Political fiction; Short stories, American; United States -- Politics and government -- Fiction
“‘The chair is compelled again to call the attention of gentlemen to
rule three, which prohibits smoking in the hall of the house. The chair
dislikes to be compelled to repeat this admonition so frequently, and
trusts that gentlemen will observe the injunction without additional
suggestion. The clerk will proceed with the calling of the roll.’ And
he smashed the broken sounding-board again with his gavel. We needed
time. Some of the members laughed, but that only gave ’Zeke a chance
to gain more time by rapping for order. We feared the effect, however,
on discipline. Then he called Brisbane, one of our fellows, and he
didn’t vote. I grew uneasy, and Judge Hardin was squirming there beside
me on the lounge. When I thought of Berry I grew mad, and wondered if
we could save the bill without him. At that instant my eye happened
to light upon Henderson of Greene. He was standing under the gallery
just as he had been standing all evening. He seemed not to have moved.
He had his hands clasped awkwardly behind him, and was chewing his
tobacco contemplatively. And here was my chance! I thought of the
pathetic biography in the house directory. I thought of his wife as
I had seen the poor old thing going around town with him the week
before. I thought of the way he had worked and toiled for her and all
those children, and how little life held for him. If I could get him
for the bill in Berry’s place, the Chicago people, I knew, would be
liberal with him, and he could go back home better off in a financial
way than when he came. And so I motioned to Burke, and when he came up
I told him to ask the gentleman from Greene to meet me at once in the
speaker’s room, and I retired to await him. Presently, in his clumsy
way, he shuffled in. He came close up to me, and when I had given the
poor devil a cigar he bent over to hear what I might have to say. I
asked him how he was going to vote on the bill, and he said he thought
he would vote against it, inasmuch as the governor had said it was a
bad piece of legislation. Well, there was no time to discuss that phase
of the question.
“‘Look here, comrade,’ I said, ‘this is a bill that concerns Chicago
alone--it does not affect and can not affect you or your constituents
one way or the other, can it?’
“‘No,’ he said; ‘reckon not.’
“‘They don’t even know down in Greene County that there is such a bill,
do they?’
“‘Reckon not,’ he said, ‘leastways I hain’t heerd ary one say nothin’
’bout it.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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