CHAPTER XX.
A POLITICAL DEBUT.
Peter declared the meeting adjourned as soon as the results of theelection had been read, and slipped away in the turmoil that immediatelyfollowed, without a word to any one. He was in truth notbewildered--because he had too much natural poise and phlegm--but he wassurprised by the suddenness of it all, and wanted to think beforetalking with others. So he took advantage of the mutual bickerings andrecriminations which seemed the order of the day, to get back to hisoffice, and there he sat, studying his wall for a time. Then he went tobed, and slept as quickly and as calmly as if he had spent his eveningin reading the "Modern Cottage Architecture" or "Questions deSociologie," which were on his table instead of presiding at a red-hotprimary, and being elected a delegate.
The next morning Dennis came to see him as early as well could be.
"Misther Stirling," he said, his face expanding into the broadest ofgrins, "let me salute the delegate to the State convention."
"Look here, Dennis," said Peter, "you know you had no business to springthat on me."
"Ah, sir! Shure, when that dirty little spalpeen av a Caggs went back onus so, what could Oi do? Oi know it's speak to yez Oi ought, but wid deroom yellin' like that it's divilish tryin' to do the right thing quick,barrin' it's not hittin' some one's head, which always comes natural."
"Well," said Peter, "of course I'm very much pleased to have beenchosen, but I wish it could have been done with less hard feeling."
"Hard feelin,' is it?"
"Yes."
"Shure, the b'ys are as pleased and kindly this mornin' as can be. It'sa fight like that makes them yieldin' an' friendly. Nothin' but a littlehead-punchin' could make them in a sweeter mood, an' we'd a given themthat if little Caggs had had any sense in him."
"You mean Gallagher and Blunkers and the rest of them?"
"Av course. That little time last night didn't mean much. No one feelsbad over that. Shure, it's Gallagher was in my place later last night,an' we had a most friendly time, he treatin' the whole crowd twice.We've got to fight in the primary to keep the b'ys interested, but it'sseldom that they're not just as friendly the next day."
Peter looked at his wall. He had not liked Gallagher at either time hehad met him. "Still," he thought to himself, "I have no right to preventhim and Dennis being friends, from the little I've seen."
"Now, sir, about the convention?" said Dennis.
"I suppose Porter is the best man talked of for the nomination,"remarked Peter.
"Begobs, sir, that he's not," said Dennis. "It's Justice Gallagher wastellin' me himself that he was a poor kind av creature, wid a strongobjection to saloons."
Peter's eye lost its last suggestion of doubt. "Oh, Justice Gallaghertold you that?" he asked. "When?"
"Last night."
"After the primary?"
"Av course."
"Whom does he favor?"
"Catlin."
"Well, Dennis, you've made me a delegate, but I've got to vote my ownway."
"Shure, sir, Oi'd not have yez do any thin' else. It's yezself knowsbetter than me. Oi was only tellin' yez what the Justice--"
A knock at the door interrupted him. It proved to be Gallagher, whogreeted them both in a hearty, friendly way. Peter brought another chairfrom his bedroom.
"Well, Mr. Stirling, that was a fine contest we had last night," saidhis honor.
"It seemed to be earnest," said Peter.
"It's just as well our friend here sprang your nomination on us as asurprise, for if we had known, we should not have put up an oppositioncandidate. You are just the sort of a man we want to represent us in theconvention."
"I have never met my colleagues," said Peter. "What kind of men arethey?"
So he got Gallagher's opinion, and Dennis's opinion. Then he wanted toknow about the candidates, asking questions about them at considerablelength. The intentions of the other city delegates were next introduced.Finally the probable planks of the platform were brought up. While theywere still under discussion Gallagher said the sitting of his courtcompelled him to leave.
"I'll come in some time when I have more to spare."
Gallagher went to his court, and found a man waiting for him there.
"He's either very simple or very deep," said Gallagher. "He did nothingbut ask questions; and try my best I could not get him to show his hand,nor commit himself. It will be bad if there's a split in a soliddelegation!"
"I hope it will be a lesson to you to have things better arranged."
"Blunkers would have it that way, and he's not the kind of man tooffend. We all thought he would win."
"Oh, let them have their fights," said the man crossly; "but it's yourbusiness to see that the right men are put up, so that it doesn't makeany difference which side wins."
"Well," said Gallagher, "I've done all I could to put things straight.I've made peace, and got Moriarty on our side, and I've talked to thisStirling, and made out a strong case for Catlin, without seeming to carewhich man gets the nomination."
"Is there any way of putting pressure on him?"
"Not that I can find out. He's a young lawyer, who has no business."
"Then he's a man we don't need to conciliate, if he won't behave?"
"No. I can't say that. He's made himself very popular round here by thatcase and by being friendly to people. I don't think, if he's going intopolitics, that it will do to fight him."
"He's such a green hand that we ought to be able to down him."
"He's new, but he's a pretty cool, knowing chap, I think. I had oneexperience with him, which showed me that any man who picked him up fora fool would drop him quick." Then he told how Dennis's fine had beenremitted.
In the next few weeks Peter met a good many men who wanted to talkpolitics with him. Gallagher brought some; Dennis others; hisfellow-ward delegates, more. But Peter could not be induced to commithimself. He would talk candidates and principles endlessly, but withoutexpressing his own mind. Twice he was asked point blank, "Who's yourman?" but he promptly answered that he had not yet decided. He hadalways read a Democratic paper, but now he read two, and a Republicanorgan as well. His other reading lessened markedly, and the time gainedwas spent in talking with men in the "district." He even went into thesaloons and listened to the discussions.
"I don't drink," he had to explain several times, "because my motherdoesn't like it." For some reason this explanation seemed to beperfectly satisfactory. One man alone sneered at him. "Does she feed yerstill on milk, sonny?" he asked. "No," said Peter, "but everything Ihave comes from her, and that's the kind of a mother a fellow wants toplease; don't you think so?" The sneerer hesitated, and finally said he"guessed it was." So Peter was made one of them, and smoked andlistened. He said very little, but that little was sound, good sense,and, if he did not talk, he made others do so; and, after the men hadargued over something, they often looked at Peter, rather than at theiropponents, to see if he seemed to approve of their opinions.
"It's a fine way he has wid the b'ys," Dennis told his mother. "He makesthem feel that he's just the likes av them, an' that he wants theirminds an' opinions to help him. Shure, they'd rather smoke one pipe avhis tobaccy than drink ten times at Gallagher's expense."
After Peter had listened carefully and lengthily, he wrote to "TheHonorable Lemuel Porter, Hudson, N.Y.," asking him if he could give himan hour's talk some day. The reply was prompt, and told Peter thatPorter would be glad to see him any time that should suit hisconvenience. So Peter took a day off and ran up to Hudson.
"I am trying to find out for whom I should vote," he explained toPorter. "I'm a new man at this sort of thing, and, not having met any ofthe men talked of, I preferred to see them before going to theconvention."
Porter found that Peter had taken the trouble to go over a back file ofpapers, and read some of his speeches.
"Of course," Peter explained, "I want, as far as possible, to know whatyou think of questions likely to be matters for legislation."<
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"The difficulty in doing that, Mr. Stirling," he was told, "is thatevery nominee is bound to surrender his opinions in a certain degree tothe party platform, while other opinions have to be modified to newconditions."
"I can see that," said Peter. "I do not for a moment expect that whatyou say to-day is in any sense a pledge. If a man's honest, the poorestthing we can do to him is to tie him fast to one course of action, whenthe conditions are constantly changing. But, of course, you haveopinions for the present state of things?"
Something in Peter's explanation or face pleased Mr. Porter. He demurredno more, and, for an hour before lunch, and during that meal, he talkedwith the utmost freedom.
"I'm not easily fooled on men," he told his secretary afterwards, "andyou can say what you wish to that Stirling without danger of its beingused unfairly or to injure one. And he's the kind of man to be won bysquare dealing."
Peter had spoken of his own district "I think," he said, "that some goodcan be done in the way of non-partisan legislation. I've been studyingthe food supplies of the city, and, if I can, I shall try to get a billintroduced this winter to have official inspections systematized."
"That will receive my approval if it is properly drawn. But you'llprobably find the Health Board fighting you. It's a nest ofpoliticians."
"If they won't yield, I shall have to antagonize them, but I have hadsome talks with the men there, in connection with the 'swill-milk'investigations, and I think I can frame a bill that will do what I want,yet which they will not oppose. I shall try to make them help me in thedrafting, for they can make it much better through their practicalexperience."
"If you do that, the opposition ought not to be troublesome. What elsedo you want?"
"I've been thinking of a general Tenement-house bill, but I don't thinkI shall try for that this winter. It's a big subject, which needs verycareful study, in which a lot of harm may be done by ignorance. There'sno doubt that anything which hurts the landlord, hurts the tenant, andif you make the former spend money, the tenant pays for it in the longrun. Yet health must be protected. I shall try to find out what can bedone."
"I wish you would get into the legislature yourself, Mr. Stirling."
"I shall not try for office. I want to go on with my profession. But Ishall hope to work in politics in the future."
Peter took another day off, and spent a few minutes of it with the othermost promising candidate. He did not see very much of him, for they wereinterrupted by another caller, and Peter had to leave before he couldhave a chance to continue the interview.
"I had a call to-day from that fellow Stirling, who's a delegate fromthe sixth ward," the candidate told a "visiting statesman" later. "I'mafraid he'll give us trouble. He asks too many questions. FortunatelyDewilliger came to see me, and though I shouldn't have seen himordinarily, I found his call very opportune as a means of putting an endto Stirling's cross-examination."
"He's the one doubtful man on the city's delegation," said thestatesman. "It happened through a mistake. It will be very unfortunateif we can't cast a solid city vote."
Peter talked more in the next few days. He gave the "b'ys" hisimpressions of the two candidates, in a way which made them trust hisconclusions. He saw his two fellow delegates, and argued long andearnestly with them. He went to every saloon-keeper in the district, anddiscussed the change in the liquor law which was likely to be aprominent issue in the campaign, telling them what he had been able todraw from both candidates about the subject.
"Catlin seems to promise you the most," he told them, "and I don't wantto say he isn't trying to help you. But if you get the law passed whichhe promises to sign, you won't be much better off. In the first place,it will cost you a lot of money, as you know, to pass it; and then itwill tempt people to go into the business, so that it will cut yourprofits that way. Then, you may stir up a big public sentiment againstyou in the next election, and so lay yourselves open to unfriendlylegislation. It is success, or trying to get too much, which has beatenevery party, sooner or later, in this country. Look at slavery. If theSoutherners had left things as they were under the Missouri Compromise,they never would have stirred up the popular outbreak that destroyedslavery. Now, Porter is said to be unfriendly to you, because he wants abill to limit the number of licenses, and to increase the fee to newsaloons. Don't you see that is all in your favor, though apparentlyagainst you? In the first place, you are established, and the law willbe drawn so as to give the old dealer precedence over a new one ingranting fresh licenses. This limit will really give the establishedsaloon more trade in the future, by reducing competition. While theincrease in fee to new saloons will do the same."
"By ----, yer right," said Blunkers.
"That's too good a name to use that way," said Peter, but more as if hewere stating a fact than reproving.
Blunkers laughed good-naturedly. "Yer'll be gittin' usen to close upyet, Mister Stirling. Yer too good for us."
Peter looked at him. "Blunkers," he said warmly, "no man is too good notto tell the truth to any one whom he thinks it will help."
"Shake," said Blunkers. Then he turned to the men at the tables. "Stepup, boys," he called. "I sets it up dis time to drink der health of derfeller dat don't drink."
The boys drank