infringes on their prerogatives is a peril to our institutions and a step backward in the science of government.  My friends, we are here to-night to protest against a purpose to invade those liberties—­a deliberately conceived design to take away from the sovereign people of this city one of their cherished privileges—­the right to decide who shall direct the policy of our free public-school system, that priceless heritage of every American.  I beg to remind you that this contest is no mere question of healthy rivalry between two great political parties; nor again is it only a vigorous competition between two ambitious and intelligent women.  A ballot in behalf of our candidate will be a vote of confidence in the ability of the plain people of this country to adopt the best educational methods without the patronizing dictation of aboard of specialists nurtured on foreign and uninspiring theories of instruction.  A ballot against Miss Luella Bailey, the competent and cultivated lady whose name adds strength and distinction to our ticket, and who has been needlessly and wantonly opposed by those who should be her proud friends, will signify a willingness to renounce one of our most precious liberties—­the free man’s right to choose those who are to impart to his children mastery of knowledge and love of country.  I take my stand to-night as the resolute enemy of this aristocratic and un-American suggestion, and urge you, on the eve of election, to devote your energies to overwhelming beneath the shower of your fearless ballots this insult to the intelligence of the voters of Benham, and this menace to our free and successful institutions, which, under the guidance of the God of our fathers, we purpose to keep perpetually progressive and undefiled.”

A salvo of enthusiasm greeted Mr. Lyons as he concluded.  His speeches were apt to cause those whom he addressed to feel that they were no common campaign utterances, but eloquent expressions of principle and conviction, clothed in memorable language, as, indeed, they were.  He was fond of giving a moral or patriotic flavor to what he said in public, for he entertained both a profound reverence for high moral ideas and an abiding faith in the superiority of everything American.  He had arrayed himself on the threshold of his legal career as a friend and champion of the mass of the people—­the plain and sovereign people, as he was apt to style them in public.  His first and considerable successes had been as the counsel for plaintiffs before juries in accident cases against large corporations, and he had thought of himself with complete sincerity as a plain man, contesting for human rights before the bar of justice, by the sheer might of his sonorous voice and diligent brain.  His political development had been on the same side.  Latterly the situation had become a little puzzling, though to a man of straightforward intentions, like himself, not fundamentally embarrassing.  That is, the last four or five years had altered both the