“Ladies and gentlemen of the Sixteenth Ward,
there is one who cannot be with us here to-night,
a man than whom there is no more stalwart Trojan in
all the political arena—I refer to our leader,
the Honorable Lucas Prout, standard-bearer of the
city and county of Zenith. Since he is not here,
I trust that you will bear with me if, as a friend
and neighbor, as one who is proud to share with you
the common blessing of being a resident of the great
city of Zenith, I tell you in all candor, honesty,
and sincerity how the issues of this critical campaign
appear to one plain man of business—to
one who, brought up to the blessings of poverty and
of manual labor, has, even when Fate condemned him
to sit at a desk, yet never forgotten how it feels,
by heck, to be up at five-thirty and at the factory
with the ole dinner-pail in his hardened mitt when
the whistle blew at seven, unless the owner sneaked
in ten minutes on us and blew it early! (Laughter.)
To come down to the basic and fundamental issues of
this campaign, the great error, insincerely promulgated
by Seneca Doane—”
There were workmen who jeered—young cynical
workmen, for the most part foreigners, Jews, Swedes,
Irishmen, Italians—but the older men, the
patient, bleached, stooped carpenters and mechanics,
cheered him; and when he worked up to his anecdote
of Lincoln their eyes were wet.
Modestly, busily, he hurried out of the hall on delicious
applause, and sped off to his third audience of the
evening. “Ted, you better drive,”
he said. “Kind of all in after that spiel.
Well, Paul, how’d it go? Did I get ’em?”
“Bully! Corking! You had a lot of
pep.”
Mrs. Babbitt worshiped, “Oh, it was fine!
So clear and interesting, and such nice ideas.
When I hear you orating I realize I don’t appreciate
how profoundly you think and what a splendid brain
and vocabulary you have. Just—splendid.”
But Verona was irritating. “Dad,”
she worried, “how do you know that public ownership
of utilities and so on and so forth will always be
a failure?”
Mrs. Babbitt reproved, “Rone, I should think
you could see and realize that when your father’s
all worn out with orating, it’s no time to expect
him to explain these complicated subjects. I’m
sure when he’s rested he’ll be glad to
explain it to you. Now let’s all be quiet
and give Papa a chance to get ready for his next speech.
Just think! Right now they’re gathering
in Maccabee Temple, and waiting for us!”
III
Mr. Lucas Prout and Sound Business defeated Mr. Seneca
Doane and Class Rule, and Zenith was again saved.
Babbitt was offered several minor appointments to
distribute among poor relations, but he preferred
advance information about the extension of paved highways,
and this a grateful administration gave to him.
Also, he was one of only nineteen speakers at the
dinner with which the Chamber of Commerce celebrated
the victory of righteousness.
