nd correction. It would have made the _Post_
ridiculous, and decidedly impaired its reputation for common sense and
fair play. Whatever should or should not be said, this was certainly no
way to talk of honest men, who were trying to conserve the party and who
differed from the _Post_ only on an unimportant question of detail.

West leaned back in his chair and stared at the farther wall.... For
that was exactly what it was--an unimportant detail. The important
thing, the one thing that he himself had insisted on, was that the State
should have a reformatory. Whether the State had it now or two years
from now, made relatively little difference, except to those who, like
his editorial assistant, had sunk themselves in the question till their
sense of proportion had deserted them. Was not that a fair statement of
the case? Whatever he did, he must not let his views be colored by
probable effects upon his own future.... Surely, to wait two brief years
for the institution, with the positive assurance of it then, could be no
hardship to a State which had got along very well without it for all the
years of its lifetime. Surely not. Plonny Neal, whose sharp horse sense
he would back against any man in the State, was absolutely sound there.

He tried to consider the question with chill judiciality, and believed
that he was doing so. But the fervor which Plonny had imparted to it,
and the respect which he had for Plonny's knowledge of practical
conditions, stood by him, unconsciously guiding his thoughts along the
line of least resistance.... Though nobody dared admit it publicly, the
party was facing a great crisis; and it was in his hand to save or to
wreck it. All eyes were anxiously on the _Post_, which wielded the
decisive power. The people had risen with the unreasonable demand that
progress be checked for a time, because of the cost of it. The leaders
had responded to the best of their ability, but necessary expenses were
so great that it was going to be a narrow shave at best--so narrow that
another hundred thousand spent would land the whole kettle of fish in
the fire. The grand old party would go crashing down the precipice. Was
not that a criminal price to pay for getting a reformatory institution
two years before the people were ready to pay for it? There was the
whole question in a nutshell.

The one unpleasant aspect of this view was Sharlee Weyland, the dearest
girl in the world. She would be much disappointed, a