)
The state chairman was annoyed and showed his annoyance. He had been
about to ingratiate himself with the ladies by making this request
unprompted; he made it now, but the gentleman from Fraser sat down
conscious that the renewed applause was his.
"Why don't they keep on smoking?" asked Mrs. Owen. "The hall couldn't
be any fuller of smoke than it is now."
"If they would all put on their coats the room would be more beautiful,"
said Marian. "They always say the Republicans are much more gentlemanly
than the Democrats."
"Hush, Marian; some one might hear you," Mrs. Bassett cautioned.
She did not understand her husband's absence; he rarely or never took
her into his confidence in political matters. She had not known until
that morning that he was not to be present at the convention. She did
not relish the idea that he had been defeated in the primaries; in her
mind defeat was inseparable from dishonor. The "War Eagle of the Wabash"
was in excellent voice and he spoke for thirty minutes; his speech would
have aroused greater enthusiasm if it had not been heard in many
previous state conventions and on the hustings through many campaigns.
Dan Voorhees had once expressed his admiration of that speech; and it
was said that Tom Hendricks had revised the original manuscript the year
he was chosen Vice-President. It was a safe speech, containing nothing
that any good American might not applaud; it named practically every
Democratic President except the twenty-second and twenty-fourth, whom it
seemed the better part of valor just then to ignore.
Pages:
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355