rkey!"

"Everything goes as it lays!"

Such are the preparatory comments of the audience.

"Your honor--"

Corkey has been "pulled" for gambling. His public addresses heretofore
have been made before the police justice.

"YOUR HONOR, MR. CHAIRMAN, AND MR. DELEGATES:--We're goin' to quit you.
We're goin' to walk, to sherry, to bolt. We didn't have no fair chance
to vote our men yesterday. We carried our wards just as you carried
your'n. We've just as good a right to the candidate as you have. We
therefore with-with-with-go out--and you can bet your sweet life we
stay out! and you hear me--"

"Goon!" "Goon!" "Ki-yi!" "Yip-yip!"

Such are the flattering outbursts. Why does the orator pause?

His head quakes and vibrates, his face grows black, the mouth opens
into a parallelogram, the sharp little tongue plays about the mass of
black tobacco.

The convention leaps to its feet. The Sneeze has come.

"That settles it!" cry the delegates. "Bounce any man that'll do such
a thing as that! Fire him out!"

The irresistible movement has reached Corkey's eyrie. Four faithful
Corkeyites are holding Corkey's platform. The assault on these
supports, these Atlases, brings the collapse of Corkey. He goes down
fighting, and he fights like a hero. One of the toughs who saw Corkey
put away his revolver at the primary is badly battered before he can
retreat.

The melee is a good-sized one. "It is to be observed," writes the
keen-eyed reporters, "that the consumption of peanuts rises to its
maximum during the purgation of a convention."

The convention is purged. The fumes of whisky and tobacco increase.
The crash of peanuts ceases. The committee on credentials reports.
Harmony is to be the watchword. In this interest it has been agreed to
seat four Harpwood delegates and eight Lockwin delegates in each of the
contests.

Although the Harpwood delegates howl with indignation, it is only a
howl. None of them go out. They will all vote. But their votes will
not affect the nomination. If otherwise, the convention can be again
purged and the correct result established. That would be bloody and
difficult. Wait until it shall be necessary.

"It is one of the workings of the status quo," writes the reporter of
the single-tax weekly, "that friction is everywhere reduced to the
minimum of the system. There is little waste of bloody noses in
politics."

"It is getting past dinner time. Why not be through