The Escape of Mr. Trimm: His Plight and other PlightsCobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
General
The Escape of Mr. Trimm: His Plight and other Plights
Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
Crime -- Fiction; Judges -- Fiction; Short stories
I remember mighty well one incident that illustrates the point I am
trying to make. We had a Sunday edition. We were rather vain of our
Sunday edition. It carried a colored comic supplement and a section full
of special features, and we all took a more or less righteous pride in
it and tried hard to make it alive and attractive. We didn't always
succeed, but we tried all right. One Saturday night we put the Sunday to
bed, and about one o'clock, when the last form was locked, three or four
of us dropped into Tony's place at the corner for a bite to eat and a
drink. We hadn't been there very long when in came the old major, and at
my invitation he joined us at one of Tony's little round tables at the
back of the place. As a general thing the major didn't patronize Tony's.
I had never heard him say so--probably he wouldn't have said it for fear
of hurting our feelings--but I somehow had gathered the impression that
the major believed a gentleman, if he drank at all, should drink at his
club. But it was long after midnight now and the Shawnee Club would be
closed. Ike Webb spoke up presently.
"It's a pity we couldn't dig up the governor tonight," he said.
The governor had come down from the state capital about noon, and all
the afternoon and during most of the evening Webb had been trying to
find him. There was a possibility of a big story in the governor if Webb
could have found him. The major, who had been sitting there stirring his
toddy in an absent-minded sort of way, spoke up casually: "I spent an
hour with the governor tonight--at my club. In fact, I supped with him
in one of the private dining rooms." We looked up, startled, but the
major went right along. "Young gentlemen, it may interest you to know
that every time I see our worthy governor I am struck more and more by
his resemblance to General Leonidas Polk, as that gallant soldier and
gentleman looked when I last saw him----"
Devore, who had been sitting next to the major, with his shoulder half
turned from the old man, swung round sharply and interrupted him.
"Major," he said, with a thin icy stream of sarcasm trickling through
his words, "did you and the governor by any remote chance discuss
anything so brutally new and fresh as the present political
complications in this state?"
"Oh, yes," said the major blandly. "We discussed them quite at some
length--or at least the governor did. Personally I do not take a great
interest in these matters, not so great an interest as I should,
perhaps, take. However, I did feel impelled to take issue with him on
one point. Our governor is an honest gentleman--more than that, he was a
brave soldier--but I fear he is mistaken in some of his attitudes. I
regard him as being badly advised. For example, he told me that no
longer ago than this afternoon he affixed his official signature to a
veto of Senator Stickney's measure in regard to the warehouses of our
state----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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