le. Was
it not preparing for its first Senator since 1885? No less a personage
than the Hon. William H. Langdon of Mississippi, said to be a warm
personal friend of Senator Stevens, one of the leading members of his
party at the capital, had engaged a suit of rooms for himself and two
daughters.

"Ain't it the limit?" remarked the chief clerk to Bud Haines,
correspondent of the New York _Star_. "The Senator wrote us that he
was coming here because his old friend, the late Senator Moseley, said
back in '75 that this was the best hotel in Washington and where all
the prominent men ought to stay."

Haines, the ablest political reporter in Washington, had come to the
International to interview the new Senator, to describe for his paper
what kind of a citizen Langdon was. He glanced around at the dingy
woodwork, the worn cushions, the nicked and uneven tiles of the hotel
lobby, and smiled at the clerk. "Well, if this is the new Senator's
idea of princely luxury he will fit right into the senatorial
atmosphere." Both laughed derisively. "By the way," added Haines, "I
suppose you'll raise your rates now that you've got a Senator here."

The clerk brought his fist down on the register with a thud.

"We could have them every day if we wanted them. This fellow, though,
we'll have all winter, I guess. His son's here now. Been breaking all
records for drinking. Congressman Norton of Mississippi has been down
here with him a few times. There young Langdon is now."

Haines turned quickly, just in time to bump into a tall, slender young
man, who was walking unevenly in the direction of the cafe.

"Well, can't you see what you're doing?" muttered the tall young man
thickly.

Haines smiled. The chap who has played halfback four years on his
college eleven and held the boxing championship in his class is apt
to be good-natured. He does not have to take offense easily. Besides,
Randolph Langdon was plainly under the influence of whisky. So Haines
smiled pleasantly at the taller young man.

"Beg your pardon--my fault," Haines said.

"Well, don't let it occur again," mumbled Langdon, as he strolled with
uneven dignity toward the door. Bud Haines laughed.

"I guess young Langdon is going to be one of the boys, isn't he?"

"He's already one of them when it comes to a question of fluid
capacity," laughed some one behind him, and Bud whirled to meet the
gaze of his friend, Dick Gullen, representative of one of the big
Chicago dail