Election Day
Election day dawned bright and clear and all Roma was up early, actively
interested for once in the outcome of the day's work. The polling places
were lively at seven o'clock and from that hour they grew more and more
crowded, as men and women of all parties swarmed to deposit their
ballots according to the Australian system. Never before in the history
of the town had so many voters been out on the day of a municipal
election.
The women had opened coffee-rooms for the day close by all the important
voting booths, and wives and daughters of the most prominent men in
town served the steaming beverage by turns throughout the election hours
free to all who might come. Moreover, they saw to it that no voter who
mustered under the City Reform Club banner, was neglected. It would be
too much to assume that the liquor stands were outdone, but at least the
"Progressive Workers" were the means of sending many men home sober that
day, and of rescuing a few of the tempted ones.
The leaders of the different parties were here, there and everywhere,
looking after the interests of their respective candidates, talking,
persuading, urging or buying the dilatory or vacillating vote. And the
women found, early in the day, that in order to compete with the
opposition, they must stay close to the polls.
"What shall we do? How divide our forces?" they asked.
Bailey Armstrong had just dropped into the coffee-room in the principal
ward.
"Well, something, and at once," he said. "Sam Watts is everywhere,
guiding his committees and buying up votes. Morgan and Jack Allingham,
too, are getting down to business."
"Then Mr. Allingham is able to be out?" inquired Gertrude, at Bailey's
side.
"He is out, able or unable," returned Bailey. "And they are leaving no
stone unturned to get votes. I guess you'll have to come and turn a few
cobblestones yourself--"
"Yes, Gertrude," said Mrs. Bateman, "you'll have to. I'll go the rounds
with you."
"Mrs. Stillman and I will go over to ward seven," said Mrs. Jewett.
"Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Turner to ward three, and Mrs. Wentworth and Grace
Tolman to ward two. And we'll get out some others. You couldn't go,
could you, Miss Snow?"
"I am writing up the woman's part of today's battle," returned Mary
Snow. "I shall go to every ward, and will help what I can,--but I cannot
neglect my paper. _The Atlas_ is going to give us all the space we can
fill tonight."
"_The Atlas_ has been good to us all through," said Gertrude. "We have
one paper--and a decent one--we can depend upon."
It was arranged that the women should divide themselves into committees
of two at each voting booth, these couples to shift every hour or two,
so that Gertrude Van Deusen might be seen at every booth.
"One would think I had been on view long enough so that every man, woman
and child should be familiar with my features by this time," she
laughed, remembering her constant appearance on the platform during the
campaign. "Yet they are saying in some of the lower wards, that the
voters have never laid eyes on me. Well, they shall have the chance."
Had it not been that the love of battle and of conquest had been born
and bred in the old Senator's daughter, Gertrude would have sickened
already of politics and politicians and the mass of feeble humanity that
was like clay in the hands of the potter. For in spite of the real
interest of the more intelligent citizens, there were the usual
hangers-on and heelers,--men who had no civic sense, no idea of public
duty, no moral stamina; men who sold their votes openly and as a matter
of course.
"What'll you women give me?" asked one of these derelicts of Mrs.
Bateman. "Burke's crowd has given me two dollars. If you'll make it
three, I'll vote for your candidate."
"We are not buying votes, sir," replied the Judge's wife. "We have no
respect for a man who will sell his vote. But we will give you, in
return for yours, the satisfaction of feeling that you are a man among
men; that you are doing the right and honorable thing, and that you are
helping to establish an honest government here in Roma. Isn't your
manhood worth more than two or even three dollars to you?"
"Well," returned the man after a speechless moment, "I'll be dinged if
it isn't! I am going to vote for you, anyhow." Which he proceeded to do,
although in somewhat maudlin fashion.
At ward three, Miss Van Deusen came face to face with John Allingham. It
was an awkward moment for both. Gertrude flushed, but she carried her
head high, and said "Good morning," with so much cordiality that
Allingham felt more awkward than ever.
All night he had slept but fitfully, and in his wakeful hours had
regretted with self-denunciation, that his name was to be voted upon
that day. In his waking dreams he had thought once of withdrawing his
candidacy, even at the polls. When he slept, he was riding once more,
through the beautiful night--not alone, locked into the cab--but with
Gertrude Van Deusen beside him, talking in her sweet musical voice, of
things far removed from Roma and its dirty politics. The mobile face,
the starry eyes, the delicate perfume that enwrapped her, lingered with
him, and when he waked, it was difficult to cast the memory aside and to
gather his wits for the fight which he must make against her that day,
for an office he did not want;--but on the other hand, more than ever
did he want her not to have it. That beautiful and gracious young woman
he told himself, endowed with rare graces of mind and soul,--she must
not be allowed to soil herself with the political machinery at City
Hall. She had been misguided, led into this candidacy by those other
women, strong-minded suffragists. Was it not his duty to get out and
work for her defeat?
And so he arose and dressed, and although hotly opposed by his
women-folk, who thought he should stay in bed and be carefully nursed
for a week, he went forth, his face adorned with surgeon's plaster and
his heart full of mixed motives, to the fray.
"You are none the worse for your ride?" he said to her. "You are sure
you were not hurt?"
"No, not a bit," laughed Gertrude. "There isn't even the odor of
liniment about me. But you,--your hurts must pain you? You were badly
used up last night. Ought you to be out?" And then she blushed,
remembering he was out to defeat her.
"Oh, I am well again," he returned, "only these bits of plaster make me
out worse than I am. As soon as this election is over I'm going to find
out who was at the bottom of that devilish plot."
"You'll never find out," said Bailey Armstrong, coming up at that
moment. "It was some of Burke's dirty work, but they've covered their
tracks mighty well. I've been making inquiries this morning. There isn't
an electric cab in this city."
"Then they came over from Bonborough--or Plattsville," said Allingham.
"There are plenty of them there."
"Yes, many," returned Armstrong. "But we shall never learn the truth.
The trick was done so well that the perpetrators know how to cover
their tracks."
But a bevy of voters coming in, the conversation ended and Gertrude did
not see her opponent again that day.
At six o'clock that evening, she lay on the couch in her own room, weary
with the day's experiences. For all she had considered herself well
posted in political methods, this day had been a revelation to her.
"Well, Jessica," she told her cousin, "I suppose we shall know before we
go to bed how I stand. But at this moment, after all I've seen today and
realizing the state our city affairs are in, I will own to you in
confidence that I hope--honestly and earnestly,--that I am defeated.
John Allingham may have the mayor's chair and welcome. I've seen enough
of it already, and I tell you I am sick at heart."
"And what if it is Barnaby Burke who comes off victorious?" asked her
cousin.
"Well, I am not sufficiently discouraged to be willing to have that
happen," said Gertrude. "Still--between you and me,--I don't 'want the
job,' as I heard one man express it today. But, even if I lose the
election, it will always be a comfort to me to remember how the
working-people came out for me,--as well as to know just who, among my
father's old friends, can be reckoned as mine. And now, I want a little
nap before dinner."
Down at the headquarters of the City Reform Club Judge Bateman and his
colleagues awaited the result of the count. With them were many of the
"Progressive Workers," eager for news. The Union Club, the hotels and
Burke's headquarters were crowded, while John Allingham and his trusted
lieutenants were gathered at the Municipal League rooms. Returns came in
slowly and the crowds on the street clamored for news faster than the
bulletins could be given out.
At ten o'clock John Allingham was obliged to retreat and go home,
physically worn out. The accident of the previous evening, combined with
the excitement of the day, had proved too much for him. He was already
in bed when the final returns reached him by telephone. Then he shut and
locked his door, refusing to speak to another soul that night,--not even
to his mother when she came up to see if he had taken the doctor's
medicine.
Gertrude Van Deusen, too, remained in her room alone. Face to face with
the decisive moment of victory or defeat, she could not see anyone. She
was too tired to care much whether she had won or lost, although she
recalled now, as a hopeful augury, that she had never yet been defeated
for any office for which she had run in the various women's societies to
which she belonged.
"Let John Allingham have the place, if he can get it," she was saying to
herself for the fiftieth time, as the mantel clock chimed out the
half-past ten. "I am swept under by a queer psychological wave of
repulsion. I hope I shall lose."
But she was aroused just then by the sound of women's voices on the
stairs,--laughing and chattering,--and she felt the note of triumph
ringing through her brain as they came up to her door.
"Hurrah for Roma's Woman Mayor!" cried the first one to enter. "Here's
to Her Honor the Mayor."
At the same moment John Allingham and Barnaby Burke were saying to
themselves with a choice of words befitting their habitual language:
"Defeated! and by a Woman!"
And Burke added:
"I wonder now, just what happened in that cab last night. That was a
mistake."