It rained on Election Day, a cold November drizzle that elated the
Democrats. "A rainy day always brings a Democratic victory," said
Amos, gloomily, voicing the general superstition.
The day was a legal holiday and even the saloons were closed. Yet Lake
City was full of drunken men by noon. Every hack, surrey and hotel bus
in town was busy in the pay of one faction or the other hauling voters
to the booths. The Capitol square was deserted but groups of men, some
of them very drunk and some of them very sober, were to be found
throughout the business section of the city, bitterly debating the
reservation question.
There were a great number of Indians in town that day, big dark fellows
in muddy moccasins and faded mackinaws who stood about watching the
machinations of the whites without audible comments.
Toward night the rain stopped and Lydia begged her father to take her
into town to see the parade that would be indulged in by the victorious
party. Amos was not at all averse to taking in the parade, himself.
So nine o'clock found the two at the Square with a great waiting crowd.
There were very few women in the crowd. Those that Lydia saw were
painted and loud-voiced. Amos told her vaguely that they were
"hussies" and that she was not to let go of his arm for an instant.
Lydia didn't know what a hussy was, but she didn't want to stir an inch
from her father's side because of her fear of drunken men. She was in
a quiver of excitement; torn with pity and doubt when she thought of
Charlie Jackson; speechless with apprehension when she thought of the
possibility of Levine's being defeated.
It was close on ten o'clock when the sound of a drum was heard from the
direction of the Methodist Church. The crowd started toward the sound,
then paused as Binny Bates, the barber, in a stove-pipe hat, mounted on
a much excited horse, rode up the street. Binny was a Levine man and
the crowd broke into cheers and cat-calls.
After Binny came the band, playing for dear life "Hail the Conquering
Hero" and after the band, two and two a great line of citizens with
kerosene torches. After the torches came the transparencies: "Levine
Wins!" "The Reservation is Ours." "Back to the land, boys!" "We've
dropped the white men's burden."
And following the transparencies came a surprise for crowd and paraders
alike. Close on the heels of the last white man strode Charlie
Jackson, with a sign, "The land is ours! You have robbed us!" and
after Charlie, perhaps a hundred Indians, tramping silently two by two,
to the faint strain of the band ahead,
"Columbia, the gem of the ocean
The home of the brave and the free--"
For a moment, the crowd was surprised into silence. Then a handful of
mud caught Charlie's sign and a group of college students, with a shout
of "Break up the line! Break up the line," broke into the ranks of the
Indians and in a moment a free for all fight was on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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