For all that any one knew
the gentleman from Pulaski might be primed with a speech on the chinch
bug or the Jewish kritarchy; a man with a sheet of paper in his hand was
a formidable person, if not indeed a foe of mankind, and he was
certainly not to be countenaced or encouraged in a hot hall on a day of
June. Yet all other human beings save the gentleman from Pulaski were as
nothing, it seemed, to the chairman. The Tallest Delegate, around whose
lean form a frock coat hung like a fold of night, and who flung back
from a white brow an immense quantity of raven hair, sought to relieve
the convention of the sight and sound of the person from Pulaski. The
Tallest Delegate was called smartly to order; he rebelled, but when
threatened with the sergeant-at-arms subsided amid jeers. The gentleman
from Pulaski was indulged to the fullest extent by the chairman, to whom
it had occurred suddenly that the aisles must be cleared. The aisles
were cleared and delegates were obliged to find their seats before the
unknown gentleman from Pulaski was allowed to proceed. Even the War
Eagle had received no such consideration. The gentleman from Pulaski
calmly waited for a completer silence than the day had known. Ten men in
the hall knew what was coming--not more; Miss Rose Farrell had typed ten
copies of the memorandum which Harwood held in his hand!
The gentleman from Pulaski did not after all refer to his manuscript; he
spoke in a high, penetrating voice that reached the farthest corner of
the hall, reciting from memory:--
"Be it resolved by this convention that, whereas two years hence it will
be the privilege and duty of the Indiana Democracy to elect a United
States Senator to fill the seat now occupied by a Republican, we, the
delegates here assembled, do hereby pledge the party's support for the
office of Senator in Congress to the Honorable Edward G.
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