fferent "deals" to secure votes, might promise the same
office to two or three different leaders, force others into line
by threats, send a trusted agent to another with a roll of bank
bills--the recipient of which would immediately conclude that this
candidate was the only man in the State who could save the nation from
destruction. Had not Haines seen men who had sold their unsuspecting
delegates for cash to the highest bidder rise in the convention hall
and in impassioned, dramatic voice exclaim in praise of the buyer,
"Gentlemen, it would be a crying shame, a crime against civilization,
if the chosen representatives of our grand old State of ---- did not
go on record in favor of such a man, such a true citizen, such an
inspired patriot, as he whose name I am about to mention"? So
the reporter may be forgiven for the ironical tinge in his hasty
interruption of the new Senator's remarks.

Langdon could not suppress a chuckle at the doubting note in Haines'
attitude.

"I think the man would be pretty small potatoes who wouldn't seek the
office of United States Senator, Mr. Haines," he said, "if he could
get it. When I was a young man, sir, politics in the South was a
career for a gentleman, and I still can't see how he could be better
engaged than in the service of his State or his country."

"That's right," agreed the reporter, further impressed by the frank
sincerity of the Mississippian.

"The only condition in my mind, Mr. Haines, is that the man should ask
himself searchingly whether or not he's competent to give the service.
But I seem to be talking a good deal. Suppose we get to the interview.
Expect your time is short. We'd better begin."

"I thought we were in the interview?" smiled the correspondent.

"In it!" exclaimed Langdon. "Well, if this is it, it isn't so bad. I
see you use a painless method. When I was down in Vicksburg a reporter
backed me up in a corner, slipped his hand in his hip pocket and
pulled out a list of questions just three feet four inches long.

"He wanted to know what I thought concerning the tariff on aluminium
hydrates, and how I stood about the opening of the Tento Pu
Reservation of the Comanche Indians, and what were my ideas about the
differential rate of hauls from the Missouri River.

"He was a wonder, that fellow! Kinder out of place on a Mississippi
paper. I started to offer him a job, but he was so proud I was afraid
he wouldn't accept it. However, it gives you my ide