and took very little interest in the 
 speakership contest, which seemed to go off very 
 
238 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 smoothly. He believed the speaker implicitly, 
 when he stated the usual lie about having no 
 pledges to redeem, and that he was free to choose 
 his committee with regard only to superior fit- 
 ness, etc., and was shocked when Floyd told him 
 that a written contract had been drawn up and 
 signed, before the legislature met, wherein the 
 principal clerkships had been disposed of to party 
 advantage. It was his second introduction to the 
 hypocrisy of officialism. 
 
 If he had been neglected before, he was not 
 now; all sorts, of people came about him with 
 axes to grind. 
 
 ■;Is this Mr. Talcott ? Ah, yes ! I have heard 
 of your splendid canvass — splendid canvass ! 
 Now — ahem! — I'd like you to speak a good 
 word for my girl, for the assistant clerkship of 
 the Ways and Means"; while another wanted his 
 son, Mr. John Smith, for page. 
 
 He told them that he had nothing to say about 
 those things. " I am counted with the Demo- 
 crats, anyhow; I haven't any influence." 
 
 They patted him on the shoulder, and winked 
 slyly. " Oh, we know all about that ! But every 
 word helps, you know." 
 
 Going out at the close of the session, he met 
 Cargill. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 239 
 
 " Well, legislator, how goes it ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know ; smoothly, I guess. I've 
 kept pretty quiet." 
 
 "That's right. The Republicans have every- 
 thing in their hands this session." 
 
 "Hello, Cargill!" called a smooth, jovial voice. 
 
 "Ah, Barney! Talcott, this is an excellent 
 opportunity. This is Barney, the great railway 
 lobbyist. Barney, here is a new victim for you — 
 Talcott, of Rock." 
 
 " Glad to see you, Mr. Talcott." 
 
 Bradley shook hands with moderate enthusi- 
 asm, looking into Barney's face with great inter- 
 est. The lobbyist was large and portly and 
 smiling. His moustache drooped over his mouth, 
 and his chin had a jolly -looking hollow in it. His 
 hazel eyes, once frank and honest, were a little 
 clouded with drink. 
 
 "Cargill is an infernal old cynic," he exclaimed, 
 '^and he is corporation mad. Don't size us up 
 according to his estimate." 
 
 It did not seem possible that this man could be 
 the great tool of the railway interest, and yet that 
 was his reputation. 
 
 Cargill moralized on the members, as they 
 walke'd on: "Barney's on his rounds getting 
 hold of the new members. He scents a corrupt- 
 
240 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 ible man as the buzzard does carrion. Every ses- 
 sion young fellows like you come down here with 
 high and beautiful ideas of office, and start in to 
 reform everything, and end by becoming meat for 
 Barney and his like. There is something destruct- 
 ive in the atmosphere of politics." 
 
 Bradley listened to Cargill incredulously. These 
 things could not be true. These groups of jovial, 
 candid-looking men could not be the moral wrecks 
 they were represented. He had expected to see 
 men who looked villainous in some way, with 
 bloated faces — disreputable, beery fellows. He 
 had not risen to the understanding that the suc- 
 cessful villain is always plausible. 
 
 When he left the Capitol and went down the 
 steps with Cargill, he felt that he had fairly 
 entered upon the work of his term. 
 
 "Now, young man," said Cargill, as they 
 parted, "let me advise you. The fight of this 
 session is going to be the people against the cor- 
 porations. There are two positions and only two. 
 You take your choice. If you side with the 
 corporation, your success will be instantaneous. 
 You can rig out, and board at the Richwood, and 
 be dined out, and taken to see the town Saturday 
 nights, and retire with a nice little boost and a 
 record to apologize for when you go back to Rock 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 241 
 
 River ; that is, you can go in for all that there is 
 in it, or you can take your chances with the 
 people." 
 
 " I will take the chances with the people." 
 
 " Well, now, hold on ! Don't deceive yourself.- 
 The people are a mob yet. They are fickle as 
 the flames o' hell. They don't know what they 
 do want, but in the end the man that leads them 
 and stands by them is sure of success." 
 
 The daily walk down from the Capitol was very 
 beautiful. As the sun sank low it struck through 
 the smoke of the city, and flooded the rotunda of 
 the building with a warm, red light, which lay 
 along the floor in great streams of gold, and 
 warmed each pillar till it glowed like burnished 
 copper. At such moments the muddy streets, the 
 poor hovels, the ugly bricks, lost to sight beneath 
 the majesty and mystery of the sun-transfigured 
 smoke and the purple deeps of the lower levels 
 (out of which the searching, pitiless light had 
 gone), became a sombre and engulfing flood of 
 luminous darkness. 
 
 " Here, here ! " Cargill said one day, when 
 Bradley calied his attention to the view, " a man 
 can swear and get drunk and be a politician ; but 
 when he likes flowers or speaks of a sunset, his 
 goose is cooked. It is political death." 
 
242 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 BRADLEY AND CARGILL CALL ON IDA. 
 
 BRADLEY had come to like Cargill very much. 
 He was very thoughtful in his haphazard way, 
 but not at all like Radbourn. Bradley compared 
 every man he met with Radbourn and Judge 
 Brown, and every woman suffered comparison with 
 Ida Wilbur. 
 
 He went down to meet Cargill on the night of 
 the promised call. He found him seated on the 
 small of his back, his hands in his pockets. His 
 absurd little hat (that seemed to partake of his 
 every mood) was rolled into a point in -front, and 
 pulled down aggressively over his eyes. He was 
 particularly violent, and paid no attention whatever 
 to Bradley. 
 
 " No, sir ; I am not a prohibitionist. My posi- 
 tion is just this : If we vote prohibition in Iowa,, 
 the government has no business to license men to 
 sell contrary to our regulations." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 243 
 
 " That's state's rights ! " burst in the other man 
 who was trembling with rage and excitement. 
 
 Cargill slowly rose, transfixing him with a glare. 
 " Go way, now ; I won't waste any more time on 
 you," he said, walking off with Bradley. "Let 
 me see, we were going to the club to-night." He 
 looked down at his boots. "Yes, they are shined; 
 that puts a dress suit on me." As he walked 
 along, he referred to Miss Wilbur. "She is a 
 great woman, but she is abnormal from my point 
 of view." 
 
 "Why so?" inquired Bradley. 
 
 " Well, look at the life she leads. On the road 
 constantly, living at hotels. A woman can't hold 
 herself up against such things." 
 
 "It depends upon the woman," was Bradley's 
 succinct protest against sweeping generalizations. 
 
 It was crisp and clear, and the sound of their 
 feet rang out in the still air as if they trod on 
 glass at every step. They talked very little. 
 Bradley wanted to tell Cargill that he had already 
 met Miss Wilbur, but he could not see his way 
 clear to make the explanation. Cargill was 
 unwontedly silent. 
 
 The Norwegian girl ushered them into a pretty 
 little parlor, where a beautiful fire of coal was 
 burning in an open grate. While they stood 
 
244 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 warming their stiffened hands at the cheerful 
 blaze, Ida entered. 
 
 "Mr. Cargill, this is an unexpected pleasure." 
 
 " I wonder how sincere you are in that. This 
 is my friend Mr. Talcott." 
 
 Ida moved toward Bradley with her hand cor- 
 dially extended. " I think we have met before," 
 she said. 
 
 "I call him my friend," said Cargill, "because 
 he has not known me long enough to become my 
 enemy." 
 
 "That is very good, Mr. Cargill. Sit down, 
 won't you? Please give me your coats." She 
 moved about in that pleasant bustle of reception 
 so natural to women. 
 
 Cargill slid down into a chair in his disjointed 
 fashion. "We came to attend the intellectual 
 sit-down." 
 
 "Why, that doesn't meet to-night! It meets 
 every other Friday, and this is the other Friday." 
 
 "Oh, is it? So much the better; we will see 
 you alone." 
 
 Ida turned gravely to Bradley. "Mr. Cargill is 
 not often in this mood. I generally draw him off 
 into a fight on Mr. Howell's, Thackeray or Scott." 
 
 " She prefers me in armor," Cargill explained, 
 "and on horseback. My intellectual bowlegged- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 245 
 
 ness, so to say, and my moral squint are less 
 obtrusive at an altitude." 
 
 Ida laughed appreciatively. "Your extraor- 
 dinary choice of figures would distinguish you 
 among the symbolists of Paris," she replied." 
 
 This all seemed very brilliant and droll to Brad- 
 ley, and he sat with unwavering eyes fixed upon 
 Ida, who appeared to him in a new light, more 
 softly alluring than ever — that .of the hostess. 
 She was dressed in some loose, rich-colored robe, 
 which had the effect of drapery. 
 
 "When did you get back?" Cargill inquired, a 
 little more humanly. 
 
 "Yesterday, and I am just in the midst of the 
 luxury of feeling at home, with no journeys to 
 make to-morrow. I have a friend I would like 
 to introduce to you," she said, rising and going 
 out. She returned in a few moments with a tall 
 young lady in street dress, whom she introduced 
 as Miss Cassiday. 
 
 In a short time Cargill had involved Miss Cas- 
 siday in a discussion of the decline of literature, 
 which left Ida free to talk with Bradley. It was 
 the most beautiful evening in his life. He talked 
 as never before. He told her of his reading, and 
 of' his plans. He told her of his election to the 
 legislature. 
 
246 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 "Ah, that is good!" she said;, "then we have 
 one more champion of women in our State 
 House." 
 
 " " Yes, I will do what I. can," he said. 
 . "I will be here to hear you. I am one of the 
 committee in charge of the bill." 
 
 The firelight fell upon her face, flushing its pal- 
 lor into a beauty that exalted the young farmer 
 out of his fear and reticence. They talked upon 
 high things. He told her how he had studied the 
 social question, since hearing her speak in Iowa 
 City. He called to her mind great passages in 
 the books she had sent him, and .quoted para- 
 graphs which touched upon the fundamental 
 questions at issue. He spoke of his hopes of 
 advancement. 
 
 "I want to succeed," he said, "in order that 
 I may teach the new doctrine of rights. I want 
 to carry into the party I have joined the real 
 democracy. I believe a new era has come in our 
 party." 
 
 "I am afraid not," she said, looking at the fire. 
 "I begin to believe that we must wait till a new 
 party rises out of the needs of people, just as the 
 old Free-soil Party rose to free the slaves. Don't 
 deceive yourself about your party in this State. 
 It is after the offices, just the same as the party 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 247 
 
 you have left. They juggle with the tariffs and 
 the license question, because it helps them. They 
 will drop any question and any man when they 
 think they are going to lose by retaining him. 
 They will drop you if you get too radical. I warn 
 you ! " she said, looking up at him and smiling 
 with a touch of bitterness in her smile; "I am 
 dangerous. My counsel does not keep men in 
 office. I belong to the minority. I am very 
 dangerous." 
 
 "I'm not afraid," he said, thrilling with the 
 intensity of his own voice. " I will trust human 
 reason. I'm. not afraid of you — I mean you can't 
 harm me by giving me new thoughts, and that's 
 what you've done ever since that day I heard you 
 first at the picnic. You've helped me to get 
 where I am." 
 
 "I have?" she asked, in surprise. His eyes 
 fell before hers. "It will be strange if I have 
 helped any one to political success." 
 
 Bradley was silent. How could he tell her 
 what she had become to him ? How could he tell 
 her that she was woven into the innermost mesh 
 of his intellectual fibre. 
 
 "You've taught me to think," he said, at 
 last. "You gave me my first ambition to do 
 something." 
 17' ' 
 
248 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I am very glad," she replied, simply. " Some- 
 times I get discouraged. I speak and people 
 applaud, and I go away, and that seems to be 
 all there is to it. I never hear a word after- 
 wards ; but once in a while, some one comes to 
 me or writes to me, as you have done, and that 
 gives me courage to go on ; otherwise I'd think 
 people came to hear me simply to be amused." 
 
 She was looking straight into the fire; and the 
 light, streaming up along her dress, transfigured 
 her into something alien and unapproachable. 
 The easy flex of her untrammelled waist was 
 magnificent. She had the effect of a statue, 
 draped and flooded with color. 
 
 Cargill's penetrating voice cut through that 
 sacred pause like the rasp of a saw file. He had 
 been listening to his companion till he was full of 
 rebellion. He was a bad listener. 
 
 " But what is success ? Why, my dear young 
 woman " — 
 
 "Don't patronize us, please," Ida interposed. 
 "I speak for poor Miss Cassiday, because she's 
 too timid to rebel. Nothing angers me more 
 than that tone. Call us comrades or friends, but 
 don't say *My dear young woman!'" She was 
 smiling, but she was more than half in sober 
 earnest. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 249 
 
 Cargill bowed low, and proceeded- with scowl- 
 ing brow and eyes half-closed and fixed obliquely 
 upon Ida. " Dear comrades in life-battle, what is 
 success? You remember the two lords in Lilli- 
 put who could leap the pack thread half its width 
 higher?" 
 
 "Don't drag Swift into our discussion," Ida 
 cried. "Mr. Cargill's a sort of American Swift," 
 turning to Bradley. "Don't let him spoil your 
 splendid optimism. There is a kind of pessimism 
 which 'is really optimism ; that is to say, peo- 
 ple who believe the imperfect and unjust can 
 be improved upon. They are called pessimists 
 because they dare to tell the truth about the pres- 
 ent ; but the pessimism of Mr. Cargill, I'm afraid, 
 is the pessimism of personal failure." 
 
 There was a terrible truth in this, and it drove 
 straight into Cargill's heart. Bradley was pleased 
 to see Ida dominate a man who was accustomed 
 to master every one who came into his presence. 
 There was a look on her face which meant bat- 
 tle. She did not change her attitude of graceful 
 repose, but her face grew stern and accusing. 
 Cargill looked at her, wearing the same inscruta- 
 ble expression of scowling attention ; but a slow 
 flush, rising to his face, showed that he had been 
 struck hard. 
 
250 A SPOIL OF OFFICE, 
 
 There was a moment's pause full of intense 
 interest to Bradley. The combatants were deal- 
 ing with each other oblivious of every one else. 
 
 "I admire you, friend Cargill," Ida went on, 
 "but your attitude is not right. Your influence 
 upon young people is not good. You are always 
 crying out against things, but you never try to 
 help. What are you doing to help things ?" 
 
 "Crying out against them," he replied, curtly. 
 
 Ida dropped her glance. "Yes, that's so; I'll 
 admit that it has that effect, or it would' if you 
 didn't talk of the hopelessness of trying to do 
 anything. Don't feel alarmed," she said, turning 
 to the others, " Mr. Cargill and I understand each 
 other very well. We've known each other so long 
 that we can afford to talk plain." 
 
 "This is the first time she ever let into me 
 so directly," Cargill explained. "Understand we 
 generally fight on literature, or music, or the 
 woman question. This really is the first en- 
 counter on my personal influence. I'm going 
 home to stanch my wounds." He rose, with a 
 return to his usual manner. 
 
 Ida made no effort to detain them. "Come 
 and see me again, Mr. Talcott, and don't let Mr. 
 Cargill spoil you." 
 
 After leaving the house, the two men walked 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 251 
 
 on a block in silence, facing the wind, their over- 
 coats drawn up about their ears. 
 
 "There's a woman I like," Cargill said, when 
 they turned a corner and were shielded from the 
 bitter wind. "She can forget her sex occasion- 
 ally and become an intellect. Most women are 
 morbid on their sex. They can't seem to escape 
 it, as a man does part of the time. They can't 
 rise, as this woman does, into the sexless region 
 of affairs and of thought." 
 
 Bradley lacked the courage to ask him to speak 
 lower, and he went on. "She's had suitors 
 enough and flattery enough to turn her into a 
 simpering fashion-plate; but you can not spoil 
 brains. What the women want is not votes; it's 
 brains, and- less morbid emotions." 
 
 "She's a free woman?" said Bradley. 
 
 " Free ! Yes, they'd all be free if they had her 
 brains." 
 
 " I don't know about that ; conditions might 
 still" — 
 
 "They'd make their own conditions." 
 
 "That's true. It all comes back to a question 
 of human thinking, doesn't it ? " 
 
 This seemed a good point to leave off the dis- 
 cussion, and they walked on mainly in silence, 
 though two or three times during the walk Cargill 
 
252 ■* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 broke out in admiration. "I never saw a woman 
 grow as that woman has. That's the kind of a 
 woman a man would never get tired of. I've 
 never married," he went on, with a sort of con- 
 fession, "because I knew perfectly well I'd get 
 sick of my choice, but" — 
 
 He did not finish — it was hardly necessary; 
 perhaps he felt he had gone too far. They said 
 good-night at the door of the Windom, and Brad- 
 ley went on up the avenue, his brain whirling with 
 his new ideas and emotions. 
 
 Ida had rushed away again into the far dis- 
 tance. It was utter foolishness to think she 
 could care for him. She was surrounded with 
 brilliant and wealthy men, while he was a poor 
 young lawyer in a little country town. He 
 looked back upon the picture of himself sitting 
 by her side, there in the light of the fire, with 
 deepening bewilderment. He remembered the 
 strange look upon her face as she rebuked Car- 
 gill. He wondered if she did not care for him. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 253 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE JUDGE PLANS A NEW CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The first three or four weeks of legislative life 
 sickened and depressed Bradley. He learned in 
 that time, not only to despise, but to loath some 
 of the legislators. The stench of corruption got 
 into his nostrils, and jovial vice passed before his 
 eyes. The duplicity, the monumental hypocrisy, 
 of some of the leaders of legislation made him 
 despair of humankind and to doubt the stability 
 of the republic. 
 
 He was naturally a pure-minded, simple-hearted 
 man, and when one of the leaders of the moral 
 party of his State was dragged out of a low resort, 
 drunk and disorderly, in company with a leader of 
 the Senate, his heart failed him. He was ready 
 to resign and go home. 
 
 Trades among the committees came obscurely 
 to his ears ; hints of jobs, getting each day more 
 definite, reached him. Railway lobbyists swarmed 
 
254 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 about and began to lay their cajoling, persuasive 
 hands upon members ; and he could not laugh 
 when the newspaper said, for a joke, that the 
 absent-minded speaker called the House to order 
 one morning by saying : "Agents of the K. C. 
 & Q. will please be in order." It seemed too 
 near the simple fact to be funny. The School 
 Book Lobby, the University Lobby, the Armour 
 Lobby, each had its turn with him, through its 
 smooth, convincing agent. 
 
 He reached his lowest deep one 'night after a 
 conversation with Lloyd Smith, an ex-clerk, and a 
 couple of young fellows who called upon him at 
 •his room. Lloyd noticed his gloomy face, and 
 asked what the trouble was. He told them 
 frankly that he was disgusted. 
 
 "Oh, you'll get used to it!" the ex-clerk said. 
 "When I first went into the House, I believed in 
 honesty and sincerity, like yourself; but I came 
 out of my term of office knowing the whole gang 
 to be thieves. My experience taught me that 
 legislators in America think it's a Christian virtue 
 to. break into the government treasury." 
 
 The others broke out laughing, believing him 
 to be joking; but there was a ferocious look on 
 his face, and Bradley felt that he might be mis- 
 taken, but he was not joking. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 255 
 
 "They stole stationery, spittoons, waste bask- 
 ets, by God ! They stole everything that was 
 loose, and at the end of the term, they seemed to 
 be looking around unsatisfied, and I told 'em there 
 was just one thing left — the gold leaf on the 
 dome." 
 
 The others roared with laughter, and Bradley 
 was forced to join in. But the face of the ex-clerk 
 did not lose its dark intensity. 
 
 " Take salary grabbing. Why ! they wanted 
 me to certify to their demands for Sunday pay 
 for themselves and their clerks, and I refused, 
 and they were wild. I'm not an angel nor a 
 Christian man, but I won't sign my name to a 
 lie, and blamed if they didn't pass the order with- 
 out my signature ! Yes, sir ; it's there on the 
 record. 
 
 "Take nepotism. The members bring their 
 wives and daughters down here, put them in as 
 pages and clerks, or divide the proceeds when 
 they have no relatives. Every device, every 
 imaginable chicanery, every possible scheme to 
 break into the State money box, is legitimate in 
 their eyes, and worthy of being patented. Public 
 money is fair game; and yet," he said, with a 
 change of manner, "we have the fairest, purest 
 and most honorable legislators, take it as a whole, 
 
256 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 that there is in the United States, because our 
 State is rural, and we're comparatively free from 
 liquor. Our legislature is a Sunday School, com- 
 pared to the leprous rascals that swarm about the 
 Capitol at Albany or Springfield." 
 
 " What is the cure ? " asked Bradley, whose 
 mind had been busy with the problem. 
 
 " God Almighty ! there is no cure, except the 
 abolition of government. Government means that 
 kind of thing. Look at it ! Here we enthrone 
 the hungry, vicious, uneducated mob of incapa- 
 bles, and then wonder why they steal, and gorge 
 and riot like satyrs. The wonder is they don't 
 scrape the paint off the walls." 
 
 " Oh, you go too far ; a legislator wouldn't 
 steal a spittoon." 
 
 "No, but the fellow he recommends for clerk- 
 ship does." 
 
 " My idea is that there are very few men who 
 take money." 
 
 "I admit that, but they'll all trade their job 
 for another job. Honesty is impossible. The 
 Angel Gabriel would become a boodler under 
 our system of government. The cure is to abol- 
 ish government." 
 
 This conclusion, impotent to Bradley, was prac- 
 tically all the savage critic had to offer. Either 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 257 
 
 go back to despotism or go ahead to no govern- 
 ment at all. 
 
 After they went out, Bradley sat down and 
 wrote a letter to Judge Brown, embodying the 
 main part of this conversation: "It's enough to 
 make a man curse his country and his God to see 
 how things run," he said, at the end of writing out 
 the ex-clerk's terrible indictment. "I feel that 
 he is right. I'm ready to resign, and go home, 
 and never go into politics again. The whole 
 thing is rotten to the bottom." 
 
 But as the weeks wore on, he found that the 
 indictment was only true of a certain minority, 
 but it was terribly true of them ; but down under 
 the half-dozen corruptible agents, under the roar 
 of their voices, there were many others speaking 
 for truth and purity. The obscure mass meant to 
 be just and honest. They were good fathers and 
 brothers, and yet they were forced to bear the 
 odium that fell on the whole legislature whenever 
 the miscreant minority rolled in the mire and 
 walked the public streets. 
 
 There was one count, however, that remained 
 good against nearly all of the legislators : they 
 seemed to lack conscience as regards public 
 money. Bradley remembered that this dishonesty 
 extended down to the matter of working on the 
 
258 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 roads in the country. He remembered that every 
 man esteemed it a virtue to be lazy, and to do as 
 little for a day's pay as possible, because it "came 
 out of the town." He was forced to admit that 
 this was the most characteristic American crime. 
 To rob the commonwealth was a joke. 
 
 He ended by philosophizing upon it with the 
 Judge, who came down in late February to attend 
 the session during the great railway fight. 
 
 The Judge put his heels on the window sill, and 
 folded his arms over the problem. 
 
 "Well, now, this thing must be looked at from 
 another standpoint. The power of redress is 
 with the voter. If the voter is a boodler, he 
 will countenance boodling. Here is the mission 
 of our party/' he said, with the zeal of an old- 
 fashioned Democrat, "to come in here and edu- 
 cate the common man to be an honest man. We 
 have got a duty to perform. Now, we mustn't 
 talk of resigning or going out of politics. • We've 
 got to stay right in the lump, and help leaven it. 
 It will only make things worse if we leave it." 
 The Judge had grown into the habit of speaking 
 of Bradley as if he were a partner. 
 
 Bradley, going about with him on the street, 
 suddenly discovered that the Judge's hat was just 
 a shade too wide in the brim, and his coat a lit- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 tie bit frayed around the button-holes. He had 
 never noticed before that the Judge was a little 
 old-fashioned in his manners. No thought of 
 being ashamed of him came into his mind, but it 
 gave him a curious sensation when they entered a 
 car together for the first time, and he discovered 
 that the Judge was a type. 
 
 When Bradley made his great speech on the 
 railroad question, arraigning monopoly, the Judge 
 had a special arrangement with a stenographer. 
 He was going to have that speech in pamphlet 
 form to distribute, if it took a leg. He was 
 already planning a congressional campaign, 
 
 Ida sat in the balcony on the day he spoke for 
 woman's suffrage, and he could not resist the 
 temptation of looking up there as he spoke. 
 Everything combined to give great effect' to his 
 speech. It was late in the afternoon and the 
 western sun thrust bars of light across the dim 
 chamber which the fresh young voice of the 
 speaker had hushed into silence. Ida had sent a 
 bunch of flowers to his desk and upon that bou- 
 quet the intrusive sun-ray fell, like something 
 wild that loved the rose, but as the speaker went 
 on it clambered up his stalwart side and rested at 
 last upon his head as though to crown him with 
 victory. 
 
260 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 But defeat came as usual. The legislators saw 
 nothing in the sun-ray except a result of negli- 
 gence on the part of the door-keeper. They all 
 cheered the speech, but a majority tabled the 
 matter as usual. The galleries cheered and the 
 women swarmed about the young champion, Ida 
 among them. Her hand-shake and smile was his 
 greatest reward. 
 
 "Come and see me," she said. "I want to 
 thank you." 
 
 The Judge was immensely proud of him. "A 
 great speech, Brad ; if I wasn't so old-fashioned 
 and set — you'd have converted me. In private 
 I admit all you say, but it ain't policy for me to 
 advocate it just now." 
 
 "Policy! I'm sick of policy!" cried Bradley. 
 "Let's try being right awhile." 
 
 The Judge changed the subject. He told the 
 members at the boarding-house that it wouldn't 
 hurt Bradley's chances. "People won't down a 
 man on that point any more." 
 
 "Perhaps not in your county, but I don't want 
 to experiment down in my county," said Major 
 Root, of Macintosh. 
 
 "I don't believe the people of Iowa will 
 down any man for stating what he believes is 
 right." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 261 
 
 "Don't bet too high on that," said the Major in 
 final reply. 
 
 The Judge dined with Bradley at the dining- 
 room in the little cottage, and it gave Bradley 
 great satisfaction to see that he used his fork 
 more gracefully than the Supreme judge, who sat 
 beside him, and better than the senator, who sat 
 opposite. They had a most delightful time in 
 talking over old legal friends, and the Judge was 
 beaming as he came to pudding. He assured 
 them all that the Honorable Talcott would be 
 heard on the floor of Congress. 
 
 "We're the winning party now," he said. 
 "We're the party of the future." 
 
 The others laughed good naturedly. " Don't be 
 too certain of that." They all rose. "You sur- 
 prised us sleeping on our arms," the general said, 
 "but we're awake now, and we've got pickets out." 
 
 The Judge enjoyed his visit very much, and 
 only once did he present himself to Bradley with 
 a suspicious heaviness in his speech. He had 
 reformed entirely since he had adopted a son, he 
 explained to his old cronies. 
 
 On the day when the Judge was to return, as 
 they walked down to the train together, he said, 
 "Well, Brad, we'll go right into the congressional 
 campaign." 
 
262 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I don't believe we'd better do that, Judge." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Well, I could not be elected — that's one 
 thing." 
 
 The Judge allowed an impressive silence to in- 
 tervene. 
 
 " Why not ? I tell you, young man, they're on 
 the run. We can put you through. You've made 
 a strong impression down here." 
 
 " I don't believe I want to be put through. I'm 
 sick of it. I don't believe I'm a politician. I'm 
 sick all through with the whole cursed business. I 
 never'd be here only for you, pulling wires. I 
 can't pull wires." 
 
 "You needn't pull wires. I'll do that. You 
 talk, and that's what put you here, and it'll put 
 you in Congress." 
 
 Bradley was in a bad mood. 
 
 " What's the good of my going there ? I can't 
 do anything. I've done nothing here." 
 
 " Yes, y' have. You've been right on the rail- 
 road question, on the oleo question, and the bank 
 question. It's going to count. That speech of 
 yours, yesterday, I'm going to send broadcast in 
 Rock County. The district convention will meet 
 in June early. Foster will pave the way for your 
 nomination, by saying Rock County should have 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 263 
 
 a congressman. We'll go into the convention 
 with a clear two-thirds majority, and then declare 
 your nomination unanimous. You see, your youth 
 will be in your favor. Your election will follow, 
 sure. The only fight will be in the convention." 
 
 "Looks like spring, to-day," Bradley said. It 
 was his way of closing an argument. 
 
 "Well, good-by. You'll find the whole pot 
 boiling when you come home," the Judge said, as 
 the train started. 
 
 As February drew on and the snow fled, the. 
 earth-longing got hold upon Bradley. It was 
 almost seed time, with its warm,, mellow soil, its 
 sweeping flights of prairie pigeons, its innumerable 
 swarms of tiny clamorous sparrows, its whistling 
 plovers, and its passing wild fowl. The thought 
 came to him there, for the first time, that nature 
 was not malignant nor hard ; that life on a farm 
 might be the most beautiful and joyous life in 
 the world. The meaning of Ida's words at last 
 took definite and individual shape in his mind. 
 He had assimilated them now. 
 
 Bradley gave himself up to the Judge's plans. 
 
 He went home jn April with eagerness and with 
 
 reluctance. He was eager to escape the smoke 
 
 of the city and reluctant to leave behind him all 
 
 18 
 
264 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 chance to see Ida. This feeling of hungry disap- 
 pointment dominated him during his day's ride. 
 He had seen her but twice during his stay in Des 
 Moines, and now — when would he see her again? 
 This terrible depression and sharp pain wore 
 away a little by the time he reached home, and 
 the active campaign which followed helped him to 
 bear it. He still wrote to her, and she replied 
 without either encouragement and without expli- 
 cit displeasure. The campaign was really the 
 Judge's fight. Bradley was his field officer. 
 Victory in the convention only foreshadowed the 
 sweeping victory in October. He resigned as 
 legislator, to become a congressman. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 265 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 ON TO WASHINGTON. 
 
 In the west (as in rural America anywhere), 
 the three types of great men in the peoples' eyes 
 are the soldier, the politician and the minister. 
 The whole people appear to revere the great 
 soldier, the men admire the successful politician, 
 and the women bow down before the noted 
 preacher. 
 
 These classes of hero-worshipers melt into each 
 other, of course, but broadly they may be said to 
 separately exist. In colonial days the minister 
 came first, the soldier second, the politician, last. 
 Since the revolution the soldier has been the first 
 figure in the triumvirate, and in these later times 
 the politician and his organ of voice the news- 
 paper have placed the preacher last. 
 
 And there is something wholesome in such an 
 atmosphere, the atmosphere of the West, at least 
 
h6 A SPOIL OF OFFICE.. 
 
 by contrast. The worship of political success, 
 low as it may seem, is less deplorable than the 
 worship of wealth, which is already weakening 
 the hold of the middle-class Eastern man upon 
 the American idea. In the West mere wealth 
 does not carry assurance of respect, much less 
 can it demand subservience. 
 
 Bradley never dreamed of getting rich, but 
 under Radbourn and the Judge he had developed 
 a growing love for the orator's dominion. He 
 hungered to lead men. Notwithstanding his fits 
 of disgust and bitterness he loved to be a part of 
 the political life of his time. It had a powerful 
 fascination for him. The deference which his old 
 friends and neighbors paid him as things due a 
 rising young man, pleased him. 
 
 He looked now to Washington, and it fired his 
 imagination to think of sitting in the hall where 
 the mighty legislators of generations now dead 
 had voiced their epoch-marking thoughts. It 
 amazed the Judge to see how the wings of his 
 young eagle expanded. The transformation from 
 a farmer's hired man to a national representative 
 appealed to him as characteristically American, 
 and he urged Bradley to do his best. 
 
 The election which the young orator expected 
 to be another moment of great interest really 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 267 
 
 came as a matter-of-fact ending to a long and tri- 
 umphant canvass. He had held victory in his 
 hand until she was tamed. The election sim- 
 ply confirmed the universal prophecy. He was 
 elected, and while the Democrats went wild with 
 joy, Bradley slept quietly in his bed at home — 
 while the brass band played itself quiescent under 
 his window. 
 
 Now he fixed his eyes on Washington as an 
 actuality. It was a long time before his term 
 began, and at the advice of Judge Brown and 
 others he packed his trunk in January to go on 
 and look around a little in the usual way of new 
 members. He went alone, the Judge couldn't 
 spare the time. 
 
 The ride from Chicago to Washington was an 
 epic to him. It was his next great departure, his 
 entrance into another widening circle of thinking. 
 He had never seen a mountain before ; and the 
 wild, plunging ride among the Alleghany Mount- 
 ains was magnificent. He sat for hours at a time 
 looking out of the window, while the train, drawn 
 by its two tremendous engines, crawled toward 
 the summit. He saw the river drop deeper and 
 deeper, and get whiter and wilder; and then 
 came the wooded level of the summit, and then 
 began the descent. 
 
268 A SPOIL OF OFFIC'E. 
 
 While the reeling train alternately flung him to 
 the window and against the seat, he gazed out at 
 the wheeling peaks, the snow-laden pines, and the 
 mighty gorges, through which the icy river ran, 
 green as grass in its quiet eddies. On every side 
 were wild hillsides meshed with fallen trees, and 
 each new vista contained its distant peak. It 
 was the realization of his imagination of the 
 Alleghanies. 
 
 As the train swooped round its curves, drop- 
 ping lower and lower, the valley broadened out, 
 and the great mountains moved away into ampler 
 distances. The river ran in a wide and sinuous 
 band to the east and the south. He realized it to 
 be the Potomac, whose very name is history. He 
 began to look ahead to seeing Harper's Ferry, 
 and in the nearing distance was Washington ! 
 
 He had the Western man's intensity of feeling 
 for Washington. To him it was the centre of 
 American life, because he supposed the laws were 
 made there. The Western man knows Boston as 
 the centre of art, which he affects to despise, and 
 New York appeals to him as the home of the 
 millionaire, of the money-lender; but in Wash- 
 ington he recognizes the great nerve centre of 
 national life. It is the political ganglion of the 
 body politic. It appeals to the romantic in him 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 269 
 
 as well. It is historical ; it is the city that makes 
 history. 
 
 Slowly the night fell. After leaving Harper's 
 Ferry the outside world vanished, and when the 
 brakeman called '< Washington," it was nearly 
 eight o'clock of a damp, chilly night. He was so 
 eager to see the Capitol, which the kindly fat 
 man behind him had assured him was but a few 
 steps away from the station, that he took his 
 valise in his hand, and started directly for the 
 dome, which a darkey with a push-cart, pointed 
 out to him with oppressive courtesy. 
 
 There was an all-pervasive, impalpable, blue- 
 gray mist in the air, cold and translucent ; and 
 when he came to the foot of the grounds, and 
 faced the western front of the Capitol building, 
 he dfew a deep breath of delight. It thrilled 
 him. There it loomed in the misty, winter night, 
 the mightiest building on the continent, blue- 
 white, sharply outlined, massive as a mountain, 
 yet seemingly as light as a winter cloud. Weigh- 
 ing myriads of tons, it seemed quite as insubstan- 
 tial as the mist which transfigured it. Against 
 the cold-white of its marble, and out of the gray- 
 white enveloping mist, bloomed the warm light of 
 lamps, like vast lilies with hearts of fire and halos 
 of faint light. 
 
:270 :A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He stood for a long time looking upon It, mus- 
 ing upon its historic associations. Around him 
 he heard the grinding wheels, the click of the 
 horses' hoofs upon the asphalt pavement, and 
 heard the shouts of drivers. Somewhere near 
 him water was falling with a musical sound in a 
 subterranean sluiceway. At last he came to him- 
 self with a start, and found his arm aching with 
 the fatigue of his heavy valise. He struck off 
 down the avenue. It seemed to swarm with col- 
 ored people. They were selling papers, calling 
 with musical, bell-like voices — 
 
 " Evenin' Sty-ah ! " " Evenin' Sty-ah ! " 
 
 Horse cars tinkled along, and a peculiar form 
 of elongated 'bus, with the word "Carette" painted 
 upon it, rolled along noiselessly over the asphalt 
 pavement. An old man in business dress," with 
 rather aristocratic side-whiskers, came toward 
 him, walking briskly through the crowd, an open 
 hand-bag swung around his neck; and as he 
 walked he chanted a peculiar cry — 
 
 "Doc-tor Ferguson's, selly-brated, double X, 
 Philadelphia cough-drops, for coughs and colds, 
 sore throat or hoarseness ; five cents a package." 
 
 Innumerable signs invited him to " meals at 1 5 
 and 25 cts." "Rolls and French drip coffee, 10 
 cts."- "Oysters in every style," etc.. 
 
■A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 271 
 
 The oyster saloons were, in general, very 
 attractive to him, as a Western man, but specific- 
 ally he did not like the looks of the places in 
 which they were served. He came at last to a 
 place which seemed clean and free from a bar, 
 and ventured to call for a twenty-five cent stew. 
 
 After eating this, he again took his way to the 
 street, and walked along, looking for a moderate- 
 priced hotel. Eft did not think of going to a 
 hotel that charged more than seventy-five cents 
 for a room. He came at length to quite a 
 decent-looking place, which advertised rooms for 
 fifty cents and upwards. He registered, under 
 the clerk's calm misprision, and the brown and 
 -wonderfully freckled colored boy showed him to 
 his room. 
 
 It was all quite familiar to him — this hotel to 
 which a man of moderate means is forced to go 
 in the city. The dingy walls and threadbare 
 carpet got geometrically shabbier at each succeed- 
 ing flight of stairs, until at length the boy ushered 
 him into a little room at the head of the stairway. 
 It was unwarmed and had no lock on the door ; 
 but the bed was clean, and, as he soon found, 
 very comfortable. 
 
272 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 RADBOURN SHOWS BRADLEY AB<?UT THE CAPITAL. 
 
 He woke in the morning from his dreamless 
 sleep with that peculiar familiar sensation of not 
 knowing where he had lain down the night before. 
 There was something boyish in the soundness of 
 his sleep. He heard the newsboys calling out- 
 side, although it was apparently the early dawn. 
 Their voices made him think of Des Moines, for 
 the reason that Des Moines was the only city in 
 which he had ever heard the newsboys cry. He 
 sprang from his bed at the thought of Radbourn. 
 He would hunt him up at once ! He was sur- 
 prised to find that it had snowed during the night, 
 and everywhere the darkies were cleaning the 
 walks. 
 
 Walking thus a perfect stranger in what seemed 
 to him a great city he did not feel at all like a 
 rising young man. In fact the farther he got 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 273 
 
 from Rock River the smaller his importance grew, 
 for he had the imagination that comprehends rel- 
 ative values. 
 
 On the street he passed a window where a big 
 negro was cooking griddle-cakes, dressed in a 
 snowy apron and a paper cap. He looked so 
 clean and wholesome that Bradley decided upon 
 getting his breakfast there, and going in, took 
 his seat at one of the little tables. A colored boy 
 came up briskly. 
 
 "I'd like some of those cakes," said Bradley, to 
 whom all this. was very new. 
 
 "Brown the wheats ! " yelled the boy, and added 
 in a low voice, "Buckwheat or batter?" 
 
 "Buckwheat, I guess." 
 
 " Make it bucks ! " the boy yelled, by the way 
 of correction, and asked again in a low voice, 
 " Coffee ? " 
 
 "If you please." 
 
 " One up light." 
 
 While Bradley was eating his cakes, which were 
 excellent, others came in, and the waiters dashed 
 to and fro, shouting their weird orders. 
 
 " Ham and, two up coff, a pair, boot-leg, white 
 wings." 
 
 Bradley had a curiosity to see what this order 
 would bring forth, and, watching carefully, found 
 
274 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 that it secured ham and eggs, two cups of coffee, 
 a beefsteak, and an omelet. He was deeply inter- 
 ested in the discovery. 
 
 He recognized the most of the men around him 
 as Western or Southern types. Many of them 
 had chin whiskers and wore soft crush hats. The 
 negroes interested and fascinated him : they were 
 so grimly ugly of face, and yet apparently so good 
 natured and light hearted. 
 
 On the street again he saw the same types of 
 men. He. wondered if they were not his col- 
 leagues. As for them, they probably took him for 
 a Boston or New York man, with his full brown 
 beard and clear complexion. 
 
 The negroes attracted his eyes constantly. 
 They drifted along the street apparently aimlessly, 
 many of them. Their faces were mostly smil- 
 ing, but in a meaningless way, as if it were a 
 habit. He soon found that they were swift to 
 struggle for a chance to work. They asked to 
 carry his valise, to black his boots ; the newsboys 
 ran by his side, in their eagerness to sell. 
 
 As he went along, he noticed the very large 
 number of "Rooms to Let," and the equally large 
 number of signs of " Meals, Fifteen and Twenty- 
 five Cents." Evidently there would be no trouble 
 in finding a place to board. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 275 
 
 As he entered Radbourn's office, he saw a 
 young lady seated at a desk, manipulating a type- 
 writer. She had the ends of a forked rubber tube 
 hung in her ears, and did not see Bradley. He 
 observed that the tube connected with a sewing- 
 machine-like table and a swiftly revolving little 
 cylinder, which he recognized as a phonograph. 
 At the window sat Radbourn, talking in a meas- 
 ured, monotonous voice into the mouthpiece of a 
 large flexible tube, which connected with another 
 phonograph. His back was toward Bradley, and 
 he stood for some time looking at the curious 
 scene and listening to Radbourn's talk. 
 
 " Congress brings to Washington a fulness of 
 life which no one can understand who has not: 
 spent the summer here," Radbourn went on, in a 
 slow, measured voice,, his lips close to the bell- 
 like opening of the tube. It had a ludicrous 
 effect upon Bradley — like a person talking to 
 himself. 
 
 " The city may be said to die, when Congress 
 adjourns. Its life is political, and when its polit- 
 ical motor ceases to move the city lies sprawled 
 out like a dead thing. Its streets are painfully 
 quiet. Its street cars shuttle to and fro under 
 the burning sun, and its teamsters loaf about the 
 corners drowsily. The store-keepers keep shop, 
 
276 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 of course, but they open lazily of a morning and 
 close early at night. The whole city yawns and 
 rests' and longs for the coming of the autumn and 
 Congress. 
 
 " It is amusing and amazing to see it begin to 
 wake up at the beginning of the session. Then 
 begins the scramble of the hotels and boarding- 
 houses to secure members of Congress. Then 
 begins " — 
 
 The girl suddenly saw Bradley standing there, 
 and called out, " Some one to see you, Mr. 
 Radbourn ! " 
 
 Radbourn stopped the cylinder, and turned. 
 
 "Ah, how do you do," he said, as jf greeting a 
 stranger. 
 
 Bradley smiled in reply, knowing that Rad- 
 bourn did not recognize him. " I'm very well. I 
 don't suppose you remember me, but I'm Brad 
 Talcott." 
 
 Radbourn rose with great cordiality. "Well, 
 well, I'm glad to see you," he said, his sombre 
 face relaxing in a smile, as he seized Bradley by 
 the hand. "Sit down, sit down. I'm glad to see 
 an old class-mate." 
 
 "Don't let me interrupt your work. I was 
 interested in hearing you talk into that thing 
 there." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 277 
 
 "Ob, yes, I was just getting off my syndicate 
 letter for this week. Sit down and- talk ; you 
 don't interrupt me at all. Now tell me all •about 
 yourself. Of course I have heard of your suc- 
 cess, State Legislature and Congress and all that, 
 but I would like to have you tell me all about it." 
 
 "There aint very much to tell. I had very lit- 
 tle to do with it," said Bradley. 
 
 They took seats near the window, looking out 
 upon the square, and upon the vast, squat, Egyp- 
 tian, tomb-like structure, that rose out of the 
 centre of the smooth, snow-covered plat, across 
 which the sun streamed with vivid white radiance. 
 
 There was a little pause after they sat down. 
 Radbourn leaned his head on his arm, and studied 
 Bradley earnestly. He seemed older and more 
 bitter than Bradley expected to see him. He 
 asked of the old friends in a slow way, as if one 
 name called up another in a slowly moving chain 
 of association. They talked on for an hour thus, 
 sitting in the same position. At last Radbourn 
 said — 
 
 "How far I've got from all those scenes and 
 people! and yet the memory of that little old 
 town and its people has a powerful fascination. 
 I never'll go back, of course. To tell the truth, I 
 am afraid to go back; it would drive me crazy. 
 
278 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 I am a city man naturally. I am gregarious. I 
 like to be in the centre of things. It'll get hold 
 of you, too. This city is full of ruined young 
 men and women, who came here from the slow- 
 moving life of inland towns and villages, and, 
 after two or three years of a richer life, find it 
 impossible to go back ; and here they are, strug- 
 gling along on forty-five cents a day at hashr 
 houses, living in hall bedrooms, preferring to pick 
 up such a living, at all kinds of jobs, than to go 
 back home. I'd do it myself, if I were" — 
 
 He broke off suddenly, and looked at Bradley 
 in a keen, steady way. "And so your' re a con- 
 gressman, Talcott? Well, I'm glad of your suc- 
 cess, because it shows a man can succeed on the 
 right lines — in a measure, at least." 
 
 "Well, I've tried to live up to most of your 
 principles," smiled Bradley. " I've read all the 
 things you've sent me." 
 
 "Well, you're the wildest and most dangerous 
 lunatic that ever got into Congress," Radbourn 
 said, gravely. "Do you expect to talk any of 
 that stuff on the floor ? " 
 
 " Well, I — I hoped to be able to say some- 
 thing before the session closes." 
 
 "If you do, it will be a miracle. The House g 
 under the rule of a Republican Czar, and men 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 279 
 
 with your ideas, or any ideas are to be shut out 
 remorselessly. Let me tell you something right 
 here ; it will save time and worry : You want to 
 know the Speaker, cultivate him. He's the real 
 power. That's the reason the speakership be- 
 comes such a terrible struggle. It decides the 
 most tremendous question. In his hand is the 
 appointing of committees, which should be chosen 
 by the legislators themselves. The power of 
 these committees is unlimited, you'll find. They 
 can smother bills of the utmost importance. The- 
 oretically they are the servants of the House. 
 Actually they are its autocrats." 
 
 "I didn't realize that." 
 
 "I don't suppose it is realized by the people. 
 This appointing of the committee is supposed to 
 save time, and yet the speakership contest con- 
 sumes weeks, sometimes months. It will grow in 
 ferocity." 
 
 " Can't something be done ? " 
 
 "Try and see," he said rising. "Well, suppose 
 we got out and walk about a little. I infer you're 
 on to see the town. Where are you stopping?" 
 
 Bradley named the hotel with a little reluctance. 
 He knew how cheap it was ; and since he had dis- 
 covered that congressmen were at a premium in 
 boarding-houses, he saw that he must get more 
 19 
 
280 A SPOIL. OF OFFICE. 
 
 sumptuous quarters than he had hitherto occupied. 
 They went out into the open air together. The 
 sun was very brilliant and warm. The eaves were 
 running briskly. The sky was gentle, beautiful, 
 and spring-like. The fact that he was in Wash- 
 ington came upon Bradley again, as he saw the 
 soaring dome of the capitol at the head of the 
 avenue. 
 
 "What you want to do is to get on good social 
 terms with the so-called leaders," Radbourn was 
 saying. "Recognition goes by favor on the floor 
 of the House. We might go up to the capitol 
 and look about," Radbourn suggested. 
 
 They walked up the steps leading to the west 
 front of the building. Everywhere the untrodden 
 snow lay white and level. 
 
 "This is the finest part of the whole thing," 
 Radbourn remarked, as they reached the level of 
 esplanade. "It has more beauty and simple 
 majesty than the main building itself, or any 
 structure in the city." 
 
 It was magnificent. Bradley turned and looked 
 at it right and left with admiring eyes. It 
 gleamed with snow, and all about was the sound 
 of dripping water, and in the distance the roll of 
 wheels and click of hoofs. The esplanade was 
 a- broad walk extending the entire width of the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 281 
 
 building, and conforming to it. It was bottomed 
 with marble squares, and bordered with a splen- 
 did wall, breast-high on one side, and by the 
 final terrace running to the basement wall on the 
 other. Here and there along the wall gigantic 
 brazen pots sat, filled with evergreens, whose 
 color seemed to have gradually dropped down and 
 entered into the marble beneath them. The 
 bronze had stained with rich, dull green each ped- 
 estal and irregular sections of the marble wall 
 itself. 
 
 Below them the city was outspread. Radbourn 
 pointed out the Pension Office, the White House, 
 the Treasury, and other principal buildings with 
 a searching word upon their architecture. The 
 monument, he evidently considered, required no 
 comment. 
 
 As they entered the dome, they passed a group 
 of men whose brisk, bluff talk and peculiar swag- 
 ger indicated their character — legislators from 
 small country towns. 
 
 " Some of your colleagues," Radbourn said, 
 indicating them with his thumb. As they paused 
 a moment in the centre of the dome, one of the 
 group, a handsome fellow with a waxed mustache 
 and hard, black eyes, gave a stretching gesture, 
 and said, "I'm in the world now." 
 
282 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 His words thrilled Bradley to the heart. He 
 was in the world now. Des Moines and its Cap- 
 itol were dwarfed and overshadowed by this great 
 national city, to which all roads ran like veins to 
 a mighty heart. He lifted his shoulders in a 
 deep breath. It was glorious to be a congress- 
 man, but still more glorious to be a citizen of the 
 world. 
 
 They passed through the corridors in upon the 
 house floor, which swarmed with legislators, lob- 
 byists, pages, newspaper men and visitors. Rad- 
 bourn led the way down to the open space before 
 the speaker's desk, and together they turned and 
 swept the semi-circular rows of seats. 
 
 "Everywhere the visitor abounds," said Rad- 
 bourn. "Western and Southern men predomi- 
 nate. It's surprising what deep interest the 
 negro takes in legislation," he went on, lifting 
 his eyes to the gallery, which was black with their 
 intent and solemn faces. "See this old fellow 
 with his hat off as if he were in the midst of a 
 temple," he said, nodding at a group before the 
 speaker's desk. 
 
 Bradley looked at the poor, bent, meek, old 
 man with a thrill of pity. He observed that 
 many of the negroes were splashed with orange- 
 colored clay. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 283 
 
 Members began to take their seats and to call 
 pages by clapping their hands. The cloak-rooms 
 and barber-shop resounded with laughter. News- 
 paper men sauntered by, addressing Radbourn 
 and asking for news. And here and there others, 
 like Radbourn, were acting as guides to groups of 
 visitors. 
 
 In the midst of the growing tumult a one- 
 armed man entered the speaker's desk and called 
 out in snappy tenor — 
 
 " Gentlemen, I am requested by the door- 
 keeper to ask all persons not entitled to the floor 
 to please retire." 
 
 Bradley started, but Radbourn said, " No hurry, 
 you have fifteen minutes yet. As a member- 
 elect you have the courtesy of the floor anyway. 
 Do you want to meet anybody ? " 
 
 "No, I guess not. I just want to look on for 
 to-day." 
 
 "Well, we'll go up in the gallery." 
 
 Looking down upon the floor and its increas- 
 ing swarm of individuals, Bradley got a complete 
 sense of its vastness and its complexity and noise. 
 
 "It makes the Iowa legislature seem like a 
 school-room," he said to Radbourn. 
 
 At precisely noon the gavel fell with a single 
 sharp stroke, and the speaker .called persuasively, 
 
284 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " The house will please be in order." The mem- 
 bers rose and stood reluctantly, some of them 
 sharpening their pencils, others reading while the 
 chaplin prayed sonorously with many oratorical 
 cadences, taking in all the departments of govern- 
 ment in the swing of his generous benediction. 
 
 Instantly at the word "Amen," like the pop- 
 ping of a cork, the tumult burst out again. 
 Hands clapped, laughter flared out, desks were 
 slammed, papers were rattled, feet pounded, and 
 the brazen monotonous clanging voice of the clerk 
 sounded above it all like some new steam calliope 
 whose sounds were words. 
 
 "You see how much prayer means here," said 
 Radbourn. 
 
 A good deal of the business which followed was 
 similar in character to the proceedings at Des 
 Moines. Resolutions were passed with two or 
 three aye votes and no noes at all, while the rest 
 of the members looked over the Record, read the 
 morning papers, or wrote on busily. The speaker 
 declared each motion .carried with glib voice. 
 
 At last a special order brought up an unfin- 
 ished debate upon some matter, and the five min- 
 ute rule was enforced. 
 
 "You're in luck," said Radbourn. "The whole 
 procession is going to pass before you." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 285 
 
 As the debate went on he pointed out the great 
 men whose names suggested history to Bradley 
 and whose actual presence amazed him. There 
 was Amos B. Tripp, whom Radbourn said re- 
 sembled "a Chinese god" — immense, featureless, 
 bald, with a pout on his face like an enormous 
 baby. The "watch dog of the house," Major 
 Hendricks, was tall, thin, with the voice and man- 
 ner of an old woman. His eyes were invisible, 
 and his chin-beard wagged up and down as he 
 shouted in high tenor his inevitable objection. 
 
 An old man with abundant hair, blue-white 
 under the perpendicular light, arose at the back 
 part of the room, making a fine picture outlined 
 against the deep red screen. His manner was 
 courtly, his ruddy face pleasing, his voice musical 
 and impassioned. 
 
 "He's the dress parade orator of the house," 
 observed Radbourn. 
 
 " I like him," said Bradley, leaning forward to 
 absorb the speaker's torrent of impassioned utter- 
 ance. When he sat down the members applauded. 
 
 Most of the orators conformed to types familiar 
 to Bradley. There was the legal type, monoto- 
 nously emphatic, with extended forefinger, which 
 pointed, threatened and delineated. His speak- 
 ing wore on the ear like a saw-filing. Then there 
 
286 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 was the political speaker, the stump orator, who 
 was full of well-worn phrases, who could not men- 
 tion the price of wool or the number of cotton 
 bales without using the ferocious throaty-snarl of 
 a beast of prey. 
 
 He was followed by the clerical type, a speaker 
 who used the most mournful cadences in correct- 
 ing the gentleman on his left as to the number of 
 cotton bales. His voice and manner formed a 
 distinct reflection of the mournful preacher, and 
 the tune of his high voice had the power of call- 
 ing up the exact phraseology of sermons — "Re- 
 pent, my lost brother, ere it be too late," 
 "Prepare for the last great day, my brother," 
 while he actually asserted the number of cotton 
 bales had been grossly over-stated by the gentle- 
 man from Alabama. 
 
 On going down the stairs, Radbourn called his 
 attention to the paintings, hanging here and there, 
 which he called "hideous daubs" with the reck- 
 less presumption of a born realist to whom alle- 
 gory was a personal affront. Radbourn showed 
 him about the city as much as he could spare 
 time to do, and when he released him, Bradley 
 went back to the capitol, which exercised the pro- 
 foundest fascination upon him. 
 
 He had not the courage to go back to the pri- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 287 
 
 vate gallery into which Radbourn had penetrated, 
 but went into the common gallery, which was full 
 of negroes, unweariedly listening to the dry and 
 almost unintelligible speeches below. 
 
 He sat there the whole afternoon and went 
 back to his hotel meek and very tired. 
 
 Radbourn introduced him to a few of the mem- 
 bers the next day. It was evident that nobody 
 cared very much whether he had been elected or 
 not. Each man had his own affairs to look after, 
 and greeted him with a flabby hand-shake and 
 looked at him with cold and wandering eyes. It 
 was all very depressing. 
 
 He grew nervous over the expenses which he 
 was incurring, although he constantly referred 
 himself back to the fact that he was a Congress- 
 man, at a salary of six thousand dollars. His 
 economy was too deeply ingrained to be easily 
 wiped out. He seldom got into a street-car that 
 he did not hold a mental debate with himself to 
 justify the extravagance. 
 
 He went about a good deal during the next two 
 or three days, but he continued at the cheap hotel, 
 where he was obliged to keep his overcoat on in 
 order to write a letter • or read a newspaper. He 
 went twice to the theatre. He bought a dollar 
 seat the first time, which worried him all through 
 
288 A SPOIL OF OFFICE:, 
 
 the play, and he did penance the following even- 
 ing by walking the twenty blocks (both ways), 
 and by taking a fifty-cent seat. He figured it a 
 clear saving of sixty cents. He really enjoyed 
 the play more than he would have done in a dollar 
 seat and consoled himself with the reflection that 
 no one knew he was a Congressman, anyway. 
 
 He told Radbourn at the station that he had 
 enjoyed every moment of his stay. As the train 
 drew out he looked back upon the city, and the 
 great dome its centre, with a deep feeling of 
 admiration, almost love. It had seized upon him- 
 mightily. He had only to shut his eyes to see 
 again that majestic pile with its vast rotundas, its 
 bewildering corridors and its tumultuous repre- 
 sentative hall. Life there would be worth while. 
 He began to calculate how long it would be 
 before he should return. It seemed a long while 
 to wait. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 289 
 
 XXV. 
 IDA COMES INTO HIS LIFE AGAIN. 
 
 After his return home he accepted every invi- 
 tation to speak, because that relieved the tedium 
 of his life in Rock River. He took an active part 
 in the fall campaign in county politics, and he de- 
 livered the Fourth of July address at the celebra- 
 tion at Rock River amid the usual blare of bands 
 and bray of fakirs and ice-cream vendors, while 
 the small boys fired off crackers in perfect obliv- 
 ion of anybody but themselves. 
 
 It was magnificent to occupy a covered carriage 
 in the. parade and to sit on the platform as the 
 centre of interest, and to rise amid cheers, to 
 address the citizens of the United States, to point 
 to cloud-capped towering peaks, to plant the stars 
 and stripes upon battlements of ancient wrong, 
 and other equally patriotic things. 
 
 No occasion was complete^ now without him. 
 
290 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The strawberry festival that secured his presence 
 felicitated itself upon the fact and always insisted 
 on "just a few words, Mr. Congressman." 
 
 The summer passed rather better than he had 
 anticipated. About a month before his return 
 to Washington he received a letter from Ida ask- 
 ing him to be present at a suffrage meeting in 
 Des Moines, and he accepted the invitation with 
 great pleasure. He had been wondering how he 
 could see her again without making the journey 
 for that purpose, which he could not bring himself 
 to do. 
 
 It was a soft, hazy. October day and the ride to 
 Des Moines was very beautiful. The landscape 
 seemed to be in drowse, half-sleeping and half- 
 waking. The jays flew from amber and orange- 
 colored coverts of maples and oaks across the 
 blue haze of the open, and quails piped from the 
 hazel-thickets. Crows flapped lazily across the 
 fields where the ploughmen were at work. The 
 threshing machines hummed and clattered with a 
 lower, quieter note, and as Bradley looked upon 
 it all, the wonder of his release from the toil of 
 reaping and threshing and ploughing came upon 
 him again. 
 
 Ida was glad to see him. She gave him her 
 hand in a frank, strong clasp. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 291 
 
 "You'll stay to tea with us, of course," she 
 said. "There is no one here but mother and I, 
 and we can talk things all over. This is my 
 mother," she said, presenting an elderly lady with 
 a broad, placid face. She said nothing whatever 
 during his stay, but listened to all that was said 
 with unchanging gravity. It was plain she wor- 
 shipped her daughter, and never questioned what 
 she said. 
 
 They sat down at the table. 
 
 "Mr. Talcott, this is Christine," said Ida, intro- 
 ducing a comely Norwegian girl who came in with 
 the te^. "Christine takes care of mother while 
 I'm away." 
 
 " Ay tank sometime she take care of me," 
 Christine smilingly replied. 
 
 Avoiding family matters, Ida talked on general 
 subjects while the rest listened. She over-esti- 
 mated Bradley's education, his reading, but he 
 was profoundly thankful for it. He had never 
 heard such talk. It was literature to him. She 
 spoke with such fine deliberation and such choice 
 of words. He felt its grace and power without 
 understanding it. It seemed to him wonderful. 
 
 "I should like to be a novelist," she said. 
 " I'd like to treat of this woman's movement." 
 
 " Why can't you do it ? " he asked. 
 
292 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I lack the time, the freedom from other inter- 
 ests. But if I could be a novelist, it would be a 
 novelist of life." 
 
 He never remembered all that she said, but she 
 made an impression that was almost despair upon 
 him by her incidental mention of books that he 
 had never read, and of authors of whom he had 
 never even heard. 
 
 They walked to the church together along the 
 side-walks littered with fallen leaves, and when 
 they entered-the side door she began to introduce 
 him to the ladies who swarmed about her the 
 moment they caught sight of her. Bradley felt 
 embarrassed by their multiple presence, but was 
 proud to be introduced by Ida. They moved to 
 the platform. He had never spoken at such a 
 meeting before and he was nervous. He spoke 
 first and spoke well, but he would have done bet- 
 ter with Ida's face before him. When she spoke 
 he sat looking up at the beautiful head and feel- 
 ing rather than seeing the splendid lines of her 
 broad, powerful and unconfined waist. The per-' 
 fume of her dress and its soft rustle as she moved 
 to and fro before him made him forget her words. 
 
 Cargill came up to the platform after the speak- 
 ing and said jocosely, "Well, Legislator, you're 
 getting ahead. You're laying a foundation for 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 293 
 
 post-mortem fame, anyway. I hear you've been 
 on to Congress." 
 
 "Yes, I went on and stayed a few days." 
 
 ■ "■ How'd you like it ? " 
 
 ■ "• How do you do, Mr.. 'Cargill," said Ida at his 
 selbow. " Aren't you-out of place here ? " 
 
 " Not more than usual," replied Cargill " I'm 
 always out of place." 
 
 t " Do you know Mr. Birdsell ? " she asked, pre- 
 senting a powerful young man with a singularly 
 -handsome face. He had clear brown eyes and a 
 big, graceful mustache. For just a moment as he 
 stood beside Ida, Bradley- shivered with a sudden 
 suspicion that they were lovers. 
 
 " Mr. Birdsell happens to be on from Musca- 
 tene," Ida explained, "and happened in to see a 
 suffrage meeting. • He's trying to reconcile him- 
 self to the idea of woman's emancipation." 
 • "He'll find a sympathizer in me," put in 
 Cargill. 
 
 Bradley studied Birdsell with round-eyed steady 
 stare. He was a superb type of man. It gave 
 Bradley a feeling of awkwardness to stand beside 
 him and a consciousness of stupidity to listen to 
 their banter, but Ida dismissed Cargill and Bird- 
 sell summarily and walked home with Bradley. 
 He was not keenly perceptive enough to see that 
 
294 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 Ida put Birdsell off with a brusqueness that 
 argued a perfect understanding. 
 
 They walked home by the risen ' moon side by 
 side. He had not the courage to take her arm 
 and she did not offer it. He referred again to 
 Washington and she asked him to remember the 
 women in his legislation. 
 
 "I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I 
 must reach the farmer's wives again as I did in 
 the days of the grange. I feel for them. They 
 are to-day the most terrible proofs of man's inhu- 
 manity. My heart aches for them. There is a 
 new farmer's movement struggling forward, the 
 Alliance. I'm thinking of going into that as a 
 lecturer. Do you know anything about it ? " 
 
 "No, not much." 
 
 They had reached the gate, and they stood 
 there like lovers in the cold, clear moonlight just 
 an instant, but in that lingering action of the 
 woman there was something tender which Bradley 
 seized upon. He asked again — 
 
 "You'll let me write to you again, won't 
 you?" 
 
 "Certainly. I shall follow your career with the 
 deepest interest. I wish you'd think of this alli- 
 ance movement and advise me what to do. Good- 
 by." She extended her hand. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 295 
 
 " Good-by," he said, and his voice choked. 
 When he turned and walked away Washington 
 was very far away indeed and political honors 
 cheap as dust. 
 
296 -* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL LIFE. 
 
 He found Washington less lonely for him on 
 his return. There were many new members, and 
 they sought each other socially and soon managed 
 to have a good deal of talk among themselves, 
 notwithstanding the studied slights of the old 
 members. One member, Clancy, who grew pro- 
 fane at times, said, " These old seeds think they're 
 hell's captains, but I guess we can live if they 
 don't shake hands." 
 
 Most of the members were married and lived 
 with their families in rented houses, but others, 
 who were too poor to bring their families or who 
 were bachelors like Bradley, lived in boarding 
 houses. Bradley secured a room and board in a 
 house near the capitol, because he seemed to be 
 nearer the centre of things when he could look 
 out upon the dome. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 297 
 
 It surprised him to learn how humbly most of 
 the congressmen lived. They were quite ordi- 
 nary humans in all ways. Of course some of the 
 senators of great wealth lived in fine houses, but 
 they were the exception, and the poorer members 
 did not conceal their suspicion of these great 
 men. 
 
 " It aint a question of how much a man's got," 
 Clancy of Iowa said, "but how he got it. I've 
 simmered the thing down to this : Living in a 
 hash-house aint a guarantee of honesty any more 
 than living in a four-story brown-stone is a sure 
 sign of robbery, but it's a tolerably safe 
 inference." 
 
 These rich senators and representatives, own- 
 ers of vast coal tracts, or iron mines, or factories, 
 rode up to the capitol with glittering turn-outs, 
 their horses' clanking bits and jingling chains, 
 warning pedestrians like Clancy and Talcott, to 
 get out of the way. For the first time in his life 
 Bradley met great wealth with all of, its power. 
 It shocked him and made him bitter. 
 
 He took little interest in the organizing of the 
 house. His experience in Des Moines taught 
 him to sit quietly outside the governing circle. 
 He accepted a place on one of the minor com- 
 mittees and waited to see what would develop. 
 
298 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 His life was very quiet. Nothing was done 
 before the holidays but organize, and he found a 
 great deal of time to study. Radbourn came 
 back during the early weeks of the session and 
 resumed his work. 
 
 Clancy went to the theatre very often and 
 attended all manner of shows, especially all that 
 were free or that came to him as a courtesy. 
 
 " I've lived where I couldn't get these things," 
 he said, "and I propose to improve each shining 
 hour." 
 
 Attending Congress was quite like attending 
 the legislature. Every morning the members 
 went 'up to the great building, which they soon 
 came to ignore, except as a place to do business 
 in. They trooped there quite like boys going to 
 school. It was the state legislature aggrandized 
 — noisier, more tumultuous and confusing. 
 
 In a little while, Bradley ceased to notice the 
 difference in gilding and jim-crackery between 
 the senate .and representative ends of the cor- 
 ridors. He no longer noticed the distances, the 
 pictures, or the statues in the vaulted dome, but 
 passed through the vast rotundas with no thought 
 of them. The magnificence of it all grew com- 
 mon with familiarity. 
 
 The vast mass, and roar, and motion of the hall 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 299 
 
 itself soon ceased to confuse or abase him. In 
 proportion to membership, he doubted whether 
 there were more able men there than in the State 
 legislature. They were more acute politicians ; 
 they were wilier, and talked in larger terms, manip- 
 ulating states instead of counties — that was all. 
 The routine of the day was of the same general 
 character, and gave him no trouble. 
 
 Some of the more famous of the leaders he 
 absolutely loathed — great, bloated, swaggering, 
 unscrupulous, treacherous tricksters. "I'll lend 
 you my support," they said, as if it were some- 
 thing that could be loaned like a horse. He often 
 talked them over with Radbourn, whose experience 
 in and about Congress as a newspaper correspon- 
 dent had given him an intimate knowledge of 
 men, and had rendered him contemptuous, if not 
 rebellious. 
 
 "The men counted party leaders are manipula- 
 tors, as a matter of fact. They subordinate every- 
 thing to party success. We've got to have 
 another great political revolution to — to de-cen- 
 tralize and de-machinize the whole of our political 
 method. Our system will break of its own 
 weight; it can't go on. It is supposed to be pop- 
 ular, when in fact, it is getting farther and far- 
 ther away from the people every year. Just see 
 
300 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 the departments. Do you know anything about 
 them ? " 
 
 " No, I don't," Bradley admitted. 
 
 "You're like all the rest. Every year the 
 army of useless clerks increases ; every year the 
 numbers of useless buildings increases. The 
 whole thing is appalling, and yet the people are 
 getting apparently more helpless to reform it. 
 Laws pile upon laws, when the real reform is to 
 abolish laws. Wipe out grants and special privi- 
 leges. We ought to be legislating toward equali- 
 ty of opportunity in the world, and here we go 
 with McKinley bills, and the devil knows what 
 else. By the way, to change the subject, what 
 has become of Milton Jennings ? He started out 
 to be a great Republican politician." 
 
 " Well, he lives there yet ; he's still in politics, 
 but doesn't seem to get higher than a county 
 office." 
 
 " He was a brilliant fellow, but he started in on 
 the wrong side ; there is no hope for him on that 
 side in the West." 
 
 "He's married, lives just opposite the Semin- 
 ary, seems to be reasonably contented." 
 
 Radbourn turned suddenly. "You are not 
 married ? " 
 
 Bradley colored. "No, I'm not." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 301 
 
 Radbourn mused a little. "Seems to me, I 
 remember some talk about your marrying that 
 little — Russell girl ? " 
 
 "Well, I didn't." Bradley had just a moment's 
 temptation to tell Radbourn his whole secret, but 
 he gave it up as preposterous. 
 
 Legislation was incredibly slow. 
 
 "Beats the devil how little we fellows amount 
 to here," Clancy said one night after they had 
 been sitting all day in their seats, while Brown 
 of Georgia, Dixon of Maine, and others of their 
 like had wasted hour after hour in all sorts of 
 tedious discussions upon mere technicalities. 
 "We can't even vote, by thunder! I'm going to 
 make a great break one of these days and make 
 a motion to adjourn." 
 
 Bradley laughed dutifully, for this was the 
 ancient joke. 
 
 " It's an outrage," Clancy fumed. The speaker 
 had refused to recognize him and he was furious. 
 "The speaker's got everything in his hands. 
 Say, do you know that it's all made up the day 
 before who's goin' to be recognized ? " 
 
 "Yes, I found that out some time ago," said 
 Bradley quietly. 
 
 " Well, I feel like making a great big kick." 
 
802 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " It wouldn't do any good." 
 
 "Yes, it would, it would relieve my feelings. 
 It's a pretty how de do, to send a man here to 
 represent his constituents and then put the whole 
 power of the house into the hands of the speaker 
 and the committee on rules." 
 
 Bradley's seat came between two of the old 
 members, Samuels of Mississippi and Col. Max- 
 well of South Carolina, and they were constantly 
 talking across Bradley's back or before his face, 
 ignoring him completely. It wore on him so that 
 he fell into the habit of sitting over beside the 
 profane Clancy in Bidwell's seat. Bidwell occu- 
 pied the leather-covered lounge behind the screen 
 so industriously that no one else felt privileged to 
 throw himself down there. 
 
 The drinking disgusted Bradley, and the 
 obscene talk which he heard in snatches as he 
 went past sickened him. The same sort of atti- 
 tude toward the female clerks was expressed by a 
 certain class of the legislators. He began to 
 wonder if he were not abnormal in some way by 
 reason of his repugnance to all this desolating 
 derision of really holy things. He found that 
 while he had less religion than these men, they 
 had infinitely less reverence for the things which 
 he considered sacred. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 303 
 
 Some of the better class of members invited 
 him to their houses and he went occasionally, and 
 if he found them uncongenial he never went 
 again. He could not make calls out of duty. It 
 seemed to him that they took very little interest 
 in the higher side of politics and some of them he 
 found were unaware of any higher side of life. 
 
 He could not help noticing that Washington 
 was a city full of beautiful girls. His idolatry of 
 Miss Wilbur could not prevent him from admir- 
 ing them as they streamed along the walk to 
 church. He sometimes looked wistfully at this 
 flood of sunny laughing life that moved by him so 
 near and yet so completely out of his reach. He 
 knew at such times that he had missed something 
 sweet out of his own lonely life. 
 
 But these moments were few. He realized 
 that there was no place in the social life of the 
 city for him, and the librarian knew him better 
 than the butlers in the houses of rich senators. 
 He attended one or two public receptions and 
 was thoroughly disgusted with the crush, and felt 
 the essential vulgarity of the whole thing. 
 
 His life at the capital was hot entirely that of 
 the politician. He had in him capabilities for 
 appreciating art and literature, which most of his 
 colleagues had not. He studied upon economic 
 
304 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 problems, rather than upon partisan politics, and 
 tried to grasp the meaning of social change and 
 social condition, and to comprehend economic 
 causes and tendencies. He spent many hours 
 upon problems which were unconsciously unfit- 
 ting him for partisan success. 
 
 His life was very full and happy, save for the 
 dull hunger at his heart whenever he thought of 
 Ida. He wrote to her still, but her replies still 
 kept their calm, impersonal tone. One night, 
 when he returned from the capitol, he found a 
 letter from her enclosing some clippings. 
 
 "I have joined the Farmers' Alliance," she 
 wrote. " I begin to believe that another great 
 wave of thought is about to sweep over the farm- 
 ers. The spirit of the grange did not die. It 
 has passed on into this new organization. The 
 difference is going to be that this new alliance 
 of the farmers will be deeper in thought and 
 broader in sympathy. I never believed the grange 
 a failure. It taught people by its failure. I'm 
 going to Kansas to speak for them there. The 
 alliance is very strong there. This order will 
 become political. Its leaders are very enthusias- 
 tic." 
 
 She passed on to write of other things, but 
 Bradley was deeply affected by this news. He 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 305 
 
 had heard of the alliance obscurely, but had felt 
 that it was only an attempt to revive the old, 
 grange movement, and that it could not succeed. 
 But her letter set him thinking. 
 
 He wrote away on a speech till nine o'clock, 
 and then went out for his usual walk about the 
 capitol and its grounds, which had never lost 
 their charm, as the city itself had. He had grown 
 into the habit of going out whenever he wished to 
 escape the paltry decoration, the hot colors, the 
 vitiated air, of his boarding-place and the impor- 
 tunities of his fellow-boarders. He went out 
 whenever he wanted to think great and refreshing 
 thoughts, or whenever he felt the need of beauty 
 or the presence of life. 
 
306 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 bradley's long-cherished hope vanishes. 
 
 It had been snowing all the afternoon, and the 
 shrubbery hung heavy and silent with heaped, 
 clinging, feathery snow, dazzling white by con- 
 trast with the dark sustaining branches, and the 
 yellow lamps flamed warmly amid the all-sur- 
 rounding steely blue and glistening white. The 
 damp pavements, where the snow had melted, 
 were banded with gold and crimson from the 
 reflected light of the lamps and the warning glare 
 of car and carriage lights. 
 
 As Bradley breathed the pure air and walked 
 soundlessly along the narrow paths and looked 
 across the unflecked, untrodden snow up to the 
 vast and silent dome, he shuddered in wordless 
 delight. He hungered to share it with Ida. It 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 307 
 
 was like fairy-land — so far removed from daylight 
 reality ; and yet the sound of sleigh-bells, the 
 occasional shouts of coasters, and the laughter of 
 girls added a familiar human quality to it all, 
 and added an ache to the mysterious shuddering 
 delight of it all. It was so evanescent ; it would 
 decay so quickly. The wind, the morning sun, 
 would destroy it. 
 
 He walked up to the lonely esplanade, and saw 
 the city's lights shine below him like rubies and 
 amethysts, and saw far beyond the snow-heaped 
 highlands, above which Jupiter hung poised, 
 serene and lone, the king of the western sky. 
 
 How far away all this seemed from the brazen 
 declamation, the monotonous reiterations of the 
 reading-clerk, and from the Sharp clank of the 
 speaker's gavel ! His ear wearied, his heart sick 
 of the whole life of the farcical legislature, with 
 its flood of corrupt bills, got back serenity and 
 youth and repose in the presence of the snows, 
 the silences, and the stars. 
 
 Again the impulse seized him to write to Ida 
 and show her his whole soul ; to dare and end once 
 for all his ache of suspense. He went back to his 
 room, and seized pen and paper. Everything he 
 wrote seemed too formal or too presumptuous. 
 At last he finished a short letter — 
 
308 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 Dear Miss Wilbur : — 
 
 I do not know how to begin to say what I want to say. I am 
 afraid of losing you out of my life by not writing, and I'm afraid 
 if I write, I will lose you. It is impossible for me to say what 
 you've done for me. I never would have been anything .more 
 than a poor farmer, only for you. I don't want to apologize to 
 you for telling you how much you are to me. I want to appeal 
 to you to give me a chance to work for you; that's all. I want 
 you to give me some hope, if you can. 
 
 I know I am asking a great deal even in that. I realize how 
 unreasonable it is. You've only seen me a few times; and yet 
 I'm not going to apologize for it. I must have it over with ; I 
 can't go on in this way. Won't you write to me and tell me that 
 I can look forward to the future with hope ? 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Bradley Talcott. 
 
 For the next ten days he was of little service to 
 his country except the day he made his speech on 
 the tariff question. It was his first set speech, 
 and he had twenty minutes yielded to him by the 
 gentleman from Missouri, who had charge of the 
 bill. He had the close attention of the House, 
 not only for his thoughts, which were fresh and 
 direct, but also for the natural manner in which 
 he spoke. He had lost a good deal of his "ora- 
 tory," but had gained a powerful, flexible and col- 
 loquial style which made most of the orators 
 around him seem absurd. The fine shadings of 
 emotion and of thought in his voice struck upon 
 the ear wearied with rancous yells and monoto- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 309 
 
 nous brazen declamations, with a cool and restful 
 effect. At the close, the menbers crowded about 
 to congratulate him upon his efforts, and for the 
 moment he felt quite satisfied with himself. 
 
 It gave him a shock to see Ida's fateful letter 
 lying upon the hat-rack in his boarding-house, 
 where it had been pawed over by the whole house- 
 hold. He hastened to his room, and dropped into 
 a chair with that familiar terrible numbness in his 
 limbs, and with his heart beating so hard it short- 
 ened his breathing. He was like a man breath- 
 less with running. When his eyes fell on the 
 writing, his hands ceased to shake, and his quick 
 breathing fell away into a long, shuddering inspi- 
 ration. He read the first page twice without 
 moving a muscle. Then he turned the page, and 
 finished it. It was not long, and it was very direct. 
 
 Dear Mr. Talcott: — 
 
 Your letter has moved me deeply, very deeply. I would have 
 prevented its being written if I could. It is the greatest tribute 
 — save one — that has ever come to me; and yet I wish I had 
 not read it. I'm not free to make you any promise. I'm not 
 free to correspond with you any more — now. I've been trying to 
 find a way to tell you so indirectly, but your letter makes it nec- 
 essary for me to do so' directly. 
 
 The rest of the letter was an attempt to soften 
 the blow, but it fell upon him very hard. 
 
310 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The possibility which he had always, feared had 
 become a fact, the hope which he had kept in the 
 obscure processes of his thought and which had 
 filled a vital place in his action, dropped out and. 
 left him purposeless. This hope of somehow, 
 someway having her near to him had been the 
 mainspring of his action and it could not be with- 
 drawn without leaving him disabled. 
 
 He returned to the letter again, and again 
 studying each word, each mark. He saw in it 
 her acceptance of some other — probably Birdsell. 
 
 Then he saw that she had withdrawn the priv- 
 ilege — the blessed privilege — of writing to her. 
 She was determined to go out of his life com- 
 pletely. At times as he imagined this strongly, 
 his throat swelled till he could hardly breathe.. 
 He would have cried if nature had not denied him 
 that relief. 
 
 He saw how baseless his hope had been, and he 
 exonerated her from all blame. She had been 
 kind and helpful till he spoiled it all by a fool's 
 presumption. He had always exaggerated her 
 social position and her attainments, but in the 
 • depths of his self-abasement and despair every 
 kindness she had done him and every letter she 
 had written took on a new significance. 'On 
 every one he saw h'er warnings. Every meeting 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 311 
 
 he had ever had with her he now went over and 
 over with the strange pleasure one takes in bruis- 
 ing an aching limb. 
 
 • She had never been other than reserved, imper- 
 sonal in his presence. She had shown him again 
 and again that her intimate life was not for him to 
 know. He remembered now the peculiar look of 
 perfect understanding which flashed between Bird- 
 sell and Ida, which troubled him at the time, but 
 which his cursed egotism had brushed away as of 
 no significance. 
 
 His speech lay there on the table, it was waste 
 paper now. He had no one left to address it to. 
 •His utter loneliness came back to him. His 
 mind went back over the line of his life till it 
 came again into the little opening in the Wiscon- 
 sin woods where the pines wept or snarled cease- 
 lessly — till his mother died in the moan and the 
 snarl and shadow of them. His heart went out 
 to her as never before since Ida came into his 
 life. 
 
 The gloom and reticence of those dark-green 
 forests had wrought him into the reticent, serious 
 man he was. He was not gloomy naturally, he 
 was strong and hopeful, but this was one of those 
 moments which appall a man, even a young man — 
 or more properly, especially a young man. 
 
312 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 He did not go down to dinner, but sat in his 
 room till late; then when hunger compelled, he 
 went out to a vast cafe, where he could be more 
 alone. It seemed that night as if all incentive to 
 live were gone ; but he went to the session next 
 day in a mechanical sort of a way, and each day 
 thereafter in the same way, though he took no 
 interest in the proceedings. 
 
 Clancy had his suspicions, and had to verify 
 them. 
 
 "Talcott, your' re off y'r feed. Girl gone back 
 on yeh ? " 
 
 Bradley refused to reply and Clancy took delight 
 in spreading the story among his gang, They 
 respected Bradley's physique too much to push 
 him unduly, however. 
 
 Nature slowly reasserted itself, and as the 
 weeks went by he regained his interest in the 
 work ; but the sparkle, the allurement of life, 
 was gone, and he went about with more of the 
 purely mechanical in his actions. 
 
 He read now every available bit of news relat- 
 ing to the farmers' rising in the West, in the hope 
 that Ida's work would be mentioned in it. The 
 papers were getting savage in their attack upon 
 the movement in Kansas. It was said to mean 
 repudiation ; that it was a movement of the shift- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 313 
 
 less and unscrupulous citizens which destroyed 
 the credit of the State and disturbed social con- 
 ditions wantonly. The West seemed on the point 
 of upheaval, and Kansas seemed to be the centre 
 of the feeling of unrest. 
 
314 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 SPRING CONVENTIONS. 
 
 The session wore along monotonously — at least 
 to those who like Bradley took no interest in the 
 bitter partisan wrangling — and suddenly it came 
 upon him that spring was near. There came a 
 couple of sunny days after three days of warm 
 rain and the grass grew suddenly green. A robin 
 hunting worms on the lawn laughed out auda- 
 ciously one morning as Bradley went across the 
 path.? There seemed to be a mysterious awaken- 
 ing thrill in every plant and animal. The distant 
 hills grew soft in outline. 
 
 A few days and the Spirea Japonica flamed 
 out in yellow, the quince in the hedges showed 
 its rose-colored tips of bursting blooms and on the 
 red buds grew wonderful garnet-colored fists soon 
 to open into beautiful palms of flowers. The 
 gardeners got out with rakes and wheel-barrows 
 and lazily plodded to and fro upon the beautiful 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 315 
 
 seamless green of the lawns, or spaded about the 
 flowers beds in the countless little parks of the 
 the city. 
 
 A few days later and the old white mule and 
 darkey driver came out upon the springing grass 
 with the purring mower, and it made Bradley's 
 blood leap with recollections of the haying field. 
 The air began to grow sweet with the odor of 
 flowers. The sky took on a warm look. The 
 building took on a deeper blue in its shadows and 
 the north windows became violet at noon. Brad- 
 ley longed for the country, but the orange-colored 
 mud of the suburbs kept him confined to the 
 sidewalks. 
 
 On Easter Sunday the girls came out in their 
 delicious dresses, looking dainty and sweet as the 
 lilies each church displayed. New hats, new 
 grasses and springing plants announced that 
 spring had come. The "leaves of absence" indi- 
 cated spring in the House. 
 
 As June came on, the question of re-election 
 began to trouble some of the members. They 
 began to get " leave of absence on important busi- 
 ness," and to go home to fix up their political 
 fences. There was no sign of adjournment. It 
 was the policy of the Republicans to keep the 
 Democrats out of the field. 
 
316 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 The profane Clancy was one of the first to go. 
 He came to Bradley one day, " Say, Talcott, I wish 
 you'd ask for indefinite leave for me, my fences 
 are in a hell of a fix and besides I want to see 
 my wife. I'm no earthly use here — though you 
 needn't state that in your request." 
 
 "What'lllsay?" 
 
 "Oh, important business — or sickness — the 
 baby's cutting a tooth — just as you like. It all 
 goes." 
 
 "I guess I'll try important business. The 
 other is too much worn." 
 
 "All right. It does beat hell the amount of 
 sickness there is on pension bill nights and on 
 convention week." 
 
 Clancy was a type of legislator whose idea of 
 legislation was to have a good time and look out 
 for re-election. Bradley, however, did not worry 
 particularly about his re-election until he received 
 a letter from the Judge asking him to come home 
 and attend the convention. 
 
 "It's just as well to be on the ground," the 
 Judge wrote ; " there is a good deal of opposition 
 developing in the north-west part of the district. 
 Larson wants the nomination for the Legislature, 
 and he is trying to swing the Scandinavians for 
 Fishbein. They are making a good deal of your 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 317 
 
 attitude on the pension bill, and that interview on 
 the oleo business where you go back on your legis- 
 lative vote is being circulated to do you harm." 
 
 This letter alarmed Bradley, and at once 
 showed him what a fight the Judge was making. 
 Suddenly he woke to the fact that defeat would 
 be unwelcome. Congress had come, at last to 
 have a subtle fascination, and he loved the city 
 -and its noble buildings, its theatres, and its libra- 
 ries. Since that fatal letter from Ida -he had been 
 forced to go more often to the theatres and con- 
 certs. They seemed now like necessities to him, 
 and the thought of going back to private life was 
 not at all pleasant. He therefore got leave ; ^| 
 absence, and took the train for Rock River. 
 
 He did not see so much of the outside world 
 on this return trip. His trouble came back upon 
 him, mixed, too, with something sweet which lay 
 in the fact of a return to the West. He caught a 
 thrill of this as the train dipped and swung round 
 a peak on the west slope of the Alleghanies, and 
 for a single instant the sea of sun-illumined swells 
 and peaks of foliage broke upon the eyes and then 
 was lost, and the train dropped down into the 
 rising darkness of the valley. 
 
 It came to him again the next afternoon as he 
 rode away over the wide, low swells of the prairies 
 
318 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 between Chicago and the Mississippi. It was a 
 beautiful showery June day. A day of alternate 
 warm rain and brilliant sunshine, and the rushing 
 engine plunged into trailing clouds of rain only to 
 burst forth into sunshine again with exultant 
 shrieks of untamed energy, and listening to it one 
 might have fancied it a living thing with capa- 
 bility to snuff the glorious west wind, and eyes to 
 reflect the cool green swells of pasture. 
 
 It was a magnificent thing to step off the 
 Chicago sleeper into the broad morning at Rock 
 River. Soaring streamers of red and flame-color 
 arched the eastern sky like the dome of a mighty 
 pagoda. Birds were singing in the cool, sweet 
 hush ; roosters were crowing ; the air was full of 
 the scent of fresh leaves and succulent, springing 
 grain. Bradley abandoned himself to the spring, 
 and his walk up the quiet street was a keen 
 delight. The town seemed wofully small and 
 shabby and lifeless ; but it had trees and birds 
 and earth-smell to compensate for other things. 
 
 There was no one at the station to receive him, 
 not even a 'bus. The station agent said : 
 
 " Guess the Judge didn't know you was comin' 
 or he'd been down here with a band-wagon." 
 
 Mrs. Brown was in the kitchen bent above a 
 pan of sizzling meat. A Norwegian girl with 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 319 
 
 vivid blue eyes and pink and white complexion 
 was setting the table with great precision. She 
 smiled broadly as Bradley put his finger to his 
 lips and crept toward Mrs. Brown, who gave a 
 great start as she felt the clasp of his arm. 
 
 " Gracious sakes alive ! Bradley Talcott ! " 
 
 " Did I scare yeh ? " he inquired, smiling. 
 " Where's the Judge ? " 
 
 She looked at him fondly as he held her a 
 moment in his arms. 
 
 "He's out by the well — I think he's at work 
 at something, for I've heard him swearing and 
 groaning out there." 
 
 Bradley found the Judge weeding a bed of 
 onions. He had a couple of folded newspapers 
 under his knees and was in "his shirt-sleeves. He 
 looked like a felon condemned for life to hard 
 manual labor. 
 
 "Judge, how are you ?" called Bradley. 
 
 The Judge looked up with a scowling brow. 
 " Hello, Brad." He wiped his hand on his thigh 
 and rose with a groan to shake hands. "I'm 
 slavin' again. Mrs. Brown insists on my working 
 oh the garden. How's Congress ? " 
 
 "Piratical as ever. Nothing doing that ought 
 to be done. How's everything here?" 
 
 The Judge put on his coat ; " I guess I'll quit 
 
320 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 for this time," he said, referring to the onions 
 " Let's wash up for breakfast." 
 
 They washed at the kitchen sink as usual. 
 Mrs. Brown watched Bradley with maternal pleas- 
 ure as he hung his coat on a nail and went about 
 in his shirt-sleeves scrubbing his face and comb- 
 ing his hair. 
 
 "It's good to see you around again, Bradley." 
 
 "Well, it seems good to me. Seems like old 
 times to sit down here to your cooking with the 
 kitchen door open and the chickens singing." 
 
 "We're all right in this county," said the 
 Judge, referring back to politics ; " but as I wrote 
 you, it aint all clear sailing. We've got work to 
 do. I've called the Convention at Cedarville, in 
 order to keep some useful people in the field. 
 We'll take dinner with old Jake Schlimgen — he's 
 a power with the Germans." 
 
 Bradley avoided political talk as much as possi- 
 ble, but when on the street there seemed nothing 
 else to talk about. Councill and Ridings assured 
 him he was all right in the eastern part of the 
 county, and under their flattery he grew quite 
 cheerful. Their simple, honest admiration did 
 him good. 
 
 On the day named, Bradley and the Judge 
 drove off up the road in a one-horse buggy. The 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 321 
 
 Judge talked spasmodically ; Bradley was silent, 
 looking about him with half-shut eyes. The wheat 
 had clothed the brown fields; crows were flying 
 through the soft mist that dimmed the light of 
 the sun, but did not intercept its heat. Each hill 
 and tree glimmered across the. waves of warm air, 
 and seemed to pulse as if alive. Blackbirds and 
 robins and sparrows everywhere gave voice to the 
 ecstasy which the men felt, but could not express. 
 
 The Judge roused up, slapping the horse with 
 the reins. "It's going to be a fight; but Fish- 
 bein will be left on the first ballot by twenty-five 
 votes." 
 
 Cedarville was wide-awake — feverishly so. The 
 street was lined with knots of gesticulating politi- 
 cians. As he alighted Bradley's friends swarmed 
 about him with "three cheers for the Hon. 
 Brad Talcott." He shook hands all round with 
 unfeigned pleasure. 
 
 " Hurrah, boys, let's all go over to the Palace 
 Hotel and have some dinner," said the Judge at 
 last. 
 
 The rest whooped with delight. "That's the 
 cooky, Judge." 
 
 They swarmed in upon Jake like the locusts 
 into Egypt. They washed (some of them) in the 
 wash-room, out of tin basins, laughing and talking 
 
322 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 in hearty clamor over the water and the comb. 
 Others flung their nondescript wind-worn hats 
 upon the floor, brushed their hair with their fin- 
 gers and went into the dining-room as if going 
 into a farm-kitchen in threshing time. 
 
 The girls were in a flutter of haste, and giggled 
 and bumped against each other trying to serve the 
 dinner to order — 
 
 " Quick as the Lord '11 let yeh." 
 
 Bradley's constituents were mostly farmers, 
 clean-eyed and hearty. They all felt sure of suc- 
 cess and jeered the opposition good-naturedly. 
 
 When the Judge and Bradley rode home that 
 night, they were silent for another cause. They 
 had been defeated on the tenth ballot, and bitter 
 things had been said by both sides. 
 
 It was again beautiful around them, but they 
 did not notice it. The low sun flung its level red 
 rays of light across the flaming green of the 
 springing grain, and lighted every western win- 
 dow-pane into burning squares of crimson. The 
 train carrying the successful Waterville crowd 
 passed them, and they waved their hats in return 
 to their opponents' salute. 
 
 The Judge was as badly defeated as Bradley. 
 He took it very hard. It seemed to give the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 323 
 
 lie to all his prophecies of Democratic progress. 
 It seemed to him a defeat of Jeffersonian principle. 
 He consoled himself by saying — 
 
 " Those fellows don't represent the people. 
 The thing to do is to bolt the convention " ; and 
 then he went on planning an independent cam- 
 paign. 
 
 Bradley maintained gloomy silence. The com- 
 ment of his friends hurt him more than his defeat. 
 Their tone of pity cut him, and left him raw to the 
 gibes of his opponents. The fact that an honor- 
 able, honest man could have enemies in his own 
 party was borne in upon him with merciless force. 
 What had he done that men should yell in hell- 
 like ferocity of glee over his defeat ? 
 
 This defeat cut closer into the Judge's life than 
 anything that had come to him since the death of 
 his son. If Bradley had not been so blind in his 
 selfish suffering he would have seen how the Judge 
 had aged and saddened since the morning. 
 
 But the old man's vital nature would not rest 
 under defeat. He almost forced Bradley to issue 
 a card to the public announcing his independent 
 candidacy for Congress. Bradley had no heart in 
 it, however. The energy of youth seemed gone 
 out of him. 
 
 The Judge gathered his forces together for bat- 
 
324 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 tie, but Bradley, fled away from Rock River to 
 escape the comments of his friends as well as his 
 enemies. He was too raw to invite strokes of the 
 lash. He dreaded the meeting with his colleagues 
 at Washington, but there was a little more reserve 
 in their comment and there were fewer who took a 
 vital interest in his affairs. 
 
 He met Radbourn a few days after his return. 
 
 " Well," Radbourn said, " I see by the papers 
 that your defeat in the convention was due to 
 your advocacy of ' cranky notions.' I told you 
 the advocacy of heresies was dangerous ; I have 
 no comfort for you. You had your choice before 
 you. You can.be a hypocrite and knuckle down 
 to every monopoly or special act, or you can be an 
 individual and — go out of office." 
 
 " I'll go. out of office, I guess, whether I want 
 to or not," was his bitter reply. He suffered se- 
 verely for a few days with the commiseration of 
 friends and the thinly-veiled ridicule of his polit- 
 ical enemies, but each man was too much occupied 
 to hold Bradley's defeat long in mind. He soon 
 sank back into quiet, if not into repose. 
 
 As the hot weather came on, the city became 
 almost as quiet as Rock River itself. Save tak- 
 ing care of the few tourists who drifted through, 
 there was very little doing. The cars ground 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 325 
 
 along ever more thinly until they might be called 
 occasional. The trees put forth their abundance 
 of leaf, and under them the city seemed to sleep. 
 Congress had settled down into a dull and drowsy 
 succession of daily adjournments and filibustering. 
 The speaker ruled remorselessly, "counting the 
 hats in the cloak-room to make up his quorum," 
 his critics said. 
 
 Nothing was doing, but vast accumulations of 
 appropriations were piling up, waiting the hurried 
 action of the last few days of the session. The 
 senators dawdled in and out dressed in the thin- 
 nest clothing; the House looked sparse and in- 
 effectual. 
 
 Bradley grew depressed, and at last he became 
 positively ill. He was depressed by the incessant 
 relentless attacks made upon him through the 
 Waterville Patriot, and by his apparently hope- 
 less outlook. The Patriot published some of his 
 radical utterances much garbled, of course, and 
 called him " an anarchist and a socialist, a fit 
 leader for the repudiating gang of alleged farmers 
 in Kansas." 
 
 Radbourn became alarmed for him, and advised 
 him to get indefinite leave of absence and go 
 home. " Go back into the haying-field ; that's 
 what you need ; they won't miss you here. Go 
 
326 A SPOIL OF OFFICE, 
 
 home and go out of politics, and stay out till the 
 revolution comes ; then go out and chalk death on 
 your enemies' door." 
 
 The advice to go home was so obviously sound 
 that Bradley took it at once. It seemed as if the 
 atmosphere of the city would destroy him. As a 
 matter of fact it was inactivity that was killing 
 him. He found it so hard to exercise — except 
 by walking, and that did not rest his over-active 
 mind. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. fl27 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 BRADLEY DISCOURAGED. 
 
 The Judge and Mrs Brown were alarmed at 
 the change in him. He was gloomy and pale, but 
 he protested he was all right. 
 
 " I'm going out on the farm. I believe it'll do 
 me good to go out and help Councill put up his 
 hay. It seems to me if I could get physically 
 tired and wolfishly hungry again it would do me 
 good." 
 
 The Judge drove him out to Councill's one 
 afternoon. Everybody they met seemed delighted 
 to see him. Mrs. Councill came out to the horse- 
 block, her bare arm held up to shield her eyes. 
 
 " Well, Brad Talcott, how are you — anyway ? 
 you're jest in time to help me pick berries." 
 
 Bradley sprang out and shook hands with hearty 
 force. " Give us your dish." 
 
 " H'yare ! " yelled Councill from the load of hay 
 he was driving in, " I can use you out here." 
 
 22 
 
328 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " Oh, you go long," replied Mrs. Councill. 
 " He's got better company and a better job." 
 
 Out in the berry patch he talked over the 
 neighborhood affairs and picked berries and killed 
 mosquitoes, while the wind wandered by with 
 rustling steps on the lombardy poplar leaves. The 
 locusts sang and the grasshoppers snapped their 
 shining wings. It was a blessed relief to his 
 troubled older self, for he slipped back into the 
 more tranquil life of his boyhood. 
 
 At supper he sat at the table with the men, 
 whose wet shirts showed how fierce the work of 
 pitching the hay had been. 
 
 " Be ye out f'r play or work, Brad ? " asked 
 Councill. 
 
 " Work. Need a hand ? " 
 
 " They's plenty to do — but I'm afraid you can't 
 take a hand's place, for a while." 
 
 " Try me and see." 
 
 They were all curious to hear of Washington, 
 but he was more inclined to talk of the crops and 
 the cattle. 
 
 He .went to sleep that night in the bare garret 
 with the men, and woke the next morning at sun- 
 rise at sound of Councill's voice calling him, 
 just as he used to do when he was a hired 
 man. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 329 
 
 " Hel/o, Brad \ Rollout!" 
 
 He went down to breakfast, sloshed his face at 
 the cistern pump and was ready to eat when the 
 men came in. 
 
 "We live jest the same as ever, Brad," said 
 Mrs. Councill, " you'll haf to put up with it jest as 
 if y' wa'n't a Congressman." 
 
 " I guess he can stand a few days what we 
 stand all the while," Councill interjected. 
 
 There was a good deal of banter during the 
 meal about " downing " the Congressman. 
 
 Bradley's physical pride was roused and he took 
 his place in the field determined to show them 
 their mistake. Night came bringing weariness 
 that was exhaustion, and next morning he was too 
 lame to lift a fork. It emphasized the unnatural 
 inactivity into which he had fallen. 
 
 He improved physically and by the end of the 
 week was able to pitch .hay with the rest. The 
 Judge drove up for him on Saturday afternoon, 
 and found him pitching hay upon the stack behind 
 the wind-break, wet with sweat and covered with 
 timothy bloom. Councill was stacking. 
 
 " Hello, Congressman," called the Judge. 
 
 " Get off, 'n take right hold, Judge," said Coun- 
 cill. "A Judge aint no better'n a Congressman, 
 not a darn. bit." 
 
330 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " I'll take a hand at the table," the Judge re- 
 plied. 
 
 "I've had about enough of it," Bradley said to 
 him privately while Councill was putting his team 
 in the barn. " I'm better, but it begins to seem 
 like a waste of time." 
 
 They drove- home that night through the still, 
 warm, star-lit air, like father and son in slow talk 
 of the future. 
 
 The Judge told of the plan for the fall cam- 
 paign, to which Bradley listened silently. 
 
 " We'll win yet if you only keep your grit." 
 
 He planned also a broadening out of their law 
 business. A new block had just been built and 
 they were to take two adjoining rooms. 
 
 " You need a library of your own and a chance 
 to work where you won't be disturbed. I'll do 
 the consulting business and leave you the busi- 
 ness in court." For a time Bradley was interested 
 and occupied in moving into the new office and 
 in getting in some new books and arranging the 
 shelves. 
 
 But the narrowness, the quiet, the mental stag- 
 nation of the life of Rock River settled down on 
 him at last. There were days when he walked 
 the floor of the office, wild with dismay over his 
 prospect. How could he settle down again to 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 331 
 
 this life of the country lawyer ? The honors and 
 ease that accompanied his office, the larger hori- 
 zon of Washington, had ruined him for life in Rock 
 River. Love might have enabled him to . bear it, 
 but he had given up the thought of marriage and 
 he longed for the larger life he had left. 
 
 There was a sorrowful scene when the Judge 
 read for the first time Bradley's letter of with- 
 drawal from the canvass. The Judge was deeply 
 hurt because he had not been consulted, and was 
 depressed by Bradley's despair. He tried to 
 reason with him, but Bradley was in no mood to 
 reason. 
 
 " I'm out of it, Judge ; it's of no use to go on ; 
 I'm beaten ; that's all there is about it ; we'd only 
 get a minority vote, and show how weak we are ; 
 I'm a failure as a politician, and every other way. 
 I give it up." 
 
 The Judge sat staring at him without words to 
 express his terrible disappointment and alarm, for 
 the condition into which his lieutenant had sunk 
 alarmed him and he communicated his fear to Mrs. 
 Brown. 
 
 They discussed the matter that night in bed. 
 Bradley heard their voices still mumbling on when 
 he sank to sleep. 
 
 " You don't suppose, Mrs. Brown," the Judge 
 
332 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 said a little timidly, "it can't be possible it's a 
 woman " — 
 
 " If it had been, Mr. Brown, he would have told 
 me," she said convincingly. " It's just the heat, 
 and then his defeat has told on him more than 
 you admit." 
 
 " If I felt sure of that, Mrs. Brown," the Judge 
 said in answer, " but I don't. All ambition seems 
 to have gone out of _ him. I hate to acknowledge 
 myself mistaken in the man. I've believed in 
 Brad. I am alarmed about him. He isn't right ; 
 I've a good mind to send him down to St. Louis 
 and Kansas City on some collection cases." 
 
 " I think he'd better do that, Mr. Brown, if he 
 will go." 
 
 " Oh, he'll go ; he wants to get away from the 
 campaign ; it seems to wear upon him some way ; 
 he avoids everybody, and won't speak of it at all if 
 he can help it." 
 
 Bradley was very glad to accept the offer, and 
 made himself ready to go with more of his old- 
 time interest than he had shown since his sick- 
 ness. The Judge brightened up also, and said to 
 him, as he was about to step into the train : 
 " Now, Brad, don't hurry back ; take your time, 
 and enjoy yourself. Go around by Chicago, if you 
 feel like it." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 333 
 
 After the train pulled out, and they were riding 
 home, the Judge said to his wife : " Mrs. Brown, 
 you must take good care of me now. I want to 
 live to see a party grow up to the level of that 
 young man's ideas. This firm is crippled, but it is 
 not in the hands of a receiver, Mrs. Brown." 
 
 " I'll be the receiver," Mrs. Brown said. 
 
 The Judge shifted the lines into his left hand. 
 
 The horse fell into a walk. "Mrs. Brown, if 
 this weren't a public road, I'd be tempted to put 
 my strong right arm around you and give you a 
 squeeze." 
 
 " I don't see any one looking," she said, and her 
 eyes took on a pathetic suggestion of the roguish- 
 ness her face must have worn in girlhood. 
 
 He put his arm about her, and gave her a great 
 hug. After that she laid her head against his 
 shoulder, and cried a little ; the Judge sighed. 
 
 " Well, we'll have to get reconciled to being 
 alone, I suppose ; we can't expect to keep him al- 
 ways. I think it's a woman, Mrs. Brown." 
 
334 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 THE GREAT ROUND UP. 
 
 DURING his stay in St. Louis Bradley found 
 the papers filled with the Alliance movement in 
 Kansas, and looked for Ida's name each morn- 
 ing. She was in the western part of the State, 
 but moving eastward ; and when a few days 
 later he saw her announced in the Kansas City 
 morning papers to speak at the great " round 
 up " at Chiquita, he packed his valise on the 
 sudden impulse, and started on the next train, 
 determined to hear her speak once more at 
 least. 
 
 It was just noon when he alighted from the 
 train at Chiquita. The day was dry, hazy, re- 
 splendent October. The wind was strong but 
 amiable, and was full of the smell of corn and of 
 that warm, pungent, smoky odor which forms 
 the Indian summer atmosphere of the West. 
 The wind rushed up the broad street past him, 
 carrying the dust and leaves in its powerful 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 335 
 
 clutches, and laying strong hands upon his broad 
 back. The sky was absolutely without speck, 
 but a pale mist seemed to dim the radiance of 
 the sun, and lent a milky white tone to the blue 
 of the sky. 
 
 As he moved slowly off up the street, he stud- 
 ied the town and the people from the standpoint 
 his life in the East had given him. Everywhere 
 w,as an air of security. Men moved slower. 
 Their faces were less anxious and more placid ; 
 they had leisure to talk as they met at the shop 
 door. The boss seemed farther away. But all 
 this security did not conceal the poverty which 
 he now saw everywhere. The houses were 
 mainly low, unpainted buildings, containing 
 only three or four cramped rooms. They were 
 a little smarter in appearance than the country 
 type, but not much more commodious. 
 
 " I wonder if you are one of the speakers here 
 to-day," said a voice behind him. 
 
 Bradley turned, and saw a small man with a 
 stubby mustache, under whose derby hat-rim a 
 pair of round black eyes shone with a keen 
 glitter. 
 
 " No, sir, I'm not." 
 
 " Beg pardon, no harm done. Saw you get 
 off with your valise; knew you weren't a native 
 by the cut o' y'r jib. Excuse me, I hope ? " 
 
336 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 " Certainly ; I'm just on to see some friends 
 here." 
 
 "/Vrcisely; I'm up from Kansas City to see 
 the big ' round up,' as they call it. Here's 
 my card. I represent what our Alliance 
 friends call the ' plutocratic press.' " His card 
 stated that his name was Mr. Davis, and that 
 he represented the Chronicle. " I'm afraid the 
 parade must be over by this time, but I missed 
 my train. Perhaps we had better step along "a 
 little." 
 
 They had reached the main street, a broad 
 avenue which ran north and south across a 
 gentle swell in the prairie. There were a great 
 many people on the sidewalks, and teams were 
 moving in various directions slowly and in 
 apparent confusion. 
 
 " Let's go over here to the Commercial House ; 
 that's the headquarters of all the brethren," said 
 Davis. 
 
 They went across the street to the Commercial 
 House, which they found full of men in groups, 
 talking very earnestly, but quietly. Most of 
 them were farmer-like looking figures, big and 
 brown, and dressed in worn, faded clothing, 
 but here and there a young man stood, wearing 
 a broad white hat, and with a gay handkerchief 
 knotted loosely about his neck. On all sides 
 
A' SPOIL OF OFFICE. 337 
 
 could be heard the slightly-drawling speech of 
 the Kansan. 
 
 They went up to a little balcony which pro- 
 jected over the walk. Four or five other young 
 fellows were already seated there. Some of 
 them were magnificent-looking fellows, keen, 
 wholesome, and picturesque in their dress. 
 
 " Excuse me now, gentlemen," said Davis, 
 whipping out his note-book. " I'm a reporter, 
 and here they come ! " 
 
 Up the broad street, under that soaring sky, 
 from their homes upon a magnificently fertile 
 soil, came the long procession of revolting farm- 
 ers. There were no bands to lead them ; no flut- 
 tering of gay flags ; no cheers from the bystand- 
 ers. They rode in grim silence for the most 
 part, as if at a funeral of their dead hopes — as if 
 their mere presence were a protest. 
 
 Everywhere the same color predominated — a 
 russet brown. Their faces were bronzed and 
 thin. Their beards were long and faded, and 
 tangled like autumn corn silk. Their gaunt, 
 gnarled, and knotted hands held the reins over 
 their equally sad and sober teams. The women 
 looked worn and thin, and sat bent forward over 
 the children in their laps. The dust had settled 
 upon their ill-fitting dresses. There were no 
 smart carriages, no touch of gay paint, no glit- 
 
338 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 tering new harnesses ; the whole procession was 
 keyed down among the. most desolate and sor- 
 rowful grays, browns, and drabs. 
 
 Slowly they moved past. In some of the 
 wagons, banners, rudely painted on cotton cloth, 
 uttered the farmers' protest in words. 
 
 " Good God ! " said Davis, as he dashed away 
 at his writing. " Did you ever see such a 
 funeral in your life ? See that banner ! " 
 
 Down with Monopolies. 
 
 " All right, down with them ; you're the doc- 
 tor," muttered Davis as he wrote. 
 
 Free Trade, Free Land, Money at Cost, 
 Transportation at Cost. 
 
 " Now you are shouting, brother." 
 
 Equal Rights to All is as Dear to the 
 
 Heart of the Farmer as it was in 
 
 the Days of our Forefathers. 
 
 " Well, now, sure you mean that — that's all. 
 Stop talking, and act." 
 
 Bradley remained perfectly silent through it 
 all. As these farmers passed before his eyes, 
 there came into his mind vast conceptions which 
 thrilled him till he shuddered — a realization 
 that here was an army of veterans, men grown 
 old in the ferocious struggle against injustice 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 339 
 
 and the apparent niggardliness of nature, — a 
 grim and terrible battle-line. It was made up, 
 throughout its entire length, of old or middle- 
 aged men and women with stooping shoulders, 
 and eyes- dim with toil and suffering. There 
 was nothing of lovely girlhood or elastic, smil- 
 ing boyhood ; not a touch of color or grace in 
 the long line of march. It was sombre, silent, 
 ominous, and resolute. 
 
 It appeared to him the most pathetic, tragic, 
 and desperate revolt against oppression and 
 wrong ever made by the American farmer. It 
 was the Grange movement broadened, deep- 
 ened, and made more desperate and wide-reach- 
 ing by changing conditions. 
 
 At Davis' suggestion they went off down the 
 street, joining the crowd on the sidewalk, which 
 was streaming away towards the fair grounds. 
 A roasted ox was to be served there, and 
 speeches were to follow. The road kept on to 
 the south, down over the gentle slope, and 
 turned aside under the jack -oaks, and led 
 through a wooden gate into an enclosure which 
 was used for the county fair. Down under the 
 great shed by the side of the race-track the peo- 
 ple swarmed in thousands. 
 
 They were all standing about the rude tables, 
 behind which helpers were busily hewing off 
 
340 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 great lumps of beef and mutton, and slicing fat 
 slabs of bread, which were snatched and carried 
 away in little paper plates by the hungry men. 
 Here and there beside their wagons, families 
 were eating a dinner of their own. 
 
 The same sober color predominated. There 
 was a little more life and gayety in their speech 
 here. Their grim, harsh faces relaxed a little, 
 and now and then broke into unwonted smiles 
 as they stood about devouring their food and 
 discussing the meeting, which they counted a 
 success. Everywhere were hearty handshakings 
 and fraternal greetings. 
 
 All about the grounds stood feeble women in 
 ill-fitting clothes, with tired children in ..their 
 aching arms, a painful sag in their weakened 
 loins. Bradley marvelled to think why such 
 festivals had ever seemed mirthful and happy 
 to him. He wondered if there used to be so 
 many tired faces at the Grange picnics in Iowa. 
 Were the farmers really less comfortable and 
 happy, or had he simply grown clear-sighted ? 
 
 Kansas as it stood there was Democratic. 
 Poverty has few distinctions among its victims. 
 The negro stood close beside his white brother 
 in adversity, and there wag a certain relation and 
 resemblance in their stiffened walk, poor cloth- 
 ing, and dumb, imploring, empty hands. There 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 3J.1 
 
 lay in the whole scene something tremendous, 
 something far-reaching. The movement it rep. 
 resented had the majesty, if not the volcanic 
 energy, of the rise of the peasants of the 
 Vendue. 
 
 After the dinner was eaten, the people grad- 
 ually took their seats on the grand stand, facing 
 a platform upon which the speakers were al- 
 ready assembled. Bradley looked about for Ida, 
 but she had not come. The choir amused the 
 people with a few Alliance songs, whose char- 
 acter may be indicated by their titles : " Join 
 the Alliance Step," " Get off the Fence, Brother," 
 " We're Marching Along," etc. 
 
 The .people were watching eagerly for Ida's 
 appearance ; and when she came in view, es- 
 corted by the chairman, the people on the plat- 
 form swarmed about to greet her, and hid her 
 from Bradley's eager eyes. He was tremulous 
 with emotion as the chairman introduced her. 
 It carried him back to the day when he first 
 saw her. 
 
 As she rose to speak now, it was in a broad, 
 garish light. No dapple of shadows, was there, 
 no rustle of leaves, no green, mossy trunks of 
 trees. She stood on a bare platform facing five 
 thousand faces under a shed-like roof. 
 
 She was changed too. She was now a mature 
 
342 -A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 woman. There was nothing girlish about her 
 talk or her manner. There was decision in the 
 tones of her voice, and a sense of power in the 
 poise of her head and in the lofty gesture of her 
 hand. She no longer made a set oration. She 
 talked straight at her audiences. 
 
 " I wish the whole world could see this meet- 
 ing," she said, " and understand it for what it is. 
 It is an expression of a movement, not the move- 
 ment itself. It is a demand ; but the revolt that 
 lies back of the demand is greater than the ex- 
 pression of it. The demand, the expression, may 
 change, the form of our whole movement may 
 pass away; but the spirit that makes it great, 
 that carries it forward, is invincible and imper- 
 ishable. All the ages have contributed to this 
 movement. It is an outgrowth of the past. 
 
 " The heart and centre of this movement is a 
 demand for justice, not for ourselves alone, but 
 for the toiling poor wherever found. If this 
 movement is higher and deeper and broader 
 than the Grange was, it is because its sympa- 
 thies are broader. With me, it is no longer a 
 question of legislating for the farmer ; it is a 
 question of the abolition of industrial slavery." 
 
 The tremendous cheer which broke forth at 
 this point showed that the conception of the 
 movement had widened in the minds of the peo- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 343 
 
 u.e themselves ; it was no longer a class move- 
 ment. It stirred Bradley as if some swift elec- 
 tric wind had blown upon him 
 
 " Wherever a man is robbed, wherever a man 
 toils and the fruits of his toil are taken from 
 him ; wherever the frosty lash of winter stings 
 or the tear of poverty scalds, there the principle 
 of our order reaches." 
 
 As she continued, the people turned to each 
 other with shining faces. She was thrilling them 
 by her passionate, simple utterance of their in- 
 nermost thoughts. 
 
 While she spoke Bradley had eyes for noth- 
 ing else ; but when she sat down amid wild 
 applause, and the choir rose to sing, he turned 
 to look back over the audience, banked there in 
 rows on the hard, wooden seats, and felt again 
 its majesty and its desolation. There was the 
 same absence of beauty, youth, color, and grace 
 that he had noticed in the procession. Every- 
 where worn and weary women in sombre 
 dresses, a wistful light in their faces, as if they 
 felt dimly the difference between the lithe and 
 beautiful figure of the girl and their own stiff- 
 ened joints and emaciated forms. 
 
 The great throng sat silent, listening intently, 
 
 their eyes fixed upon the speaker. They were 
 
 there for a purpose ; they were there to find out 
 23 
 
344 ■* SPOIL OP OFFICE. 
 
 why it was that their toil, their sobriety, their 
 self-deprivation, left them at middle life with 
 distorted and stiffened limbs, gray hair, and 
 empty hands. They were terribly in earnest, 
 and Bradley felt his kinship with them. They 
 were his kind. 
 
 The music, which set them wild with enthu- 
 siasm, was of the simplest and most stirring sort. 
 That it pleased them so much, showed all too 
 clearly how barren their lives were of songs 
 and color and light. 
 
 The people pressed forward to speak a word 
 to Ida ; and Bradley, yielding to the pressure 
 of the crowd, was carried forward with it. It 
 stirred him very deeply to see the love and ad- 
 miration they all felt for her. On all sides he 
 heard words of affection which came straight 
 from the heart. Their utter sincerity could 
 not be doubted. He knew he ought to turn 
 and go away before she saw him, but he could 
 not. 
 
 Something in his face attracted a grizzled old 
 farmer, who was moving along beside him, and 
 he turned with a beaming look. 
 
 " How's that for a speech, eh ? Did y' ever 
 hear the like of it ? " 
 
 " No, I never did." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 34J 
 
 " Ain't she a wonder, now ? D' you s'pose 
 there's another woman like her in the world ? " 
 
 Bradley shook his head. He was sure of 
 that! 
 
 A gaunt old woman, who wore a dark green- 
 check sunbonnet hanging at the back of her 
 head, put in a word. 
 
 " Shows what a woman can do if you give 'er 
 a chance." 
 
 " Hello, Sister Slocum, you're always on 
 hand." 
 
 "Like a sore thumb, Brother Tobey, an' I 
 don't know of any one got a bigger interest in 
 downin' the plutes than the farmers' wives — 
 do you ? ' 
 
 It was pathetic, it was unforgettable, to see 
 these people as they stood beside the rounded, 
 supple, splendid figure of the speaker and took 
 her strong, smooth hand in their work-scarred, 
 leathery palms — these women of many children 
 and never-ending work, bent by toil above the 
 wash-tub and the churn, shut out from all things 
 that humanize and make living something more 
 than a brute struggle against hunger and cold. 
 
 Ida greeted them smilingly, but her face was 
 quivering with a sadness which she could hardly 
 conceal. Bradley pushed on desperately toward 
 her. At length, as the crowd began to thin out, 
 
346 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 he moved up and thrust his long arm in over 
 the shoulders of the women. 
 
 " Won't you shake hands with me, too ? " he 
 said, and his voice trembled. 
 
 She turned quickly, and her face flashed into 
 a smile — a smile different, somehow, from that 
 with which she had greeted the others, and 
 they saw it. It warmed his melancholy soul 
 like a sudden ray of June sunlight. 
 
 Her hand met his, strong and firm in its 
 grasp. " Ah ! Mr. Talcott, I'm glad to see you." 
 
 The farmers' wives began to leave, saying 
 good-by over and over again. They clung to 
 the girl's hand, gazing at her with wistful eyes. 
 It seemed as if they could not bear to let her go 
 out of their lives again. 
 
 " We may never see you again, dearie," one 
 old woman said, " but we never'll forgit you. 
 You've helped us. I reckon life won't seem 
 quite so hard now. We kind o' see a glimmer 
 of a way out." 
 
 The tears were on her face, and Ida put her 
 arms about the old lady's neck and kissed her, 
 and then turned away, unable to speak. The 
 chairman, followed by Bradley and Ida, made 
 his way down the steps and out on the grounds, 
 where the streams of people were setting back 
 toward the city. The chairman placed Miss 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 34.7 
 
 Wilbur in a carriage, and said, " I'll see you at 
 the hotel." 
 
 " Won't you ride ? " she asked. 
 
 " No, thank you," he replied, with a jovial 
 gleam in his eyes, and Ida said no more in pro- 
 test. Bradley, in great trepidation, took a seat 
 beside her. 
 
 " Well, Brother Talcott, what do you think 
 of such a meeting as that ? " she asked, after the 
 carriage started, turning upon him with sudden 
 intensity. 
 
 " It was like that first meeting of the Grange, 
 when I heard you speak first, only this is more 
 earnest — more desperate, I should say." 
 
 "" Yes, these people are desperate. It is im- 
 possible for the world to realize the earnestness 
 of these farmers. Just see the interest the 
 women-folks take in it! No other movement 
 in history — not even the anti-slavery cause — ■ 
 appealed to the women like this movement here 
 in Kansas. Why, sometimes I go home and 
 walk the floor like a crazy woman — I get so 
 wrought up over it. While our great politicians 
 split hairs on the tariff, people starve. The time 
 has come for rebellion." 
 
 Bradley was silent. He sympathized with 
 her feeling, but he could not see very much 
 hope in a revolt. 
 
348 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 Her eyes glowed with the fire of prophecy. 
 Bradley gazed at her with apprehensive eyes. 
 She seemed unwholesomely excited. But she 
 broke into a hearty laugh, and said : " You 
 stare. Well, I won't lecture you any more. 
 What did you do in Washington?" 
 
 " Nothing," he replied ; and there was some- 
 thing silencing in his voice. 
 
 She glanced at his face sharply, She hesitated 
 an instant, then asked : 
 
 " Do you go back ? " 
 
 " No, my political career is ended. I was 
 knifed in the convention." 
 
 " You are young." 
 
 " I'm not young enough to outgrow such a 
 defeat as that. I'm done." 
 
 This mood seemed singularly unlike him, as 
 she had known him before. She seized upon 
 the situation. 
 
 " Come with us. ' There is more wool and 
 flax in the fields,' " she quoted. 
 
 "I can't. I don't see things as you do — I 
 mean I don't see any cure." 
 
 She laid her hand on his arm. " I'm going to 
 convert you. Will you attend one more meet- 
 ing with me?" 
 
 " I'll go wherever you say," he answered, 
 with an attempt at gallantry. 
 
•A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 349 
 
 " I want to take you with me to show you 
 what the people are doing, and what my work 
 is. You're to ask no questions, but just make 
 yourself ready to go." 
 
 Bradley's mind was in a whirl. Ida seemed 
 so different — not at all like that last letter shjj 
 had written to him. He felt rather than per- 
 ceived the change in her. She left him at the 
 hotel door and her parting hand-clasp quickened 
 his breath. An indefinite and unreasonable 
 exultation filled his eyes with light. In the 
 privacy of his room he croaked a few notes 
 before he realized that he could not sing. His 
 gloomy sky had let fall a sudden ray of dazzling 
 sunshine. 
 
350 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 IDA SHOWS BRADLEY THE WAY OUT. 
 
 He did not see her again till the next after- 
 noon. She came out into the ante-room in the 
 hotel looking so lovely he could hardly believe 
 his good fortune. 
 
 " Now you are in my hands, Mr. Talcott." 
 
 He noticed that she did not call him 
 " Brother " Talcott. He was as boyish and 
 timid as ever, quite subdued by her presence, 
 and followed her out to the omnibus in a daze 
 of delight. He had forgotten all he knew, but 
 he was very content to listen. 
 
 She, however, did 'not seem at all self-con- 
 scious. She wore a large cloak and warm 
 gloves, and under the wide rim of her black hat 
 her face was like silver and her eyes like stars. 
 A delicate perfume came from her dress, and 
 reached him across the carriage. 
 
 " It takes about an hour to go down," she 
 said, as they alighted and stood waiting on the 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 351 
 
 platform, " and then the • college ' is some dis- 
 tance away from the station." 
 
 It was an unspeakable pleasure to sit beside 
 her in the train and listen to her talk. It was 
 one of the things he had dreamed of so many 
 times, but had really never dared to expect. 
 
 " The reason I want you to attend this meef- 
 ing is because the schoolhouse, after all, is the 
 place where a real reform among the farmers 
 must have its base. I'd like to see you working 
 with us," she said, turning suddenly towards 
 him. 
 
 " I would if I felt as you do about it, but I 
 can't." 
 
 " Why not ? You're really one of us. Your 
 letters showed, me that. Why can't you work 
 with us ? " 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you : because it looks like a 
 last resort. It would look as though, after hav- 
 ing been kicked out of both parties, I had gone 
 into the third party out of revenge." 
 
 " Well, I see some force in that. But you 
 can't be idle. You are too strong and fine to be 
 beaten so. Do you know, I think it was provi- 
 dential that you were defeated." She turned to 
 him now, and there was sbmething in the near- 
 ness of her face that awed him. " Your letters 
 to me told me more than you knew. I read be- 
 
352 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 neath the lines ; I saw how nearly the atmos- 
 phere of Congress had ruined you. The greed 
 of office had got hold ®f you — now hadn't it ? " 
 
 He dropped his eyes. " Something got hold 
 of me," he said at length. 
 
 She went on in a voice which moved him so 
 deeply he could not reply. " I've wanted to see 
 you. I believed in you, and it made my heart 
 ache to hear your despondent words yesterday. 
 Life is a battle at best. You can't afford to sur- 
 render so early. The way of the thinker is al- 
 ways hard. Take up your sword again. Oh, 
 it's glorious to be in such a revolution ! I never 
 was so happy in my life. Happy and sad too ! 
 I never was so sad. Now that's like a woman, 
 isn't it? What I really mean is that I never 
 saw so clearly the poverty and helplessness of 
 the people before, and it makes me happy to 
 think I can do something for them." 
 
 Bradley sat silently looking at her with his 
 big brown eyes. He was thrilling with the vi- 
 bration of her voice and the touch of her hand 
 on his arm. 
 
 She colored a little, and dropped her eyes 
 suddenly. " There I go again ! I must keep 
 the oratorical tone out of my voice. Don't mind 
 my preaching at you, will you?" 
 
 " I like it," said Bradley, smiling. He had a 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 353 
 
 beautiful smile, she noticed ; and he looked so 
 big and strong and thoughtful, she suddenly 
 grew a little timid before him. 
 
 The warning whistle of the engine announced 
 they were nearing a crossing, and she said, " I 
 think this is our station." 
 
 The wind was .strong and cold as they stepped 
 out upon the platform. It was nearly six 
 o'clock, and quite dark. They stood for a few 
 moments in the lee of the one-room depot, look- 
 ing about in the obscurity. 
 
 " Well, what are we to do now ? " Bradley in- 
 quired. 
 
 She seemed at a loss. " Really, I don't know. 
 Colonel Barker was to meet me here, I believe." 
 
 Bradley took her arm. " There's a light up 
 there in the cold," he said. " Let's go for that ; 
 and if you'll tell me the name of the school- 
 house, I'll see that we get a team, and get out 
 there." 
 
 In the cold and darkness she lor.t something 
 of her imperiousness, and yielded herself to his 
 guidance with a delicious return to woman's 
 weakness in the face of practical material de- 
 tails. To Bradley this seemed vastly signifi- 
 cant and his spirits rose. He grew quite face- 
 tious and talkative for him. 
 
 "It seems to me that's a store up there ; must 
 
354 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 be a town near by. Perhaps this is the town. 
 Two houses on one side and three houses on 
 the other make a town in the West. We must 
 get some supper, too; any provision for that?" 
 
 " No, I left the whole matter in Colonel Bar- 
 ker's hands." 
 
 The road ran up the huge treeless swell of 
 prairie toward the lighted windows of a grocery 
 store. 
 
 Together they climbed the hill, and opposite 
 the store they came upon a gate on which was 
 a battered sign, " Hotel ; meals twenty-five 
 cents." Bradley knocked on the door, but 
 there was no reply. 
 
 After waiting a decent while, he said, " If it's 
 a hotel, we might as well go right in without 
 knocking." 
 
 They entered a bare little room whose only 
 resemblance to a hotel bar-room was in its rusty 
 cannon stove set in the midst of a box of saw- 
 dust, and a map of Kansas hanging on the wall. 
 Bradley knocked on the inner door, and it was 
 opened by a faded little woman with a sad face. 
 
 " We'd like supper for two," Bradley said. 
 
 " All right ! " she replied, moving forward to 
 the stove, which she rattled in order to give her 
 time to scrutinize Ida, who sat on the lounge by 
 the window. " Lay off your things, won't ye ? " 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 355 
 
 Bradley helped Ida to lay off her cloak. It 
 was incredible what pleasure it gave him to do 
 these little things for her. He left her a few 
 minutes to go out and look up the matter of the 
 team. When he returned he found Ida leaning 
 back wearily in a big chair, her face very grave 
 and pale. He told her that a team would be 
 ready soon. 
 
 " You can come right out to supper," an- 
 nounced the landlady ; and they went out into 
 the kitchen, where the table sat. It was lighted 
 with a kerosene lamp that threw dull-blue shad- 
 ows among the dishes, and dazzled the eyes of 
 the eaters with its horizontal rays of light. The 
 table had a large quantity of boiled beef and 
 potatoes and butter, which each person was evi- 
 dently expected to hew off for himself. The des- 
 sert was pumpkin-pie, which they both greeted 
 with smiles. 
 
 " Ah, that looks like the pie mother used to 
 make," Ida said, as the landlady put it down. 
 
 " Waal, I'd know. Seems to me the crust is a 
 leetle too short. I've ben havin' pretty good 
 luck lately ; but this pumpkin weren't just the 
 very best. It was one of them thin-rinded ones, 
 you know. Pumpkins weren't extry good ; 
 weren't thunder enough, I reckon, this sum- 
 mer." 
 
356 «* SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 After supper Bradley went out, leaving Ida 
 with the landlady, who was delighted with her 
 listener. 
 
 " Here's our team," called Bradley, coming to 
 Ida's relief a few minutes later. " It ain't a very 
 gay rig ; but it's the best I could do," he ex- 
 plained, as he helped her in and tucked the 
 quilts about her. " I had to skirmish in two or 
 three houses to get these quilts, for the wind is 
 sharp ; you'll need them." 
 
 " Thank you ; I'm afraid you've given me 
 more than my share." 
 
 There was only one seat, and Bradley took 
 his place" beside Ida, while the driver crouched 
 on the bottom of the clattering old democrat 
 wagon. Ida was concerned for him. 
 
 " Haven't you another seat?" she inquired. 
 
 " No m'm. I don't need any," he replied, in a 
 slow drawl. " I tried to borrow one from Sam 
 Smalley, but they're all usin' theirs. I'd jest as 
 soon set here." 
 
 There was something singularly attractive in 
 his voice — a simplicity and candor like a child's, 
 and a suggestion of weakness that went straight 
 to Ida's tender heart. 
 
 " But you'll get cold." 
 
 " Oh, no m'm ; I'm used to it. Half the time 
 I don't wear no gloves in winter 'less I'm han- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 357 
 
 dlin' things with snow on 'em," he said, to reas- 
 sure her. 
 
 They moved off down the ravine to the 
 north, the keen wind in their faces. There was 
 no moon, and it was very dark, notwithstanding 
 the light of the stars. 
 
 " How beautiful the sky is to-night ! " said Ida, 
 in a low voice. 
 
 " Magnificent ! " Bradley replied ; but he 
 thought of her, not the stars. The team 
 started up, and the worn old seat swayed from 
 side to side so perilously that Bradley with in- 
 credible audacity put his arm around, and 
 grasped the end of the seat on the other side 
 of Ida. 
 
 " I'm afraid you'll fall out," he hastened to ex- 
 plain. She made no reply, and if she smiled he 
 did not know it. 
 
 They climbed the slope on the other side of 
 the bridge, and entered upon the vast rolling 
 prairie, whose dim swells rose and fell against 
 the stars. The roads were frightful— gullied 
 with rain, and full of bowlders on the hillsides. 
 The darkness added a certain wild charm and 
 mystery to it all. 
 
 " How lonesome it seems ! What a terrible 
 place to live ! " said Ida with a shudder. 
 
 " Civilization hasn't made much of an impress 
 
358 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 here, that's sure. How long has this prairie 
 been settled ? " 
 
 " 'Bout twenty-two years," answered the 
 driver ; and, being started, he prattled away, 
 telling the story of his pitiful, tragic life — a life 
 of incessant toil and hardship. Men cheated 
 and trampled upon him ; society and govern- 
 ment ignored him ; science and religion never 
 knew him, and cared nothing for him — and yet 
 this atom bore it all with unapplauded heroism. 
 
 There was something in his voice which made 
 the hearts of his hearers ache. Ida glanced up 
 at Bradley now and then, at the most dramatic 
 points, and they seemed to grow nearer to- 
 gether in their sympathy. 
 
 " There's the schoolhouse," said the driver joy- 
 ously, pointing at a dim red light ahead. They 
 had been riding for nearly an hour across the 
 treeless swells of prairie, and the wind had pen- 
 etrated their very blood. Ida was shivering, 
 and Bradley was suffering with her out of sym- 
 pathy. He longed to fold her close in his arms 
 and shield her from the wind. 
 
 Suddenly the schoolhouse loomed upon their 
 eyes. It was a bare little box, set on the wind-* 
 swept crest of a hill, not a tree to shelter it from 
 the winds of winter or the sun of summer. 
 Teams were hitched about at the fences, and 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 359 
 
 others could be heard on the hard ground, clat- 
 tering along the lanes. Men coming across the 
 fields on foot could be heard talking. The 
 plain seemed cold and desolate and illimitable. 
 
 Bradley helped Ida to alight, and hurried her 
 towards the open door, from which the hum of 
 talk came forth. They found the room crammed 
 with men and women — the women all on one 
 side of the room and the men as decorously on 
 the other, or standing about the huge cannon 
 stove, that was filled with soft coal, and sending 
 out a flood of heat and gas. They stopped talk- 
 ing when they saw the strangers enter, and gazed 
 at them curiously. 
 
 Then a tall man, with a military cut of beard, 
 pushed his way forward. 
 
 " Good-evenin', Sisto' Wilboo, I'm right glad 
 to see you." 
 
 " I am glad to see you, Brother Barker." 
 
 " I must apologize fo' not coming myself." 
 
 " This is Mr. Talcott," Ida interrupted, intro- 
 ducing Bradley. 
 
 " Glad to meet you, Brotho' Talcott. As I 
 was sayin', Sisto' Wilboo, I was late, and so I 
 sent Brotho' Williams. I am ver' sawry " — 
 
 " Oh, no matter ; we got here." 
 
 Colonel Barker introduced them to the people 
 
 who stood near. The crowded condition of the 
 24 
 
360 -A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 room did not allow of a general introduction, 
 although they all looked longingly at Ida, whelj 
 they knew by reputation. 
 
 At first glance the effect was unpromising. 
 Most of the men had their hats on. All Iff 
 them were fresh from the corn-fields, and their 
 hands were hard as leather, and cracked and 
 seamed, and lumpy with great muscles. Every 
 man wore cots upon his fingers, which were 
 rasped to the quick with husking. Everyone 
 had a certain unkempt look, and everywhere 
 color was in low tones : browns, grays, drabs ; 
 nothing light and gay about dress or bearing. 
 Bradley noticed a few girls in the middle seats, 
 but only a few. 
 
 It looked like an uncouth audience for Ida to 
 address. 
 
 Colonel Barker called the meeting to order, 
 and made an astonishingly able and dignified 
 speech. He then asked Brother Williams to 
 say a word. 
 
 Brother Williams was a middle-aged farmer 
 with unkempt hair. His clothes were faded to 
 a russet brown ; his collarless neck was like 
 wrinkled leather, and his fingers were covered 
 with cots ; but he was a most impressive orator. 
 His words were well chosen, and his gestuf;@i 
 dignified and appropriate. He spoke . in a con- 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 361 
 
 versational way, but with great power and 
 sincerity. He ended by introducing " Sister 
 Wilbur." 
 
 Ida began to speak in a low voice, as if talking 
 to friends : " Brothers and sisters, this is not 
 the first time I've driven across the Western 
 prairies in a wagon to speak at such a meeting 
 as this, and it isn't the last time. I expect to 
 continue to speak just as long as there is a 
 wrong to be righted, just as long as it does you 
 good to have me come." 
 
 " That will be while you live," said the colonel 
 gallantly. 
 
 " I hope not," she replied quickly. " I hope 
 to see our reforms established before the gray 
 comes into my hair. If we are true to our- 
 selves ; if our leaders are true to themselves ; if 
 they do not become spoils of office " — she looked 
 at Bradley, and the others followed her glance ; 
 she saw her mistake, and colored a little as she 
 went on — "if they are true to their best con- 
 victions, and speak the new thoughts that come 
 to them, poverty will not increase her dominion." 
 
 She closed by saying : " We have with us to- 
 night a very distinguished young Congressman 
 from Iowa, — the Honorable Mr. Talcott. I 
 hope he will feel like saying something to you." 
 
 While the people stamped and clapped hands, 
 
362 * SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 Ida went over to Bradley and said : " You must 
 talk to them. Tell them just what you think." 
 
 Bradley rose. He would have done more 
 had she asked it. He began by speaking of the 
 Grange and its decline, and of the apparent 
 hopelessness of expecting the farmers to remain 
 united. 
 
 " I am not quite convinced the time has come 
 for a political movement. If I were, I'd join it, 
 even though some of the planks in your plat- 
 form were objectionable, for I am a farmer. 
 My people for generations have been tillers of 
 the soil. They have always been poor. All 
 the blood in my heart goes out, therefore, 
 towards the farmer and the farmers' move- 
 ment. It seems a hopeless thing to fight the 
 privileged classes, with all their power and 
 money. It can be done, but it can be done only 
 by union among all the poor of every class. 
 Since coming to your State, since day before 
 yesterday, my mind has been changed. If I 
 thought — if I could believe—" As he paused 
 he caught Ida's eyes shining into his, and at the 
 moment the one thing in all the world worth 
 doing was to follow her wish. " I do believe, 
 and I'm with you from this time forward." He 
 ended there, but he stood for a moment numb, 
 and tingling with emotion. He had uttered a 
 
4 SPOIL OF OFFICE. 363 
 
 resolution which changed the course of his 
 life. 
 
 The people seemed to realize the importance 
 of this confession on the part of the speaker. 
 There was a vibrant intensity in the tone of his 
 voice, which every listener felt, and they broke 
 out in wild applause as he abruptly ended and 
 sat down. 
 
 Ida, with her eyes shining and wet, reached 
 forward over the seat, and clasped his hand 
 and held it. " Glorious ! Now you're with us, 
 heart and soul ! " In their exaltation it did not 
 occur to either of them what a strange place 
 this little schoolhouse was for such a far-reach- 
 ing compact. 
 
 Out under the coruscating skies again, into 
 the crisp air ! Bradley turned and looked back 
 upon the little schoolhouse, packed to suffoca- 
 tion ; it would always remain a memorable place 
 in this wide land. 
 
 " Oh, you've done them good — more than you 
 can tell ! " Ida said. 
 
 " I begin to believe it is the beginning of the 
 greatest reform movement in history," he said 
 at last. " They are searching for the truth ; and 
 whenever any great body of men search for the 
 truth, they find it, and the finding of it is tre- 
 
364 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 mendous. Its effect reaches every quarter of 
 the earth." 
 
 They mounted to their perilous seat once 
 more, and moved out into the' night. The wind 
 seemed to have gone down. There was a deep 
 hush in the air, as if the high stars listened in 
 their illimitable spaces. The plain seemed as 
 lonely and as unlighted as the Arctic Ocean. 
 Even the barking of a farm-yard dog had a wolf- 
 ish and savage suggestiveness. 
 
 They rode in silence. Ida sighed deeply. At 
 last she said : " It's only an incident with us. 
 We go back to our pleasant and varied lives; 
 they go back to their lonely homes, and to their 
 bleak corn-fields." 
 
 " But you have given them something to hope 
 for, something to think of," Bradley said, seek- 
 ing to comfort her. 
 
 " Yes, that is the only consolation I can get 
 out of it. This movement has come into their 
 lives like a new religion. It is a new religion 
 — the religion of humanity. It does help 
 them to forget mud and rain and cold and mo- 
 notony." 
 
 Again Bradley's arm seemed necessary to her 
 safety, but this time it closed around her, strong 
 and resolute, yet he dared not say a word. He 
 was not sure of her. It seemed impossible that 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 365 
 
 this wonderful, beautiful, and intellectual woman 
 should care for him ; and yet, when he was 
 speaking, her eyes had pleaded for him. 
 
 The driver talked on about the meeting, but 
 his passengers were silent. Under cover of lis- 
 tening they were both dreaming. Bradley was 
 forecasting his life, and wondering how much 
 she would make up of it ; wondering if she 
 would make more of it than she had of his past 
 life. How far off she had always seemed to him, 
 and yet she had always been a part of his inner 
 life. Now she sat beside him, in the circle of 
 his arm, and yet she- seemed hopelessly out of 
 his reach. She liked him as a friend and broth- 
 er reformer — that was all. Besides, he had no 
 right to hope now, when his fortunes had be- 
 come failures. 
 
 She was thinking of him. She was deeply 
 gratified to think he had entered the great move- 
 ment, and that she had been instrumental in con- 
 verting him. Her heart warmed to him strange- 
 ly for his honesty and his sincerity ; and then he 
 was so fine and earnest and strong-limbed ! The 
 pressure of his arm at her side moved her, and 
 she smiled at herself. Unlike Bradley, she was 
 self-analytical ; she knew what all these things 
 meant. 
 
 " There's the station," the driver broke out, 
 
366 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 indicating some colored lights in the valley be- 
 low them. " We're 'most home." 
 
 At his word a vision of the plain, and the sig- 
 nificance of its life, rushed over Ida — the serene 
 majesty of the stars, the splendor and unused 
 wealth of the prairies, the barriers to their use, 
 the limitless robbery of the poor, in both city 
 and country, the pathetic liornes of the renter. 
 
 " Oh, the pathos, the tragedy of it all ! Nature 
 is so good and generous, and poverty so univer- 
 sal. Can it be remedied ? It must be remedied. 
 Every thinking, sympathizing soul must help 
 us." 
 
 Bradley's voice touched Ida deeply as he said, 
 slowly : " Henceforward I shall work for these 
 people and all who suffer. My life shall be 
 given to this work." 
 
 A great, sudden resolution flashed into Ida's 
 eyes. She lifted her face to his and laid her 
 hand on his and clasped it hard. There was a 
 little pause, in which, as if by some occult sense, 
 their minds read each other. 
 
 " We'll work together, Bradley," she said ; and 
 the driver did not see the timid caress which 
 Bradley put upon her lips as a sign of his un- 
 speakable great joy. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 367 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 One winter evening Ida and Bradley came 
 out of their apartments on Capitol Hill and 
 struck into one of the winding walks which led 
 downward toward the city. It was the fourth 
 week of the " short session " of Bradley's term 
 of office, and the tenth week since their mar- 
 riage. He still treated Ida with a certain ti- 
 midity, and his adoration had been increased 
 rather than diminished by his daily association 
 with her. She seemed not to regret her com- 
 pact with him, and though hardly more demon- 
 strative than he, she let him know how deeply 
 she trusted and loved him. 
 
 He was transformed by her influence. His 
 life had regained direction and certainty. No 
 rebuff of the Speaker, no insult of a member, an- 
 gered him. He was always in his seat, ready, 
 whenever opportunity offered, to do battle 
 against wrong knowing that Ida was watching 
 
368 ^ SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 him. Between times he went with her about the 
 city, and his quiet and dignified attentions were 
 a source of the keenest pleasure to her, he was 
 so unobtrusively serene and gentle in all things. 
 They went often to the theatre. They walked 
 a great deal, and they were already marked 
 figures about the Hill, they were both so tall 
 and strong and handsome. 
 
 They always passed through the Capitol 
 grounds on their way down town, for it gave 
 them a little thrill of delight to pass the clumps 
 of trees. On this evening the grounds were spe- 
 cially beautiful. A heavy fall of damp snow cov- 
 ered every twig and grass-blade. They walked 
 slowly down the winding path till they reached 
 the open lawn just before the western gate. 
 
 " Wait a moment, Bradley," said Ida. They 
 turned to look back. The untracked, unstained 
 snow swept in undulating breadth to the deep 
 shadow of the great building, which rose against 
 the sky as cold, as seamless, as if it were cut 
 from solid ice. The yellow flare of lamps about 
 its base only added to its austere majesty. It 
 was at its best, and Ida and Bradley looked up 
 at it in silence, hearing the jingle of bells, the 
 soft voices of the negro drivers, the laughter of 
 children coasting on the mall, and the muffled 
 roll of the " carettes." 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 369 
 
 "It is beautiful to-night," said Ida softly. 
 " The building is like a cloud," 
 
 " Yes, but I can't think of it without its an- 
 tithesis, the home of the workingman and the 
 hut of the poor negro," Bradley replied. 
 
 They moved on again in silence. Darky 
 newsboys, shivering with cold, met them at 
 every corner, holding out to them in their stiff- 
 ened little claws their " Styah papahs." 
 
 The avenue swarmed with sight-seers, mainly 
 of the West and South. Every hotel door was 
 like the vent to a hive — black with comers and 
 goers. The old man with the cough medicine 
 met them again. They could repeat his sing- 
 song cry now, and- with a little impulse of fun- 
 making Ida joined in with him : "Doc-ter Fergus- 
 son's double-ex selly-brated, Philadelphia cough drops, 
 for coughs or colds, sore throat or hoarseness ; five 
 cents a package. ' ' 
 
 They soon struck into the gayer streams of 
 people making their way towards the theatre; 
 and when they took their seats in the crowded 
 balcony, poverty was lost sight of. 
 
 " There ! who says this is not a bright and 
 gay world ? " said Ida. " No poor, no aged, no 
 infirm, no cold or hungry people here." 
 
 " This is the bright side of the moon," replied 
 Bradley gravely. They looked around, and 
 
370 SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 studied the people with a mental comparison 
 with other throngs they had seen on the far 
 prairies of Kansas and Iowa. There were girls 
 with eyes full of liquid light, with dainty bon- 
 nets nestling on their soft hair ; their faces were 
 like petals of flowers ; the curves of their chins 
 were more beautiful than chalices of lilies ; their 
 dresses, soft, shapely, of exquisite tones and 
 texture, draped their perfect bodies. Their 
 slender fingers held gold-and-pearl opera glasses. 
 The young men who sat beside them wore the 
 latest fashions in clothing cut from the finest 
 fabrics. Heavy men of brutal bulk slouched be- 
 side their dainty daughters, the purple blotches 
 on their bloated and lumpy faces showing how 
 politics or business had debauched and under- 
 mined them. Everywhere was the rustle of 
 drapery and soft, musical speech. All that was 
 lacking in " the round up " at Chiquita was 
 here — shining, fragrant, and rustling. 
 
 The curtain rose upon the fair in Nottingham- 
 shire ; and with the sweet imaginative music as 
 solvent and setting, the gay lads and lassies of 
 far romance sang and danced under the trees in 
 garments upon which the rain had never fallen, 
 and unflecked with dust. Knights in splendid 
 dress of silver and green, with jewelled swords 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. Z11 
 
 and gay sashes, came and went, while the merry 
 peasant youths circled and sang task-free and 
 sin-free. 
 
 The scene changed to Sherwood Forest ; and 
 there, in the land of Robin Hood, where snow 
 never falls, where rains never slant through the 
 shuddering leaves, the jocund foresters met to 
 sing and drink October ale. There came Little 
 John and Will Scarlet and Alan-a-Dale in glit- 
 tering garments, with smooth, fair brows and 
 tuneful voices, to circle and sing. Fadeless and 
 untarnished was each magnificent cloak and 
 doublet, slashed with green or purple ; straight 
 and fair and supple was every back and limb. 
 No marks of toil anywhere, no lines of care, no 
 hopeless hunger, no threatening task ; nothing 
 to do but to sing and dance and drink after 
 the hunt among the delightfully dry and com- 
 modious forest wilds — a glorious, free life! 
 A beautiful, child-like, dream-like, pagan-like 
 life! 
 
 As they looked, and while the music, tuneful, 
 soft, and persuasive, called to them, a shadow 
 fell upon Ida. That world of care-free, change- 
 less youth, that world of love and comradeship, 
 threw into painful relief the actual world from 
 which she came. It brought up with terrible 
 force the low cottage in the moaning pine forest 
 
372 A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 of Wisconsin, or the equally lonely cabin on the 
 Kansas plain. 
 
 When the curtain fell, they rose and went 
 sombrely out. When they reached the street, 
 Ida pressed Bradley's arm. 
 
 " Oh, it was beautiful, painfully beautiful ! Do 
 you know what I mean ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Bradley simply. 
 
 " O Bradley ! if we only could discover a land 
 like that, to which all the poor could go at once 
 and be happy — a land of song and plenty, with 
 no greed and no grinding need ! " 
 
 " Yes," Bradley sighed, " But I am afraid you 
 and I will never again taste anything sweet. 
 There will always be a dash of bitter in it." 
 
 " Yes, we were born to feel others' cares. The 
 worst of it is, we could have that land in Amer- 
 ica if we only would. Our forefathers thought 
 it was coming, but instead of it" — She did not 
 finish, and they walked on in deep thought. 
 
 " Yes," said Bradley, " we could have it ; but 
 the way is long and weary, and thousands and 
 millions of us must die on the road, I am afraid." 
 
 As they walked on, Bradley could hear the 
 occasional deep-sighing breath of the heart-bur- 
 dened woman beside him. Again they passed 
 by the cold and stately palace of the Govern- 
 ment, lifting its dome against the glittering sky. 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 373 
 
 The moon had swung high into the air, giving a 
 .whiter tinge to the blue, and dimming the bril- 
 liancy of the stars, but the crusted snow sparkled 
 like a cloth of diamonds, and each flake-burdened 
 branch took on unearthly charm. It was very 
 still and peaceful and remote, as if no city were 
 near. They stood in silence until Ida shivered 
 with cold ; then without a word Bradley touched 
 her arm, and they walked on. 
 
 When they entered their room, Ida sat down 
 in a chair by the fire without removing her 
 things; and when Bradley came in from the 
 hall she still sat there, her eyes shaded by her 
 hat, her chin resting on her palm, her gloves in 
 her lap. He knew her too we'll to interrupt 
 her, and took a seat near her, waiting for her to 
 speak. 
 
 At last she turned abruptly, and said, " Brad- 
 ley, I'm going home." 
 
 It made him catch his breath. " Oh, no, J 
 can't let you do that, Ida." 
 
 " Yes, I must go ; I can't stay here. That 
 play to-night has wakened my sleeping con- 
 science. I must go back to the West." 
 
 " But, Ida, you've only been here four weeks ; 
 I don't see why" — 
 
 " Because my work calls me. I am cursed, 
 I can't enjoy this life any more, because I can't 
 
374: A SPOIL OF OFFICE. 
 
 forget those poor souls on the lonely farms 
 grinding out their lives in gloomy toil ; I must, 
 go back and help them. I feel like a thief, to be 
 living in this beautiful room and hearing these 
 plays and concerts, when they are shut out from 
 them." 
 
 Bradley experienced a sudden impulse of 
 rebellion. " But we have done our best, 
 haven't we?" 
 
 " Yes, but we must continue to do our best 
 right along ; the battle is only half won yet, and 
 I've enlisted to the end. Besides," she said, look- 
 ing up at him with a faint smile, " I've got to go 
 right into your district and pave the way for 
 your re-election. If you expect to do your part 
 here, 1 must do my part in electing you." She 
 looked old and care-worn. " You know how 
 much good it does the poor wives and mothers 
 to meet me and to hear me. Now, we mustn't 
 be selfish, dear. We must not forget that neither 
 of us was born to idleness. I have been very 
 happy here with you, but there is something of 
 John the Baptist in me : I must go forth and 
 utter the word — the word of the Lord." 
 
 They fell into silence again, and Bradley, fac- 
 ing the fire, felt a burning pain in his staring 
 eyes. Her presence had been so inexpressibly 
 sweet and helpful he could not bear to let her 
 
A SPOIL OF OFFICE, 3^5 
 
 go. And yet he understood her feeling. Slowly 
 through years of thought he had grown, till now 
 he was level with her altruistic conception of 
 life. When he spoke again it was in his appar- 
 ently passionless way. 
 
 " All right, Ida. We enlisted for the whole 
 war." He was able to smile a little as he looked 
 up at her. " My congressional career will soon 
 end, anyhow." 
 
 She rose and came to him and put her arm 
 about his neck. " As a matter of fact, you'll 
 work better without me, Bradley, and your pub- 
 lic career must not end for many years. You 
 must keep your place for my sake as well as for 
 the sake of the wronged — and also for the sake 
 of — of our children, Bradley." Her voice grew 
 tremulous toward the end, and a look of singular 
 beauty came into her face. " 
 
 Bradley looked up at her with a questioning, 
 eager light in his eyes, then his long left arm, 
 encircled her like a shield and drew her to his 
 knee. 
 
 "All that I am I owe to you. Now, nothing 
 can defeat me ! " 
 
 THE END. 
 
 25 
 
THE SUCCESSOR TO "LOOKING BACKWARD. 
 
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D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CV7? MARK. A Tale of the First Capital. By Anna 
 
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 etc. i6rao. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
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 rHE WATTER'S MOW. By Bram ' Stoker. 
 i6mo. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 
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 'ASTER AND MAN. By Count Leo Tolstoy. 
 
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 \fEKL. A Tale of the New York Ghetto. By A. Cahan. 
 "* Uniform with "The Red Badge of Courage." i2mo. Cloth, 
 $1.00. 
 
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 ghetto life in New York." — Minneapolis Journal. 
 
 " A strong, quaint story.'* — Detroit Tribune. 
 
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 "T^HE SENTIMENTAL SEX. By Gertrude War- 
 
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 " Miss Warden has worked out her contrasts very strikingly, and tells her story 
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D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES. 
 
 Edited by Ripley Hitchcock. 
 
 *' There is a vast extent of territory lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific 
 <coast which has barely been skimmed over so far. That the conditions of life therein 
 are undergoing changes Utile short of marvelous will be understood when one recalls 
 the fact that the first white male child born in Kansas is still living there; and Kansas 
 is by no means one of the newer States. Revolutionary indeed has been the upturning 
 of the old condition of affairs, and little remains thereof, and less will, remain as each 
 year goe* by^ until presently there will be only tradition uf the Sioux and Comanches, 
 the cowboy life, the wild horse, and the antelope. Histories, many of them, have been 
 written about the Western country alluded to, but most if not practically all by outsiders 
 who knew not personally that life of kaleidoscopic allurement. But ere it shall have 
 vanished forever we are likely to have truthful, complete, and charming portrayals of 
 it produced by men who actually knew the life and have the power to describe it."— 
 Henry Edward Rood, in the Mail and Express. 
 
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 NOW READY. 
 
 HE STORY OF THE INDIAN'. By George 
 Bird Grinnell, author of " Pawnee Hero Stories/' " Black- 
 foot Lodge Tales," etc. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 " In every way worthy of an author who, as an authority upon the Western Indiana, 
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 London Daily Chronicle. 
 
 " Only an author qualified by personal experience could offer us a profitable study 
 of a race so alien from our own as is the Indian in thought, feeling, and culture. Only 
 long association with Indians can enable a white man measurably to comprehend their 
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 New York Sun. 
 
 'J^HE STORY OF THE MINE. B 5 ' Charles 
 -" Howard Shinn. Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 '* The author has wrilten a book, not alone full of information, but replete with the 
 true romance of the American mine." — New York Times. 
 
 " Few chapters of recent history are more fascinating than that which Mr. Shinn 
 has told in ' The Story of the Mine.' "—The Outlook. 
 
 "Both a history and a romance. . . . Highly interesting, new, and thrilling."— 
 Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 The Story of the Trapper. By Gilbert Parker. 
 The Story of the Cowboy. By E. Hough. 
 The Story of the Soldier. By Capt. J. McB. Stembel, U. S. A. 
 The Story of the Explorer. 
 The Story of the Railroad. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON &. CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 TN JOYFUL RUSSIA. By John A. Logan, Jr. 
 
 With 50 Illustrations in color and black and white. i2mo. 
 Cloth, $3.50. 
 
 " Of extreme interest from beginning to end. Mr. Logan has animation of style, 
 good spirits, a gift of agreeable and enlivening expression, and a certain charm which 
 may be called companionableness. To travel, with him must have been a particular 
 pleasure. He has sense of humor, a way of getting over rough places, and understand- 
 ing of human nature. There is not a dull chapter in his book." — New York Times. 
 
 " Mr. Logan has written of the things which he saw with a fullness that leaves noth- 
 ing to be desired for their comprehension ; with an eye that was quick to perceive their 
 novelty, their picturesqueness, their national significance, and with a mind not made 
 up beforehand — frankly open to new impressions, alert in its perceptions, reasonable 
 in its judgment, manly, independent, and, like its environments, filled with holiday 
 enthusiasm." — New York Mail and Express. 
 
 "No mpre fresh, original, and convincing picture of the Russian people and Russian 
 life has appeared. . . . The author has described picturesquely and in much detail 
 whatever he has touched upon. . . . Few books of travel are at once so readable and 
 so informing, and not many are so successfully illustrated ; for the pictures tell a story 
 of their own, while they also interpret to the eye a vivid narrative." — Boston Herald. 
 
 "A chronicle of impressions gathered during a brief and thoroughly enjoyed holi- 
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 oughly successful and well worth perusal. . . . There will be found within its pages 
 plenty to instruct and entertain the reader." — Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 "The book is a historical novelty: and nowadays a more valuable distinction can 
 not be attached to a book. ... No other book of travels of late years is so unalterably 
 interesting." — Boston Journal. 
 
 " Mr. Logan's narrative is spirited in tone and color. ... A volume that is enter- 
 taining and amusing, and not unworthy to be called instructive. The style is at all 
 times lively and spirited, and full of good humor."— Philadelphia Press. 
 
 " Mr. Logan has a quick eye, a ready pen, * determination to make the most of 
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 able book in which history and biography are brought in to give one a good general im- 
 pression of affairs." — Hartford Post. 
 
 " Mr. Logan has presented in attractive language, reenforced by many beautiful 
 photographs, a most entertaining narrative of his personal experiences, besides a daz- 
 zling panorama of the coronation ceremonies. . . . Read without prejudice on the sub- 
 ject of the Russian mode of government, the book is unusually able, instructive, and 
 entertaining." — Bostm Globe. 
 
 « Mr. Logan departs from the usual path, in telling in clear, simple, good style about 
 tfie intimate life of the Russian people."— Baltimore Sun. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 'ITHE BEGINNERS OF A NATION. A History 
 
 ■* of the Source and Rise of the Earliest English Settlements in 
 America, with Special Reference to the Life and Character of 
 the People. The first volume in A History of Life in the 
 United States. By Edward Eggleston. Small 8vo. Cloth, 
 gilt top, uncut, with Maps, $1.50. 
 
 " Few works on the period which it covers can compare with this in point of mere 
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 peal will read the volume with interest and delight. " — New York Evening Post. 
 
 " Written with a firm grasp of the theme, inspired by ample knowledge, and made 
 attractive by a vigorous and resonant style, the book will receive much attention. It 
 is a great theme the author has taken up, and he grasps it with- the confidence of a 
 master." — New York Times. 
 
 " Mr. Eggleston's * Beginners ' is unique. No similar historical study has, to our 
 knowledge, ever been done in the same way. Mr. Eggleston is a reliable reporter of 
 facts; but he is also an exceedingly keen critic. He writes history without the effort 
 to merge the critic in the historian. His sense of humor is never dormant He renders 
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 yawns. And with all this he does not sacrifice the dignity of history for an instant."— 
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 "The delightful style, the clear flow of the narrative, the philosophical tone, and 
 the able analysis of men and events will commend Mr. Eggleston's work to earnest 
 students." — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 
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 literary artist, but because of his conspicuous proficiency in interpreting the causes of 
 and changes in American life and character. " — Boston Journal. 
 
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 his own conclusions as to the early period, and they differ from the generally received 
 version not a little. The book is stimulating and will prove of great value to the stu- 
 dent of history." — Minneapolis Journal. 
 
 " A very interesting as well as a valuable book. . . . A distinct advance upon most 
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 esting as a novel." — Brooklyn Standard- Union. 
 
 "The value of Mr. Eggleston's work is in that it is really a history of 'life,' not 
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 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 RUDYARD KIPLING'S NEW BOOK. 
 
 "J^HE SEVEN SEAS. A new volume of poems by 
 
 ■* Rudyard Kipling, author of " Many Inventions," " Barrack- 
 Room Ballads/' etc. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50; half calf, $3.00; 
 \ morocco, $5.00. 
 
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 ring and diction of this verse add new elements to our song. . . . The true laureate 
 of Greater Britain."— *E. C. Stedman, in the Book Buyer. 
 
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 presence of a great poet again, and consent to put off our mourning for the high ones 
 lately dead."— W. D. Howells. 
 
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 popularity." — London Times. 
 
 " He has the very heart of movement, for the lack of which no metrical science 
 cculd atone. He goes far because he can." — London Academy. 
 
 " * The Seven Seas * is the most remarkable book of verse that Mr. Kipling has 
 given us. Here the human sympathy is broader and deeper, the patriotism heartier 
 and fuller, the intellectual and spiritual insight keener, the command of the literary 
 vehicle more complete and sure, than in any previous verse-work by the author. The 
 volume pulses with power — power often rough and reckless in expression, but invariably 
 conveying the effect intended. There is scarcely a line which does not testify to the 
 strong individuality of the writer." — London Globe. 
 
 " If a man holding this volume in his hands, with all its extravagance and its savage 
 realism, is not aware that it is animated through and through w'ith indubitable genius — 
 then he must be too much the slave of the conventional and the ordinary to understand 
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 an J indefeasible justification is— truth."— London Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " ' The Seven Seas * is packed with inspiration, with humor, with pathos, and with 
 the old unequaled insight into the mind of the rank and file." — London Daily Chronicle. 
 
 "Mr. Kipling's 'The Seven Seas' is a distinct advance upon his characteristic 
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 swing of his lines — all are there in increased measure. ... The book is a marvel of 
 originality and genius — a brand-new landmark in the history of English letters."— 
 Chicago Tribune. 
 
 " In * The Seven Seas ' are displayed all of Kipling's prodigious gifts. . . Whoever 
 reads * The Seven Seas ' will be vexed by the desire to read it again. The average 
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 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 AGES AND CAPITAL. An Examination of 
 
 the Wages Fund Doctrine. By F. W. Taussig, Professor of 
 
 Political Economy in Harvard University, author of " Tariff 
 
 History of the United States " and " The Silver Situation in 
 
 the United States.'' i2mo Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 "An extremely judicious examination of the wage fund theory."— The 
 Outlook. 
 
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 "There can be no question as to the importance of Dr. Taussig's tem- 
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 scholars on both sides of the -Atlantic. Our author offers the conclusions 
 which a brilliant and independent mind has reached after patient and im- 
 partial investigation of an exceedingly difficult question." — Philadelphia 
 Evening Bulletin. 
 
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 have a wide-reaching effect on the development of political economy in the 
 future, and will be indispensable for all who teach or investigate general 
 economic theory." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 "Abounding in facts of value and fully instructive. The book is free of 
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 can not be ignored by future writers on the subject, and which will be found 
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 lems of the day. . . A notable contribution to economic literature." — 
 Boston Advertiser. 
 
 "Prof. Taussig's valuable contribution should be welcomed by the 
 public." — New York Herald. 
 
 " The book will be found invaluable in economic study for its scholarly 
 presentation of a complicated and exceedingly important question." — Chi- 
 cago Record. 
 
 "The subject is an important one, and Prof. Taussig handles it with 
 strong intelligence." — Minneapolis Journal. 
 
 " Prof. Taussig's bonk is so radical in import that it is sure to attract a 
 great deal of attention from those interested in current domestic discussion." 
 — Boston Beacon. *- 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.