“Arrow,” in the _Christian Endeavor World_, reads this lesson to
Christian voters:
“Well, I suppose it’s Alderman Smith to-day.”
“Alderman--nothing!”
“What? Do you mean to say Smith wasn’t elected?”
“Precisely. Lost it by forty-one votes.”
“Well, well, well! Why, I thought Smith was popular, such a
nice, clean fellow; and smart, too.”
“He is popular.”
“And I thought his opponent was a scallawag.”
“He is. The rummies were all for him, and he celebrated his
victory with a big free-for-all debauch. I guess our ward’ll be
open enough now, all right.”
“But what was the matter? I suppose Smith lay back and took it
easy.”
“No, sir! He got out and hustled for himself.”
“Then he probably had no machine to back him.”
“Ah, but he had; and some of the best politicians in the city
worked for him. Why, nearly all the strongest men in the ward
signed a paper in his interest, and every one got a copy a day
before the election.”
“But they couldn’t have known the issue at stake--between
decency and indecency, character and hoodlumism.”
“They did, if words could make it clear.”
“Then why, in the name of all that is reasonable, in that pious
ward of yours, wasn’t Smith elected?”
“Just because about sixty of the pious men stayed at home or let
their sons neglect to vote. We know the names of that many who
didn’t vote. Tried to get them to come out, telephone and all
that; but no good. Too busy. Or they ‘weren’t needed.’ And the
other side got out every man.”
“Those pious men go to prayer-meeting?”
“Well, I don’t know what you think about it, but I’d rather have
one X opposite Smith’s name on that ballot than ten years of
prayer-meeting eloquence without it.”
“Yes, most of them; and my! but they shine when the topic is a
patriotic one.”
“So’d I.” (Text.)
(184)
=Banks, Making, Useful=--See SAVING DISAPPROVED.