cally powerless, and with the brilliant
abilities he would be able to display as soon as he entered public life,
and backed by a powerful influence, he could win his way to higher
things before the wave subsided. They wanted a senator in Washington who
was for his State first and himself next, even more than they wanted a
lawyer; and for that matter he could serve their anti-corporation
interests better there than here. Meanwhile he would have many
opportunities to speak and show the stuff that was in him, draw converts
to himself with his fiery eloquence and hard practicality, inculcate the
desire for better things, and the necessity for reducing the influence
of the army of petty professional politicians to a minimum, make of
himself so central and inspiriting a figure that when his time came the
best element of both parties throughout the State would form an
independent body under his leadership.

This was an alluring picture, but if Mr. Wheaton, who had had as little
to do with politics as possible, was a bit of a dreamer, there was no
question that his dreams were shared by more practical men at the
present moment than for many years past; and that his theories were
sound, however formidable the alert, resourceful, enormously capitalized
army which stood between them and execution. His idol was Abraham
Lincoln, and in consequence he "banked" on the good in human nature as a
factor, which, in sudden recrudescences of indignant energy,
accomplished revolutions of far greater moment than the overthrowing of
political machines.

Mr. Wheaton had launched forth upon one particularly stormy night when
he happened to be Gwynne's only guest. The host, not to be outdone, was
sitting with his feet on the railing of the stove, but as far from the
spittoon as possible. He had listened to the long monologue, which
involved a sketch of Lincoln's varied career, with more attention than
might have been inferred from his half-closed eyes, and his pipe had
gone out. It was only recently that any of his neighbors, barring Judge
Leslie and Tom Colton, who shared his secret, had definitely proposed a
political career to him, in other words divined his abilities and
ambitions. But Mr. Wheaton had once been young and adventurous himself,
and much if not all of his success in life was due to his shrewd
divination of human nature. No man could drive a harder bargain than
"Wash" Wheaton (he was named for the father of his country), but he h