CANDIDATING; OR, OLD-TIME METHODS AND HUMORS OF OFFICE-SEEKING IN THE
SOUTHWEST.
I have found no class of people in the Southwest so omnipresent as
office-seeking politicians. I have visited no neighborhood so remote,
no valley so deep, no mountain so high, that the secluded cabins had
not been honored by the visits of aspiring politicians, eager to secure
the votes of their "sovereign" occupants. In multitudes of such cabins
and settlements, their first impressions in regard to me were that
I was either a sheriff, collecting the county and State taxes, or a
"candidate" soliciting votes. The one vocation was as general and as
universally recognized as an honorable employment as the other. If I
did not make myself known as a clergyman as soon as I arrived at many
of these out-of-the-way cabins, I was frequently greeted with the
salutation:
"How dy, sir? I reckon you are a candidate, stranger!"
Some months preceding each election these aspirants for official
honors publicly announced themselves as candidates for the particular
office that they sought. In those States where the election was held
the first Monday in August, these announcements were usually made the
preceding spring at the February county or circuit court. On such
occasions the court adjourned for the afternoon, and after dinner
the crowds in attendance gathered in the court-house, and, one after
another, all the aspirants for all the different offices, State and
national, came before the assembled people, announced themselves as
candidates, and set forth their qualifications for the office sought
and their claims upon the suffrages of their fellow-citizens. Sometimes
half a dozen or more would announce themselves as candidates for the
same office. In listening to their speeches one would be led to think
that the chief excellence and glory of our Constitution was that
it secured to every citizen the right to be an office-seeker. "My
fellow-citizens, I claim the _right_ of an American citizen to come
before you and solicit your suffrages," was asserted by a great many of
these candidates, and very often by those who could present but a sorry
list of other claims for the office sought.
I have often found these gatherings occasions of the rarest interest
and sport. On one occasion the candidate's name was _Coulter_,
and the office sought was the county clerkship. The incumbent was
a consumptive, in such poor health that he had been compelled to
spend the winter in a milder climate, and it was doubtful if he
would be able to discharge the duties of his office another term. "My
fellow-citizens," said Mr. Coulter, "I am very sorry for Mr. Anderson
[who was present], our worthy county clerk, sorry that his health is
so poor--sorry that he was obliged to leave us last winter, and go
and breathe the balmy breezes of a more genial climate. But as he was
gone, and there was some doubt about his coming back, I did not think
it would be out of the way to try my Coulter a little. I experimented
with it. It worked well. I tried it in several precincts. It ran smooth
and cut beautifully. I am so much pleased with the way it works that I
am determined to enter it for the race." This play upon his name was
received with great favor. His old father sat upon a table immediately
under the judge's seat from which he spoke, and gazed up at him with
open mouth and the most intense parental pride and joy. The crowd
cheered to the echo, and I learned some months afterward that this
remarkable (?) display of wit was rewarded by the clerkship sought.
In these public speeches, and on all other occasions, both public and
private, this pursuit of office was always spoken of as a "race." The
most common remarks and inquiries in regard to any political canvass
were such as these:
"I intend to make the 'race.'" "It will be a very close 'race.'" "Do
you think Jones will make the 'race?'" "Smith has a strong competitor,
but I think he will make the 'race.'" "I will bet you fifty dollars
that Peters will make the 'race.'"
To "make the race" was to secure an election.
On another occasion, I heard a speaker who had been a candidate for the
same office, and had canvassed his county, making speeches in every
neighborhood, for twelve successive years. Though I saw him very often
and knew him very well, I never heard him speak but once.
A part of his speech I could not forget. It was as follows:
"Fortunately or unfortunately, my fellow-citizens, some twelve years
ago I was seized with a strong desire to represent my county in the
lower house of the Legislature of my native State. Fellow-citizens, you
all know me. I was raised among you. I was a poor boy. I am a poor man
now. I ask you to vote for me as an encouragement to the poor boys of
the county, that I may be an example to them--that they may point to
me and say, 'There is a man, that was once as poor as any of us, who
has been honored with a seat in the Legislature of his native State.'
I have taught school a good many winters, and the boys that I have
taught like me. They will give me their votes. I have sometimes thought
I should have to teach school over the county until I had taught boys
enough to elect me."
I can not go through with all of his speech, but his peroration was too
rich to omit:
"My fellow-citizens, when I look back over the twelve years since I
became a candidate for this office, I feel encouraged. When I look back
and think of the very few that for years gave me any encouragement,
and compare them with the numbers that now promise me their votes, I
am proud of my success. I begin to feel that my hopes are about to be
realized--that a majority of my fellow-citizens will honor me with
their suffrages, and that I shall proudly go up to the Capitol and
take my seat among the legislators of the State. But, fellow-citizens,
if, unfortunately, I should fail in this election, _I take the present
opportunity to announce myself as a candidate in the next race_."
This candidate was like the suitor whom the lady accepted to get
rid of him. Though a large number of his fellow-citizens were very
intelligent men, they finally concluded not to vote against him, and
allow him to be elected. I afterward saw him in the Legislature, and
he was certainly superior to some of his colleagues. He introduced me
to a fellow-member from the mountains who could not read or write at
all; and told me, privately, that he read and answered all the letters
that passed between him and his family and constituents. Mr. George D.
Prentice was accustomed to give this legislator from the mountains an
almost daily notice in the "Louisville Journal."
After these public announcements were made, the candidates entered
upon their work in dead earnest. They often issued printed handbills,
announcing the days on which they would speak at different places.
They traveled together, and addressed the same crowds in rotation.
These political discussions between candidates for the higher offices,
such as governor, member of Congress, etc., were often very able and
eloquent. Indeed, I have rarely, if ever, heard more able political
discussions than some of these. Where they canvassed a State or
Congressional district together, they spoke in rotation, an hour each
by the watch, and then concluded with half-hour speeches. This gave
to each an opportunity to answer the arguments of the other. As both
addressed the same audience, and each was applauded and cheered by his
own party, they were both stimulated and excited to the highest degree
possible. Each wished not only to gratify his political friends by the
ability and skill with which he discussed the questions at issue, but
to secure from the audience as many votes for himself as possible.
They were like lawyers before a jury, each anxious to secure a verdict
in his own favor. I have often thought that this method of conducting
a political campaign had many advantages over that which generally
prevails in the Northern and Eastern States, where a candidate, with no
ability to speak, is nominated by a caucus, and the parties afterward
meet in separate mass-meetings, and the speakers convince voters that
are already convinced and annihilate opponents that are not there. In
this manner neither party has the opportunity to correctly and fairly
represent its views to the other.
But public political discussions made but a small part of the labor
performed by the great majority of these candidates. They solicited the
votes of the people in private, and on all sorts of occasions. Some
of them mounted their horses, and went from house to house together
as thoroughly as if they were taking the census. A story is told of
two opposing candidates who spent a night together at a cabin. Each
was anxious to secure the "female influence" of the family in his
own favor, and one of them took the water-bucket and started for the
distant spring to get a pail of water, thinking to make a favorable
impression on the hostess by rendering her this aid in preparing the
coffee for their supper. His opponent, not to be outdone by this
master-stroke of policy, devoted himself to the baby with such success
that he won its favor, and succeeded in getting it into his arms.
The other candidate returned from his long walk with his well-filled
water-bucket, to see his opponent bestowing the most affectionate
caresses and kisses upon a baby that very sadly needed a thorough
application of the water he had brought, and to hear him pour into
the mother's charmed ear abundant and glowing words of praise for her
hopeful child. The water-bucket was set down in despair. It is quite
unnecessary to say which of the candidates secured the vote from that
cabin.
These candidates were always to be found at all large gatherings
of the people. They were to be seen at barbecues, shooting-matches,
corn-huskings, gander-pullings, basket-meetings, public theological
discussions, and all sorts of religious and other gatherings of
the people. Here they were busy shaking hands with everybody, and
using every possible expedient to win their votes. My friend, the
late Rev. Dr. W.W. Hill, of Louisville, Kentucky, related to me a
very characteristic and amusing incident illustrating this style of
electioneering.
While rusticating, quite early in his ministry, at a somewhat
celebrated medicinal spring among the hills, he was invited by his
host to go with him to a public discussion on the question of baptism,
that was to come off in the neighborhood between two distinguished
champions, holding opposite views in regard to the "subjects" and
"mode" of baptism. Judge C----, a candidate for Congress from that
district, who had a very wide reputation as a skillful and successful
electioneerer, was present, as polite and busy as possible, shaking
hands with everybody, and inquiring with wonderful solicitude after
the health of their wives and families. At the close of the services,
or, as the people there would say, "when the meeting broke," his host
invited the Judge and several of his neighbors to go home with him and
eat peaches-and-cream. He said his peaches were very fine, and his wife
had saved a plenty of nice cream for the occasion. The invitation was
accepted, and a very pleasant party accompanied him to his house. When
the company were seated at the table, the Judge found the peaches very
rare, the cream delicious, and was profuse in his compliments to both
host and hostess. At length the host said:
"Well, Judge, what did you think of the discussion to-day?"
"The discussion," said the Judge, glancing up and down the table, and
speaking as if rendering a judicial decision from the bench, "was very
able on both sides. The preachers acquitted themselves most honorably,
most handsomely. And yet I must say in all honesty that Parson Waller
[the Baptist] was rather too much for Parson Clarke [the Methodist]. He
had the advantage of him on a good many points. But, then, he had the
advantage of him so far as the merits of the question are concerned,
_I think_. The Greek settles that question. _Blabtow_ may not always,
in all circumstances, mean 'immerse,' but _blabtezer_, its derivative,
means immerse--go in all over--every time. There's no getting away from
that."
"What did you say that Greek word was that always means 'immerse'?"
said my friend, the young Presbyterian preacher, a recent graduate of
Princeton Theological Seminary, who was sitting immediately opposite
the Judge.
"Do you know anything about Greek?" responded the Judge.
"Not much," replied the young preacher.
"Do you know _anything_ about it? Have you ever studied it at all?"
continued the Judge.
"I have studied and read it some for about a dozen years," rejoined my
friend.
The Judge immediately started off upon an episode full of anecdote and
amusement, and did not get back to answer the question in regard to the
Greek while the company remained at the table.
The Doctor informed me that, as they left the table, he walked off
alone into the garden, but was soon overtaken by the Judge, who
exclaimed:
"Where did you come from, stranger, and how did you get among these
hills, a man that has studied Greek a dozen years? Now let me own up. I
don't know a thing about Greek; never studied it at all. I don't know a
Greek letter from a turkey-track. I am a candidate for Congress, out on
an electioneering excursion. I knew everybody at the table but you, and
I saw that it was a Baptist crowd. I wanted to win their favor and get
their votes. I heard Parson Smith preach on baptism in the city last
winter, and I was giving them his Greek as well as I could remember it.
Now," said the Judge, with a jolly laugh at the ridiculousness of his
position, "if you let this out on me so that my opponent can get hold
of it before I am through this canvass, I'll never forgive you."
It is but simple justice to these Baptists to say that, had the Judge
chanced to dine and eat peaches-and-cream that day with a company of
adherents of the other champion, his predilections would have been
just as strong in favor of Parson Clarke, and he would have marshaled
his Greek just as positively in favor of "infants" as "subjects" and
"sprinkling" as the "mode."
I am sure I shall be pardoned if I interrupt the flow of my narrative
to speak of what seems to me the remarkable fact that, more than forty
years after the scenes I have just described, I am able to say that the
"Parson Smith," so named by the candidate as furnishing his Greek, was
a revered friend whom, until quite recently, I had not met for more
than twenty years; to whose hospitable home, cheered by the bright
sunshine of one of the noblest and the best of wives and mothers, I was
for years welcomed on my return from my long horseback journeys, with
a cordiality as warm, I am sure, as though I had been a member of his
own ecclesiastical fold or diocese, who, now in his eighty-eighth year,
resides in New York City, the honored and beloved senior Bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.
And I take great pleasure in saying that no bishop or member of his
own Church or any other, who has not, as I have, often met him in
his parochial journeyings, traveled over thousands on thousands of
miles of the same indescribably rough roads, climbed on horseback
the same steep mountain-paths, and partaken of the rough but generous
hospitality of the same rude cabins, can possibly understand with
what patience, with what energy, with what unconquerable devotion, he
has thus toiled for wellnigh half a century for the dear Church and
the dearer Master he has so long loved and served with such pure and
glowing love.
One scene in the life of the venerable Bishop is worthy of the pencil
of the most accomplished artist, worthy to be inscribed upon the walls
of the national Capitol as a companion to Bierstadt's "Emigrants
crossing the Plains," illustrating as it does the manner in which the
heroic heralds of the cross have ever accompanied and followed our bold
and daring emigrants, and in every new State laid, broad and deep, the
foundations of learning and religion by establishing the Church and the
School.
Having in his extended parochial travels become painfully conscious
of the need of increased efficiency in the public-school system
of the State, he accepted, and discharged for two years--1839 and
1840--the duties of Superintendent of Public Instruction. To this
work, in addition to his Episcopal duties, he devoted himself with
untiring energy and zeal, visiting and making educational addresses in
seventy-six out of the then ninety-one counties of the State. Many of
these counties could only be visited on horseback, the only wheeled
vehicle ever seen by the inhabitants being the cart in which the laws
passed by successive legislatures were transmitted to the different
county-seats.
On one of these journeys the Bishop found at a mountain-inn a Methodist
circuit-rider, class-leader, steward, and local preacher, assembled
for an "official meeting." All hearts beat in the warmest Christian
sympathy. As, after a frugal meal, the Bishop's horse was brought to
the door, and he was about to renew his journey, all these heroic
Christian workers gathered sympathizingly and helpfully around him,
one holding his horse by the bridle, another holding the stirrups, and
the others helping him to mount. When fairly seated in his saddle,
the Bishop reverently uncovered his head, and, lifting his hand to
heaven, said: "Send, Lord, by whom thou wilt send, but send help to the
mountains!" to which they all responded with a hearty Methodistic "Amen
and Amen."
The method of private electioneering by going from house to house,
or attending such gatherings unattended by an opponent, was called
electioneering on the still hunt. In pursuing the wild game of those
regions two methods were adopted. Sometimes the hunters went in large
parties, with horses, hounds, and horns, and pursued and killed
their game by these public and noisy demonstrations. At other times
they went alone and quietly through the fields and woods, came upon
their game noiselessly, and killed it by stealth. This latter method
was called by the people "_the still hunt_." In like manner, the
politicians had two methods of electioneering, as already described.
The one was by public gatherings and by public speeches; the other was
by these more private and quiet measures, to which they appropriated
this old phrase from the hunter's vocabulary, and called "_the still
hunt_." I remember on one occasion hearing two candidates for the
office of sheriff address a crowd in one of the wildest regions in the
Southwest, each in advocacy of his own claims. One of them was quite an
effective and the other a very indifferent speaker. In a conversation
with the former, at the conclusion of the discussion, I told him that,
judging from the speeches, and the responses they received from the
crowd, I thought his chances must be altogether the best for securing
the election.
"Ah," said he, "it won't do to judge by the speeches, or to depend upon
them to secure an election. My opponent is the hardest sort of a man to
beat. He is powerful on the still hunt."
Many of these candidates displayed most wonderful industry and energy
in this "still-hunt" method of electioneering. In a conference with
the officers of a county Bible Society, in regard to the time it would
take a Bible-distributor to visit every family in the county, for the
purpose of supplying them with a copy of the Bible by sale or gift, one
of them gave his experience in canvassing the county for the office of
prosecuting attorney, told how many families he could visit in a day,
and said he thought it would not take the Bible-distributor longer to
make his visits than he took to persuade them to vote for him. This
was a new and very satisfactory method of arriving at the time really
required for a thorough religious canvass of the county.
The "still-hunt" method of electioneering also developed and gave
occasion for the display of great tact and skill in influencing every
variety of mind and character. Arguments in regard to the questions
at issue were often of the least possible influence and importance in
securing votes. A lady, whose guest I was, told me that the member of
Congress from the district in which she resided, who had been reëlected
a great many times, and was at that time Speaker of the House of
Representatives, had often visited her house and neighborhood. She said
that, when he first began to canvass his district for Congress, he
always carried his fiddle with him, and made very indifferent speeches
to the people in the daytime, but played the fiddle, greatly to their
admiration, for their dances at night. His fiddling and dancing, fine
personal appearance, and wonderful skill and tact in mingling with
the people and securing their personal admiration and favor, were
far more effective than his speeches, and enabled him to "make the
race" against all competitors. He was a remarkable illustration of
the success of the "still-hunt" method of electioneering. With a most
indifferent early education, without a knowledge of English grammar
at the commencement of his Congressional career, he was reëlected so
often, and continued in Congress so long, that he became perfectly
conversant with his duties, served on nearly or quite every committee,
was made chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, became the
recognized leader of his party, and was ultimately Speaker of the House
of Representatives through two Congresses--from December 1, 1851, to
March 4, 1855. With these long years of Congressional experience, he
became a very effective stump-speaker, and this, with his "still-hunt"
powers, enabled him to secure his reëlection again and again for some
thirty years, until he quite wore out the patience of the aspiring
members of his own party who were anxious for "rotation" in the office.
After growing gray in the service, he was at length beaten by a
youthful member of his own party on this wise: It was one of the
established laws of conducting a political canvass of the district
that, after the different persons had announced themselves as
candidates for an office, no one of them should call a meeting or
address an audience in any part of the district without notifying
all the other candidates, that they might have the opportunity to be
present to answer their opponent and make a plea in their own behalf.
A young and aspiring member of the party, whose father had grown
gray in the vain hope of a "rotation" in this office in his favor,
determined to take advantage of this "established law" of the party,
and, if possible, secure for himself the office for which his venerable
father had so long waited in vain. He accordingly announced himself as
a candidate for the office, purchased a very superior horse--there was
then no railroad in the district--published a list of appointments to
address the people of the district at different places on successive
days, but made these appointments so far apart--some eighty miles or
more--that it was impossible for his venerable opponent to ride the
distance. He had complied with the "letter of the law," but it was
one of those cases where "the letter killeth." Young, vigorous, and
possessing great powers of endurance, he would address the people at
one o'clock in the afternoon, and then make a long ride far into the
night if necessary, and start early in the morning and ride an equal
distance to the next afternoon appointment. In this manner he canvassed
the district alone. He made his speeches and had no one to answer
them. He had the fullest possible opportunity to tell the people how
long they had honored his opponent, that he had no further possible
claims upon their suffrages, and to make very earnest and even pathetic
appeals in his own behalf. His venerable opponent was not present to
counteract the force of these appeals, either by the eloquence he had
acquired in Congress, or with his once effective fiddle; and so this
son of a disappointed office-seeking father not only triumphed in the
horseback "race," but "made the political race" for the office sought,
and took his seat in Congress. I heard him make several speeches to his
constituents, but thought them far less remarkable than the John Gilpin
features of his political campaign.
I have already remarked that sometimes as many as half a dozen persons
would announce themselves as candidates for the same office at the
opening of a political campaign. As the canvass progressed, one after
another would become satisfied that his prospects were entirely
hopeless, and publicly announce his withdrawal from the race. On one
occasion I heard a candidate announce his withdrawal in a speech that I
thought described the condition of a great many politicians. It was as
follows:
"My fellow-citizens, I came before you at the opening of this campaign
and announced myself as a candidate for sheriff of the county. I now
appear before you to withdraw from the race. I have a great many
friends, strong friends. They stand up to me nobly. Nobody could wish
for better friends. There is only this one trouble in my case--_I
haven't got quite enough of them_.
"I have already gone so far in this race that I don't know myself.
I have lost myself entirely. When I go into the different precincts
and hear all the tales that they have got afloat about me, and the
character that they give me, it is somebody that I don't know anything
about--somebody that I never heard of before. Fellow-citizens, it
isn't me, I assure you, that they are talking about. They have mistaken
the man. If any of you should want to know anything about _me_, just
ask the boys in my precinct. They know me. They will tell you. They all
stand up for me."
I will relate but one more veritable incident to illustrate political
life in the Brush, and to show the expedients sometimes resorted to
by able and eloquent men to make sure of an election to an important
office. I had spent a Sabbath and preached in behalf of the American
Bible Society at a small county-seat town upon one of the large rivers
in the Southwest. While at breakfast on Monday morning, the circuit
judge of that judicial district, who was a resident of the village,
sent his colored boy to the house where I was staying, with the message
that he had heard that I was going to Big Spring that day, and he
wished to know whether I was going in the morning or afternoon. He said
that he had expected to go there in the morning, but if he could have
my company he would defer his ride. As I had an appointment to meet the
officers of the county Bible Society, and attend to the appointment
of a Bible-distributor, and order Bibles from New York for the supply
of the county, I sent back word to him that I could not close up my
business so as to leave until afternoon.
After dinner we mounted our horses and started upon our pleasant ride
of about twenty miles. The day was pleasant, the distance not great,
the Judge was intelligent and a very fine talker, and I enjoyed the
ride greatly. In former visits to the village I had been a guest in
his family, when he had been absent from home, holding his courts in
distant parts of his district, so that I had not before become as well
acquainted with him as I was with his family.
I had been greatly interested and delighted with my long conversations
with his venerable mother, and on her account I was very happy to enjoy
this long horseback-ride and pleasant talk with her distinguished son.
She was one of the most interesting and remarkable women I have ever
met in any part of our country. She was one among the first white
children born west of the Alleghanies. Her father had participated
in the early Indian wars, and her recollections and rehearsals of
the thrilling scenes of early border life and warfare, were the most
vivid and interesting of any to which I have ever listened. Born in a
frontier cabin, with but few neighbors, surrounded by wild beasts and
Indians, the toils, hardships, and excitements of their pioneer life
gave little opportunity for education, and she told me that her entire
school-life was less than nine months. And yet I have rarely conversed
with any one whose language was more smooth, correct, and elevated. The
secret of this seemed to lie in the fact that she had read and reread
the writings of Sir Walter Scott until not only all his sentiments and
characters, but his very style, had become her own. She would repeat
his poetry by the hour with wonderful taste and beauty. Scotch blood
flowed in her veins, and the warmest love of the fatherland glowed
in her heart. With a wonderful command of language, with an easy,
elevated, and flowing style, she would for hours together relate the
thrilling scenes of her childhood, and the varied incidents of her
early border life. Her admiration of her father, and especially of his
bravery, was unbounded. I remember the pride with which she told me of
a visit she once received from a veteran hunter and Indian fighter,
who had been a companion of her father in those early struggles and
conflicts, and of the fervor of his parting benediction; "Jenny, God
bless you, you are the child of a HERO, as brave as ever shouldered a
rifle!"
Kind and genial, as full of sunshine as of stories of the olden time,
beloved by old and young, the evening of her life was truly beautiful.
Many years have passed since I saw the dear old lady, and I do not know
that she is now alive, but I do know that she has not been forgotten.
Her measured, flowing periods still roll on in my memory, her quiet,
sunny smile beams on me now, as when I sat at her hospitable hearth and
board.
I was very happy to have an otherwise lonely afternoon's ride beguiled
with the company of the son of such a mother. I had never heard
the Judge speak, either in court or upon the stump; but he had an
established reputation as an able lawyer and eloquent speaker. I
soon found that he had inherited the conversational powers of his
mother, and the time wore pleasantly away as we rode on. At length our
conversation turned upon the present method of attaining judicial and
all other offices, and he gave me the following chapter in his own
experience, which I reproduce from memory. In justice to my friend
the Judge, I should say that he expressed himself as entirely opposed
in principle to an elective judiciary, and gave this chapter in his
own experience as an illustration of the way in which even a judicial
election _could_ be carried.
"I made," said the Judge, "a very thorough canvass of the district
with my opponent. We closed our public discussions, and I returned
home a few days before the election, which was to come off on the
first Monday in August. My opponent was Judge K----, whom you know as
a very worthy man, a perfect gentleman, and a superior judge. He was
honored by the bar, popular with the people, and a very hard man to
defeat. He had held the office several years. I wanted it, had worked
very hard for it, and was determined to gain it if possible. I looked
over the district very carefully, made the closest estimate I could,
and found I should be defeated unless I could make very heavy gains
in some precinct. It was a desperate case, and I could in honor only
electioneer on the 'still hunt.' I concluded to mount my horse and
ride to C---- F----, which you have visited, and know is about the
most ignorant and uncivilized region in the State. I thought it more
than probable that I would find a barbecue-dance in progress there on
Saturday afternoon, at which all the people in the precinct would be
present. When I arrived I found a dance in full progress in the open
air under the trees, and an ox roasting over the fire near by. It was
the last of July, and very hot and very dry. A perfect cone of dust
arose above the crowd, in which all the dancers were enveloped. It was
a strange, wild scene--a scene to be witnessed nowhere else but in the
wildest portions of our southwestern wilds. There were old men and old
grizzly-headed women, young men and young women, parents and children,
grandparents and grandchildren, all mingling together and dancing with
backwoods energy and wild delight. As I dismounted, hitched my horse,
and went up and joined those that were looking on, one and another
saluted me, very respectfully, with
"'How dy, Broadcloth?'
"As the weather was very warm, I had worn from home a black alpaca
sack-coat. This was the only deviation from home-made butternut-colored
jeans in the entire crowd. My black coat, therefore, distinguished
me from everybody else; and as I walked about among the people the
invariable salutation was,
"'How dy, Broadcloth?'
"I moved around among them very quietly an hour or more, observing all
that was going on, and watching for the most favorable opportunity to
make myself known to them and win their favor. At length my course was
clearly settled in my own mind. I saw what would be my opportunity. I
could see that the fiddler was already so drunk that he would fall off
the block, dead drunk before a great while. I had learned to play the
fiddle when a boy. I could take the fiddler's place, and prevent the
calamity of a complete break-up of the dance.
"His powers of motion failed sooner than I had expected, and there was
great sorrow in all the company. After a while I intimated quietly to
some of them that I could play the fiddle, and they shouted at the top
of their voices:
"'Broadcloth can fiddle! Broadcloth can fiddle! Hurra for Broadcloth!'
"'At once there was a general rush of the company about me, all of them
imploring me to take the fiddle and play for them. I replied, very
positively:
"'No, gentlemen, I won't fiddle for you!'
"'Why not, Broadcloth? Why not?' they all responded.
"'I will tell you why not,' I said. 'I came here a stranger, and you
haven't treated me with any civility at all; you haven't invited me
to dance; haven't introduced me to the ladies; haven't made me one of
yourselves at all; and I won't fiddle for you.'
"But they made so many apologies for the past and promises for the
future that I finally relented, changed my mind, and agreed to fiddle
for them. This announcement was greeted with a general shout of joy. I
then began to brag in the most extravagant manner possible. I told them
that, when they saw me draw the bow, it would be such music as they
had never heard since they were born. I took off my coat, unbuttoned
my shirt, rolled up my sleeves, took the fiddle, and drew the bow
across it, back and forth, for a minute or two, with all my might. They
responded to this very noisy musical demonstration with a scream and
yell of wild delight and a 'Hurra for Broadcloth!' I took my seat and
began to play just before sundown, and played--until the sun was up the
next morning. During the night they came around me, and said:
"'Who are you, Broadcloth, anyway?'
"I told them I was a candidate.
"They shouted:
"'Broadcloth is a candidate! Hurra for Broadcloth!' And then asked me
what I was a candidate for.
"I told them I was a candidate for circuit judge, and they repeated:
"'Broadcloth is a candidate for circuit judge. Hurra for Broadcloth for
circuit judge!'
"This was as much information as I dared to give them in one
installment. I did not wish to give them any more until what I had told
them was perfectly fixed in their minds, so that they would not make
any mistake when they came to vote on the following Monday.
"One of them, a little more thoughtful than the rest, came to me
afterward, and, applying an oath to the party to which I belonged,
said he hoped I was not a ---- ----. I did not, in behalf of myself
or party, resent the oath or favor him with any definite reply to his
question. I knew that the greater part of the company generally voted
with the opposite party, and that, enthusiastic as they now were in
my favor, too much information on this point would be fatal to my
prospects. I felt quite sure that neither my opponent nor any of his
friends would give them this information, and undo the work I had
accomplished between that time and Monday morning.
"As the morning dawned, in response to the inquiries of some of the
more enthusiastic of my friends, I gave them my name in full, which was
greeted and repeated in cheer after cheer.
"When I bade them good-by, mounted my horse and rode away, they
followed me with their cheers, and when out of sight among the dense
forest trees I could still hear their enthusiastic
"'Hurra for S----, candidate for circuit judge!'
"When the election returns were announced, every vote in the C----
F---- precinct had been cast for me. That night's work with the fiddle
secured my election."