struggle was so keen, the supervision of everything so
searching, that daring fraud became a thing impossible. It was simply
a test of persuasion, of popularity and of relative skill in those
devices which are but the moves upon the chessboard in a game where
chances are nearly even. We were but moderately hopeful. Harlson was
immeasurably the better candidate. He was, at least, earnest and
honest, and would represent the district well. I asked once why he
wanted to go to Congress.

"I'll have to think," he said, "to answer you in full. Firstly, I
believe I want to go because I have some fool ideas about certain
legislation which I think I can accomplish. I believe they'll like me
better in this district, and, perhaps, in a broader way, after I have
been there. Then I want Jean to enjoy with me all the mummery and
absurdity of the most mixed social conditions on the face of the
civilized globe, and, besides that, I've been invited to take black
bass with her out of a certain stream in the Shenandoah Valley, and to
kill a deer or two, with headquarters at an old house up in West
Virginia."

He said this lightly, yet I knew it was not far from the full truth.
He had ideas of changes and reforms, and was prepared to fight for
them. As for Jean and the fishing and the shooting, that was a matter
of course. He must get out to nature, and he must have her with him
certainly. As for me, personally--well, we had fought the world
together for many a year, and I never knew him to fail me, and I could
not very well fail him. I worried about this battle, though we had
gained steadily. There was an element in the district, led by shrewd
politicians, of the graduated saloon-keeper type, which did not lack
large numbers. Outside one ward, though we had practically beaten
them, Grant had invoked everything. He had stood up squarely on every
platform, and as well in every drinking-shop and den, and almost
bagnio, and explained to whom he found the nature of the contest, and
told them what he wanted to do, and what all the hearings were, and
told them then to conduct themselves as they pleased--he had but put
his case as it was.

And there are men among the thugs, and humanity is not altogether bad,
even in the slums, and help had come to us from unexpected places.
More than one man, brutal-looking, but with lines in his countenance
showing that he had once been something better, came around and worked
well, and all to