(Rah! Rah! Rah!)_

And, over in one corner, a group of college girls were enthusiastically
chanting:

_He is handsome! He is sexy!
We want J. H. C. for Prexy!_

It was a demonstration that lasted nearly three times as long as the
eighty-five-minute demonstration that had occurred when Representative
Matson had first proposed his name for the party's nomination.

* * * * *

Spatially, Senator James Harrington Cannon was four blocks away from
Convention Hall, in a suite at the Statler-Hilton, but electronically,
he was no farther away than the television camera that watched the
cheering multitude from above the floor of the hall.

The hotel room was tastefully and expensively decorated, but neither the
senator nor any of the other men in the room were looking at anything
else except the big thirty-six-inch screen that glowed and danced with
color. The network announcer's words were almost inaudible, since the
volume had been turned way down, but his voice sounded almost as excited
as those from the convention floor.

Senator Cannon's broad, handsome face showed a smile that indicated
pleasure, happiness, and a touch of triumph. His dark, slightly wavy
hair, with the broad swathes of silver at the temples, was a little
disarrayed, and there was a splash of cigarette ash on one trouser leg,
but otherwise, even sitting there in his shirt sleeves, he looked
well-dressed. His wide shoulders tapered down to a narrow waist and lean
hips, and he looked a good ten years younger than his actual fifty-two.

He lit another cigarette, but a careful scrutiny of his face would have
revealed that, though his eyes were on the screen, his thoughts were not
in Convention Hall.

Representative Matson, looking like an amazed bulldog, managed to chew
and puff on his cigar simultaneously and still speak understandable
English. "Never saw anything like it. Never. First ballot and you had
it, Jim. I know Texas was going to put up Perez as a favorite son on the
first ballot, but they couldn't do anything except jump on the bandwagon
by the time the vote reached them. Unanimous on the first ballot."

Governor Spanding, a lantern-jawed, lean man sitting on the other side
of Senator Cannon, gave a short chuckle and said, "Came close not t'
being unanimous. The delegate from Alabama looked as though he was going
to stick to his 'One vote for Byron Beauregarde Cadwallader' until
Cadwallader himself w