s a barren hope. Immediately after the _Sentinel_ announced
that Governor Lyons was practically sure to be the next United States
Senator, the gas bill was reported favorably by the committee which had
it in charge, and was advanced rapidly in the House. Debate on its
provisions developed that it was not to have entirely plain sailing,
though the majority recorded in its favor on the first and second
readings was large. It was not at first regarded as a party measure. Its
supporters included most of the Republicans and more than half of the
Democrats. Yet the opposition to it proceeded from the wing of the
Democracy with which Stringer was affiliated. Elton's interest in the
bill was well understood, and the work of pledging members in advance,
irrespective of party, had been so thoroughly done, that but for the
exigencies of the senatorial contest it would probably have slipped
through without notice as a harmless measure. As it was, the opposition
to it in the lower branch was brief and seemed unimportant. The bill
passed the House of Representatives by a nearly two-thirds vote and went
promptly to the Senate calendar. Then suddenly it became obvious to
Lyons not merely that Elton was bent on securing its passage while the
present Governor was in office, but that his rival, Stringer, had
conceived the cruel scheme of putting him in the position, by a hue and
cry against monopoly and corporate interests, where his election to the
senatorship would be imperilled if he did not veto the measure. By a
caustic speech in the Senate Stringer drew public attention to the
skilfully concealed iniquities of the proposed franchise, and public
attention thus aroused began to bristle. Newspapers here and there
throughout the state put forth edicts that this Legislature had been
chosen to protect popular principles, and that here was an opportunity
for the Democratic party to fulfil its pledges and serve the people.
Stringer and his associates were uttering in the Senate burning words
against the audacious menace of what they termed the franchise octopus.
Did the people realize that this bill to combine gas companies, which
looked so innocent on its face, was a gigantic scheme to wheedle them
out of a valuable franchise for nothing? Did they understand that they
were deliberately putting their necks in the grip of a monster whose
tentacles would squeeze and suck their life-blood for its own
enrichment? Stringer hammered away with fierc