Doyle leaned quickly forward across the table. "I know exactly what
you mean," he exclaimed, "and I know exactly the kind of people you
mean, too. You mean the conservative, ultra respectable men you meet
here every day at the Federal, for instance; the class that thinks if
your name appears in print anywhere outside the society column, it's
deucedly bad form, you know, most extraordinary sort of thing, my dear
chap, on my word."
He mimicked successfully, and Gordon laughed. "Yes, you've hit it," he
answered, "but these same men are powers in the city, and I should
hate to lose their regard, as I suppose I undoubtedly should by any
such campaign as we propose."
Doyle nodded. "You certainly would," he replied; "but, Mr. Gordon,
it's a choice you've got to make. It's simply inevitable. To
paraphrase Lincoln, you can suit part of the people all of the time,
and you can suit all of the people part of the time, but you can't
suit all of the people all of the time. It's absolutely impossible;
and the choice to make is to see where you'll really get the true
following. Jefferson made the choice, and I suppose he wasn't really
exactly popular in good Federalist society, but when he wanted a
thing, he only had to go to the people for it, and he got it. He knew
where the country's real strength lay, and you can't do better than
copy him. It's the so-called common people you want to have back of
you, and it's the common people's battle you want to fight, and the
common people's ideas of what's right and proper that you want to
study over. That's what you've got to make up your mind to."
Gordon looked thoughtful. "So you really think," he said, "that I can
afford to lose standing south of the park, and still hope to gain
through the city at large."
"The city at large!" cried Doyle, his voice rising in his excitement.
"Why, Mr. Gordon, I don't think you've caught the idea of this yet.
With the way we're going to take hold of this thing, the things that
you've done, the things that you'll be doing, the things that you'll
be going to do, we'll sweep the country from one end to the other.
This little crowd south of the park you stand so much in awe of aren't
even a pin prick on the map, and that's the solemn truth. For one
enemy you'll make among them, through the country, from east to west,
from north to south, you'll make a hundred, no, a thousand friends."
Gordon laughed at the younger man's enthusiasm.
"That sounds fine," he assented good-humoredly, "but when we come
right down to the details, just how are we going to make all these
friends? What are some of these wonderful things we're going to do?"
Doyle did not give ground for an instant. His eyes, indeed, gleamed
more eagerly than ever, with the ardor of a man fairly started on a
favorite theme.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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