A delegate with a weak voice had gained
recognition for the laudable purpose of suggesting a limitation upon
nominating speeches; the permanent chairman had mistaken him for
another gentleman for whom he was prepared, and he hastened to correct
his blunder. He seized the gavel and began pounding vigorously and the
man with the weak voice never again caught his eye.

In the middle of the hall a delegate now drew attention to himself by
rising upon a chair; he held a piece of paper in his hand and waved it;
and the chairman promptly took cognizance of him. The chairman referred
to him as the gentleman from Pulaski, but he might have been the
gentleman from Vallombrosa for all that any one cared. The convention
was annoyed that a gentleman from Pulaski County should have dared to
flourish manuscript when there were innumerable orators present fully
prepared to speak extempore on any subject. For all that any one knew
the gentleman from Pulaski might be primed with a speech on the chinch
bug or the Jewish kritarchy; a man with a sheet of paper in his hand was
a formidable person, if not indeed a foe of mankind, and he was
certainly not to be countenaced or encouraged in a hot hall on a day of
June. Yet all other human beings save the gentleman from Pulaski were as
nothing, it seemed, to the chairman. The Tallest Delegate, around whose
lean form a frock coat hung like a fold of night, and who flung back
from a white brow an immense quantity of raven hair, sought to relieve
the convention of the sight and sound of the person from Pulaski. The
Tallest Delegate was called smartly to order; he rebelled, but when
threatened with the sergeant-at-arms subsided amid jeers. The gentleman
from Pulaski was indulged to the fullest extent by the chairman, to whom
it had occurred suddenly that the aisles must be cleared. The aisles
were cleared and delegates were obliged to find their seats before the
unknown gentleman from Pulaski was allowed to proceed. Even the War
Eagle had received no such consideration. The gentleman from Pulaski
calmly waited for a completer silence than the day had known. Ten men in
the hall knew what was coming--not more; Miss Rose Farrell had typed ten
copies of the memorandum which Harwood held in his hand!

The gentleman from Pulaski did not after all refer to his manuscript; he
spoke in a high, penetrating voice that reached the farthest corner of
the hall, reciting from memory:--

"Be it resolved by this