There
was no mistaking his temper as he announced:--
"The chair announces that the next business in order is the call of the
roll of counties for nominations for the office of secretary of state.
What is the pleasure of the convention?"
Colonel Ramsay had repaired to the gallery to enjoy the proceedings with
Mrs. Bassett's party. In spite of his support of the Palmer and Buckner
ticket (how long ago that seems!), the Colonel had never lost touch with
the main body of his party, and he carried several Indiana counties in
his pocket. His relations with Bassett had never been in the least
intimate, though always outwardly cordial, and there were those who
looked to him to eliminate the Fraser County chief from politics. He was
quite as rich as Bassett, and a successful lawyer, who had become a
colonel by grace of a staff appointment in the Spanish War. He had a
weakness for the poets, and his speeches were informed with that grace
and sentiment which, we are fond of saying, is peculiar to Southern
oratory. The Colonel, at all fitting occasions in our commonwealth,
responded to "the ladies" in tender and moving phrases. He was a
bachelor, and the ladies in the gallery saw in him their true champion.
"Please tell _us_--we don't understand a bit of it," pleaded
Marian--"what it's all about, Colonel Ramsay."
"Oh, it's just a little joke of your father's; nothing funnier ever
happened in a state convention.
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