t that the people did not want a Governor to tarnish the dignity
of his office by fighting bar-rooms.

But Chairman Presson found an inflexible old man who listened to all he
said, and at the end declared his platform broadly and without details.
Those details of proposed activity he kept to himself. The platform was:
That it behooved all men in the State to be prompt and honest in obeying
the law. That the man who did not obey the law would find himself in
trouble. Moreover, position, personality, or purse could purchase no
exceptions.

That was a platform which Mr. Presson could not attack, of course.

He listened to it sullenly, however. He was angry because common decency
prevented him from expressing his opinion. He had heard other candidates
pompously declare the same thing, but he had not been worried by fear
that saints had come on earth.

This calm old man from whose fibre of ambition the years had burned out
selfishness, greed, graft, and chicanery was a different proposition.
His words sounded as though he meant what he said. And when he asked
the chairman if he had any objection to offer to a system of
administration that carried out exactly what the party had put in its
pledges to the people, Presson glowered at him with hatred in his soul
and malice twinkling in his eyes, and could find no language that would
not brand him as a conspirator against the honor of his State.

But he went back to headquarters swearing and sulking.

In this spirit did candidate and managers face the campaign.

It is not easy to hide family squabbles of that magnitude. The men
concerned in the principal secret of the State Convention kept their
mouths shut for the sake of self-preservation. But unquiet suspicion was
abroad. The Democrats nosed, figured, guessed, and acted with more
duplicity than had characterized their usual campaigns against the
dominant party. Their leaders gave their party a platform that invited
every one to get aboard. Every question was straddled. It was a document
of craft expressed in terms of apparent candor. It elevated a demagogue
as candidate for Governor, and promised every reform on the calendar.
These were the rash pledges of the minority, more reckless than usual.

An united dominant party could have met the issues boldly and frankly
without fear as to results.

But General Waymouth promptly discovered that he had a loyal army with
rebel officers. He was soldier enough to understand the