A Far Country, Complete

, had been gained on the occasions of my previous visits. Rising and dressing early, I beheld out of the car window

cities mingled with moon-faced but astute countrymen who manipulated votes amongst farms and villages; fat or cadaverous, Irish, German or American, all bore in common a certain indefinable stamp. Having eaten my breakfast in a large dining-room

red to confront a group of three or four figures, silent and rather hostile, seated in a haz

said. "My name is Pared, and I'm associated w

ustache and goatee a la Napoleon Third,-vanishe

eet Mr. Paret-one of our rising lawyers..." I shook hands with them all and sat down. Opening his long coat, Colonel Varney revealed two rows of cigars, suggesting cartridges in a belt. These he proceeded to hand

h efficiency and ease the important post that was his had it not been for the endless fund of humorous anecdotes at his disposal. One by one the visitors left, each assuring

," he asked soft

d given me for him, which contained a copy of the bill. He read these, laid the

when they r'ar and buck. Paul Varney's never been stumped yet. Just as soon as this is introduced we'll have Gates and Armstrong down here-they're the Ribblevale attorneys, aren't they? I thought so,-and the best

," I

tered again. "I've been following this Ribblevale business," he added, "and I understand Leonard Dickinson's all

o make any promises

e to where this thing comes from,-you understand." He looked at his watch. "How would nine o'clock do? I'll be there, with Trulease, when you come,-by accident, you understand. Of course he'll be reasonab

ack felt hat, and de

verlooking the park. The Governor was seated at a desk under an elaborate chandelier, a

ase. "Your name is a familiar one in your city, sir. And I gather from

a long political career, to combine in exact proportions these elements which, in the public mind, should up the personality of a chief executive. Momentarily he overcame the feeling of sup

d with Colonel Va

I've met the C

and after discussing for a few moments the remarkable growth of my native city the Governor tapped on his desk and in

also, hemmed and hawed a little, turned and handed it to Colonel Varney, who was sitting with a detach

l tore himself away

that, Go

n inability to obtain testimony from corporations whose books are elsewhere, and

e, adjusted his glasses, and became absorbed in reading, cl

m astonished somebody didn't think of this simple remedy before now. Many times

Governor studied it o

e inquired, "seem to

in all that time I do not remember to have seen a bill more concisely drawn, or better calculated to accomplish the ends of justice. Indeed, I often wondered why this very penalty was not imposed. Foreign magistrates are

read the bill

of the state ought to have it made clear to them that its aim is to rem

ortunate,

e in regard to it if it should come to me for my signature. Yet I may go so far as to say that the defect it seeks to reme

espite the fact that the matter in question was a serious one for

the corridor before I heard

pered confidentially. "But he'll sign it all right. And now, if you'll

reater concentration of capital was necessary. Curiously enough, in this mental argument of justification, I left out all consideration of the size of the probable profits to Mr. Scherer and his friends. Profits and brains went together. And, since the Almighty did not limit the latter, why should man attempt to limit the former? We were playing for high but justifiable stakes; and I resented the comedy which an hypocritical insistence on the forms of democracy compe

" the Colonel assured me. "We own

noon the message came that the commi

lowed by the entrance of a stocky Irish American of about forty years of age, who

Colonel. "I was just wo

been!" replied the ge

l's geniality

epresentative from Ward Five of your city, and we can always count on

ghted the stum

," said the Colonel, o

ker to

what's this bill that went int

asked the Col

ain't on?" Mr.

lonel

ve you be

city, seem' my wife-t

led, as at a ha

ight you've got to complain. I never leave my

ow, and that bill in the Judiciary doesn't pass without me. I guess

oke, Jim," remarked the Co

here game," retorted Mr. Maker, darkly. "Say, Colonel

l, gently, "didn't I al

Mr. Maker, who appeared slightly mollifi

eight o'clock," was his signifi

eels a little," the Colonel remarked

take the Colonel's advice as to specific sums, and obtain confirmation from Fowndes. Nor was it any surprise to me to find Democrats on intimate terms with such a stout Republican as the Colonel. Some statesman is said to have declared tha

ested a session of a sublimated grand lodge of some secret order, such were the mysterious comings and goings, knocks and

e floor leader of the 'opposition,' sir. Mr. Donovan has had the habit of coming up here f

gh on to fifteen

"and he's so good a Democrat it has

elped himself liberally from the bottle on the mantel

seph Mecklin, Speaker of the House, who unbent i

s the least among our callers was the Hon. Fitch Truesdale, editor of the St. Helen's Messenger, whose editorials were of the trite effectiveness that is taken widely for wisdom, and were assiduously copied every week by other state papers and labeled "Mr. Truesdale's Common Sense." At countless firesides in our state he was known as the spokesman of the plain man, who was blissfully ignorant of the fact that Mr. Tru

accept a small "loan" that would help t

e idea of who was who in the legislature and politics of the state, and established relationships-as the Colonel reminded me-likely to prove valu

outsider, as far as I can learn, who has caught on to the nigger in the wood-pile. That's the great thing, to keep 'em ignorant as long

re on the spot as yet,-of that I was satisfied. In the absence of these, who were the opp

mph over our opponents was to be effected. And that same idea which, when launched amidst the surroundings of the Boyne Club, had seemed so brilliant, now took on an aspect of tawdriness. Another thought intruded itself,-that of Mr. Pugh, the president of the Ribblevale Company. My father had known him, and some years before I had traveled halfway across the state in his company; his kindliness had

bag. Presently I grew calmer. I had chosen. I had succeeded. And now that

e sky; gaining at last an old-fashioned, wooden bridge, I stood for awhile gazing at the river, over the shallows of which the spendthrift hand of nature had flung a shower of diamonds. And I reflected that the world was for the strong, for him who dared reach out his hand and take what it offered. It was not money we coveted, we Americans, but power, the self-expression conferred by power. A single experience such as I had had the night before would since to convince any sane man that democracy was a failure, that the world-old principle of aristocracy would assert itself, that the attempt of our ancestors to curtail political power had merely resulted in the growth of another and g

s coming around the coun

I heard

e?" I ex

tone. He appeared so genuinely glad to see me again t

the legislature,

Sol

miled. "And you

ectator. Down here

as more than ever baked by a resolute good humour, a simplicity that was not innocence, a whimsical touch seemingly indicative of a

e," he laughed. "I'm neither fish, f

" I asked. "I remember you said something

Then I went back home to Elki

f you as being likely to develop po

say not! h

hed upon a political car

sprang a surprise on the machine, and the first thing I knew I was nominated for the legislature. A committee came to my boarding-house and told me, and there was the deuce to pay, right

hen?"

'm here,

more," I inquired, "if you hadn

ccomplishment," he answered, so mil

atisfied with their conditions and imagine you can help to better them. Now, provided the conditions are not

rney and other disinterested philanthropists," he s

you do?" I inq

n," he said. "I have already l

ndering whether the imp

I have an idea that when the people of this country learn how th

had come up with my griddle-cakes. "And

of us to do that, I'm afraid,"

e acute, but I felt that I was thrown on

nt, they don't want to be bothered with politics. There will always be labour agitation, of course,-the more wages those fellows get, the more they want. We pa

don't earn enough to live decently even

t and the shiftless are bound to suffer, n

dards to make your heart sick," he said. "What you don't realize, perhaps,

on, it is gorging the few at the expense of the many. And what is being done in this country is to stor

er one-sided view,

." For the first time a note of indignation crept into Krebs's voice. "Last night I discovered by a mere accident, in talking to a man who came in on a late train, that a bill introduced yesterday, which is being rushed through the Judiciary Committee of the House-an apparently innocent little bill

Here's a copy of it,-House Bill 709." His expression sud

is firm," I

losed over the pa

cket when I took it from him. But my adroitness, so carefully schooled, seemed mome

n my word, I can't see why you should accept a rumour running around t

ut his eyes did

p?" I insisted. "Why not judge this bill by its face, without heeding a cock and bull story

ead

ago, and tends to compel a publicity in corporation affairs that is much

paper out

, Paret," he told

I said, and got up. I left him t

is anecdotes, I spied Colonel Varney, and managed presently t

n named Krebs in

the mills over there. The agitators put up a job on them." The Colonel was no longer the genia

t about this b

ow

iginated in our office, and that we were going

n him at Harvard. Colonel Varney uttered an oath, and strode across to the wind

ttend to him, ri

mputation, and deeply. "I'm afraid he's one of

employ of the Ribblevale pe

torted, with more heat, perhaps, than I r

I don't want to question your judgment,

knew him a

ome way-in some way," he added, significantly. I did not pause to reflect that the Colonel's attitude, from his point of view (yes, and from mine,-had I not adopted it?) was the lo

I demanded, knowing the custom of that corporation of conferring

er had the chance,

a pass as a member

corner of the room, unlocked it, drew forth a black book, and running his fingers through the pages stopped at the letter K. "Yes, sent back hi

e to the door and called out to the group o

ng I want to

the Colonel explained, was a legal light in Galesburg, near Elkington,-the Railroad lawyer there. And when at last Mr. You

behind him; and added obsequiously, when introduced to me, "Glad

onel, "what do you know

as "nutty," he declared-th

-listen t

he wouldn't know a hundred-dol

does h

ps shifted his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other without raising his hands. "But it ain't money. I guess he's got a notion that l

onel Varney's agate eyes sought

y. "Say, you can believe it or not, but we've never dug

do any more than make a noise. Only I hoped we'd be able to grease this thing a

t, until you smother hi

ome day!" replied th

ung la

ands across his stomach he began to call on God with terrific fervour, in an intense and resounding voice. I was struck suddenly by the irony of it all. Why have a legislature when Colonel Paul Varney was so efficient! The legislature was a mere sop to democratic prejudice, to pray over it heightened the travesty. Suppose there were a God after a

it. I should be compelled to admit that he represented something unique in that assembly if he had the courage to get up and oppose House Bill 709. I watched him narrowly; the suggestion intruded itself-perhaps he had been "seen," as the Colonel expressed it. I repudiated it. I grew impatient, feverish; the monotonous reading of the clerk was interrupted now and then by the sharp tones of

. Truesdale believed in corporations when corporations were good, and this bill was calculated to make them good, to put an end to jugglery and concealment. Our great state, he said, should be in the forefront of such wise legislation, which made for justice and a proper publicity; but the bill in question was of

note Mr. Truesdale so admirably struck. As though fascinated, I continued to gaze at Krebs. I hated him, I desired to see him humiliated, and yet amazingly I found myself wishing with almost equal vehemence that he wou

from-from Elkin

ng the desk. There were cries of "louder" when he began; some picked up their newspapers, while others started conversations. The Speake

ndeed, with other legislation that in past years has been engineered through this legislature under the guise of beneficent law. No, not on a par. It is the most arrogant,

down?" came a vo

w quality in the man. It was as though he had needed just the stimulus of that interruption to electrify and transform h

een engaged in litigation with the Ribblevale Steel Company for some years: and this bill is intended to put into the hands of the attorneys for Mr. Scherer certain information that will enable him to get possession of the property. Gentlemen, that is what 'legal practice' has descended to in the hands of respectable lawyers. This device originated with the resourceful Mr. Theodore Watling, and if it had not had the approval of Mr. Miller Gorse, it would never have got any farther than the judiciary c

and objected that the gentleman from Elkington was wasting the time of the House, indulging in hearsay. His remarks wer

hat score, and I know it to be the truth. And if this House does n

nds of a receiver, at the mercy of those who coveted it, because one of its officers refused, or was unable, to testify. He might be in China, in Timbuctoo when the summons was delivered at his last or usual place of abode. Here was an enormity, an exercise of tyrannical power

lutter of applause from the sc

the only man in

evidently a farmer. His trousers were tucked into his boots, and his gnarled and pow

, I guess,-but say, he's right. A man would lose his self-respect if he didn't

old

to remember that. Durned if

feel like that, if they only knew?... The Spe

ently trained to meet just this kind of situation: some employed ridicule, others declared, in impassioned tones, that the good name of their state had been wantonly assailed, and pointed fervently to portraits on the walls of patriots of the past,-sentiment

tell you a few things about him, all right. He comes from Glasgow, and his name's Letchworth. He's done more harm

ly evil, its lividity enhanced by a shock of grey hair. His method was

sness it was impossible to say. But he contented himself with a brief defiance. If the bill passed, he declared, the men who voted for it, the men who were behind it, would ultimately be driven from politi

d a roll call. Ten members besides himself

ed down by the hounds, is too strong: he had been ingloriously crushed, and defeat, even for the sake of conviction, was not an inspiring spectacle.... As the chase swept on over his prostrate figure I rapidly regained poise and a sense of proportion; a "master of life" could not permit himself to be tossed

trolled the House, not by owning the individuals composing it, but through the leaders who dominated it,-men like Letchworth and Truesdale. These, and Colonel Varney, had seen to it that men who had any parliamentary ability had been attended to; all save Krebs, who had proved a surprise. There were indeed certain members who, althou

r adversaries spent the afternoon and most of the night organizing all those who could be induced by one means or another to reverse their sentiments, and in searching for the few who had grievances against the

their energy and ingenuity without result with only two dissenting votes the bill was calmly passed. In vain was the Governor besieged, entreated, threatened,-it was said; Mr. Trulease had

panied me to the train, did

o get 'em runnin' fast, to get momentum on 'em before the other party wakes up, and then he can't stop 'em." As he shook ha

as victoriously bearing home my first scalp,-one which was by no means to be despised.... It was not until we reached Rossiter, about five o'clock, that I was able to get the evening newspapers. Such was the perfection of the organization of which I might now cal

ernor Si

y the Railroad Lobby, which will drive

Steel Compan

page my eye fell on the name, Krebs. One member of the legislature above all deserved the gratitude of the people of the state,-the member from

at victory counts; defeat is soon forgotten. Even the discontented, half-baked and