Mr. Crewe's Career, Book I.

ASSAULTS T

k cellars; great builders of railroads have begun life with packs on their shoulders, trudging over the wilderness which they were to traverse in after years in private cars. The history of Napoleon Bonaparte has not a Sunday-school moral, but we can trac

haracter one would not have used the phrase (as a contemporary of his remarked) of "a shrinking violet." T

l could be written about it, and the author need not go beyond the city limits or approach the state-house or the Pelican Hotel. The casual visitor in that capital leaves it with a sense of pe

citement in the capital over the prospective arrival of Mr. Humphrey Crewe for the legislative session that winter. Legislative sessions, be

ce, surrounded by a shaded lawn; solidly built, in the fashion of the days when rich people stayed at home, with a conservatory and a library that had once been Mr. Duncan's pride. The Marchesa cared very little about the library, or about the house, for that matter; a great aunt and uncle, spinster and bachelor, were living in it that winter, and they vacated for Mr. Crewe. He travelled to the capital on the legislative pass the Northeastern Railroads had so kindly given him, and brought down his horses and his secretary and servants from Leith a few days before the first of January, when the session was to open, and laid

tation inscribed beneath. "The People's Government, made for the People, made by the People, and answerable to the People." And he wondered, idly,-for the day was not cold,-how he would look upon a pedesta

attend the inauguration of the new governor, the Honourable Asa P. Gray! There he is, with the whiskers and the tall hat and the comfortable face, which wears already a look of gubernatorial dignity and power. He stands for a moment in the lobby of the Pelican Hotel,-thronged now to suffocation,-to shake hands genially with new friends, who are led up by old friends with two fingers on the elbow. The old friends crack jokes and whisper in the ear of the governor-to-be, who presently goes upstairs, accompanied by the Honourable Hi

o ears, still "going along by when they are talking sly." But there are no guerrillas now, no condottieri who can be hired: the empire has a paid and standing army, as an empire should. The North Country chiefs, so powerful in the clan warfare of bygone days, are generals now,-chiefs of staff. The captain-general, with a minute

he capital so much that he takes his vacations there in the winter,-during the sessions of the Legislature, -presumably because it is gay. There are other rooms, higher up, of important men, to be sure, but to enter which it is not so much of an honour. The Honourable Bill Fleming, postmaster of Brampton in Truro (Ephraim Prescott being long since dead and Brampton a larg

Brush Bascom in number ten of the Pelican, the rent of either of which would swallow the legislative salary in no time. The Honourable Nat Billings, senator from the Putnam County district, is

He is in the Pelican Hotel this evening, meeting the men that count. Mr. Job Braden, who had come down with the idea that he might be of use in introducing the new member from Leith to the notables, was met by this remark:-"You can't introduce m

hed a high-water mark in the Pelican Hotel that evening. Pushing through the crowd in the corridor outside the bridal suite waiting to shake hands with the new gove

I'm Humphrey Crewe, from Leith. You got a letter from me, didn't you, congra

rs slid over each other's; "I'm glad to welcome you here. I've noticed the interest you'

I just dropped in to shake your hand, an

ifted his eyeb

, I'm sere, Mr.

hods as concerns husbandry, and I find it deplorable. You and I, Governor, live in a progressive age, and we can't afford not to see so

reciate it, Mr. Cr

te affairs, and that you are a successful and conservative business man. That is the ty

been a good deal occupied s

, Governor, and if, by the light of your legislative experience, you have any suggestions to make, I shall be glad to hear 'em. Before

. Flint," said Mr. Gray. "I-ahem -ca

n a manner which plainly indic

en very pleasant," said Mr. Crewe. "I may say that I am s

ay. "Why, how do you do, Cary?

you day after to-morrow at f

oby's door (number seventy-five) brought no response. Other rural members besides Mr. Crewe came and pounded on that door, and went away again; but Mr.

Speaker?"

cknowledged

said Mr. Braden. "Gues

oad-R

road

of his fellow-townsman's coat. "Callated you didn't know it all

oom, with an outline key beneath it, would have been an appropriate work of art to hang in the state-house, as emblematic of the statesmanship of the past twenty years. The Honourable Hilary Vane sat at one end in a padded chair; Mr. Manning, the division superintendent, startled out of a meditation, was upright on the end of the bed; Mr. Ridout, the Northeastern's capital lawyer, was figuring at the other end of the table; the Honourable Brush Bascom was bending over a wide, sad-faced gentleman of some two hundred and fifty pounds who sat at the centre in his shirt-sleeves, poring over numerous sheets in front of

his opportunity to make a survey of the situation, nodd

th the Speaker, and heard he was here. But I'm glad to have met you for many reasons. I want you to be one of the

e started to rise to his feet. What he was about to say was interrupte

d crossing the room, turned the key in

ntly interrupted here by

rema

g into Mr. Crewe with his eye, "that

Mr. Vane. I'm Humphrey Crewe. We have

y's hand passed over

ppeared in his eye. "Job has told everybody you were coming d

nd although I have considerable occupation, I believe that o

o you know Mr. Brush Bascom and Mr. Manning?

aker-to-be, "I'm always glad to shake the hand of

shly, "fighting on Governor Brown's staff. There were t

staff!" excla

d the General, as though the memory of his military career did not give him unalloyed pleasure. "Wh

his question, and he was not the

l Doby," he said. "We did what we could up

ttle in the middle, to si

my power to reciprocate

Mr. Crewe right,"

may say with truth that I should be a useful member of that, as I am accustomed to sitting on financial boards. As my bills are of some considerable importance and deal with practical progressive measures, I have no hesitation in asking for the chairmanship of Public Improvements,-and of c

ood staring at the glitter of the electric light on the snow. The Honourable Hilary

hat is to become of the other four hundred and ninety-nine? The way

nable, and I realize the pressure that's put upon you. But when

rly to talk about the make-up of committees. I hope to be able to

Doby for one of the precious sheets under Mr. Bascom's hat, when the general, with great presence of mind, sat

the Speaker, "make t

voice cried out:-"Is Manning here? The boys are hollering for those passes," and a wiry, sallow gentleman burst in, none other than the Honourable Elisha Jane, who w

Brush Bascom. But first let me make you acquainted with Mr. Humphrey Crewe of Leith. Mr. Crewe has come down here with th

t claim much for 'em, but perhaps they will he

ith deliberation, and cast

olemnly; "this meeting you is a particular pleasure,

matters to attend to this evening, so I must say good-night, gentlem

ughts to pay any attention to the click of the key as it turned in the lock, or to hear United States Senator Whitredge rap (three times) on the door after he had turned the cor

ate. Noble five hundreds (biggest Legislature in the world) have come and gone; debated, applauded, fought and on occasions denounced, kicked over the traces, and even wept-to no avail. Behold that political institution of man, representative government There it is on the stage, curtain up, a sublime spectacle for all men to see, and thrill over speeches about the Rights of Man, and the Forefathers in the Revolution; about Constituents who do not constitute. The High Heave

e peep-hole when an actor makes an impassioned appeal to the gods. Democracy in front, the Feudal System, the Dukes and Earls behind-but in plain clothes; Democracy in stars and spangles and trappings and insignia. Or, a better figure, the Fates weaving the web in that mystic chamber,

t of it was about the people; some of it about the sacred government they had inherited from their forefathers; still another concerned the high character and achievements of the inhabitants within the State lines; the name of Abraham Lincoln was mentioned, and, with even greater reverence and

nificent voice to those phrases which it rounds so well. It is fortunate, when we smoke a fine cigar from Havana, that we cannot look into the factory. The sight would disturb us. It was well for the applauding, deep-breathing audience in the state-house that first of January that they did not have a glimpse in room Number Seven the night before, under the sheets that contained the list of the Speaker's committees; it was well that they could not go back to Ripton into the offices on the square, earlier in December, where Mr. Hamilton Tooting was writing the noble part of that inaugural from memoranda given him by the Honourable Hilary Vane. Yes, t

his pleasure and appreciation of the fact that his request (mailed in November) had been com

xim, that platforms are made to get i

hat Mr. Bascom has had a front seat for the last twenty years-he has been uniformly lucky in drawing. The Honourable Jacob Botcher (ten years' service) is equally fortunate; the Honourable Jake is a man of large presence, and a voice that sounds as if it came, oracularly, from the caverns of the earth. He is easily heard by the members on the back seats, while Mr. Bascom is not. Mr. Ridout, the capital lawyer, is in the House this year, and singularly enough has a front seat likewise. It was Mr. Crewe's misfortune to draw number 415, in the extreme corner of the room, and next the steam radiator. But he was not of the metal to accept tamely such a ticketing from the hat of destiny (via the Clerk of the

watch, at the end of the session. Not he! Not the practical business man, the member of boards, the chairman and president of societies. He has studied the Rules of the House and parli

P. Flint,

secure my committee appointments. Imp

rey C

nt as to how the State would benefit by their adoption; an accurate list of Mr. Crewe's societies was inserted, and an account of his life's history, and of those ancestors of his who had been born or lived within the State. Indeed, the accuracy of this article as a whole did great credit to the editor of the State T

ictoria Flint got one, and read it to her father at the breakfast table. (Mr. Flint did not open his.) Austen Vane wondered why any man in his obscure and helpless position should have been honoured, but honoured he was. He sent his to Victoria, too, and was surprised

m got one; the Honourable Hilary Vane got one-marked in red ink, lest he should have skipped it in his daily perusal of the paper. Mr.

not believe in cheating the State, but to-night all is bustle and confusion, and at least four hundred members are pushing down the aisles and squeezing past each other into the narrow seats, and reading the State Tribune or the ringing words of the governor's inaugural which they find in the racks on the back of the seats before them. Speaker Doby, wh

turned, to listen. He sat up a little when the Appropriations Committee, headed by the Honourable Jake Botcher, did not contain his name-but it might have been an oversight of Mr. Utters; when the Judiciary (Mr. Ridout's committee) was read it began to look like malice; committee after committee was revealed, and the name of Humphrey Crewe might not have been contained in the five hundred except as the twelfth member of forestry, until it appeared at the top of National Affairs. Here was a broad e