United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
He looked from row to row of them, trying to think of some last word
which would leave them with a sense of his sincerity. What he did say
was: “And so, boys, when you get away from here, and go out into the
world to get your start, if you find the arms of that world aren't quite
as wide open as you were told they would be, if there seems no place
where you can get a hold, and you are saying to yourself, 'It's no
use--I'll not try,' before you give up just remember there was one man
who said he knew all about it, and give that one man a chance to show
he meant what he said. So look me up, if luck goes all against you, and
maybe I can give you a little lift.” He took a backward step, as though
to resume his seat, and then he said, with a dry little smile which took
any suggestion of heroics from what had gone before, “If I'm not at the
State-house, you'll find my name in the directory of the city where your
programme tells you I live.”
He sat down, and for a moment there was silence. Then, full-souled,
heart-given, came the applause. It was not led by the attendants this
time; it was the attendants who rose at last to stop it. And when the
clapping of the hands had ceased, many of those hands were raised to
eyes which had long been dry.
The exercises were drawn to a speedy close, and he found the party
manager standing by his side. “It was very grand,” he sneered, “very
high-sounding and heroic, but I suppose you know,” jerking his hand
angrily toward a table where a reporter for the leading paper of the
opposition was writing, “that you've given them the winning card.”
As he replied, in far-off tone, “I hope so,” the candidate for Governor
was looking, not at the reporter who was sending out a new cry for
the opposition, but into those faces aglow with the light of new
understanding and new-born hopes. He stood there watching them filing
out into the corridor, craning their necks to throw him a last look,
and as he turned then and looked from the window it was to see that
the storm had sobbed itself away, and that along the driveway of the
reformatory grounds the young trees--unbroken and unhurt--were rearing
their heads in the way they should go.
VII
HOW THE PRINCE SAW AMERICA
They began work at seven-thirty, and at ten minutes past eight every
hammer stopped. In the Senate Chamber and in the House, on the stairways
and in the corridors, in every office from the Governor's to the
custodian's they laid down their implements and rose to their feet. A
long whistle had sounded through the building. There was magic in its
note.
“What's the matter with you fellows?” asked the attorney-general,
swinging around in his chair.
“Strike,” declared one of the men, with becoming brevity.
“Strike of what?”
“Carpet-Tackers' Union Number One,” replied the man, kindly gathering up
a few tacks.
“Never heard of it.”
“Organised last night,” said the carpet-tacker, putting on his coat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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