Produced by Al Haines
New York
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1902
All rights reserved
Those familiar with the early history of Western New York will know the
"Tuscarora Stories" of this volume for twice-told tales which the
author has ventured to adapt from the suggestive "Pioneer History of
Orleans County," by Judge Arad Thomas.
The Henchman
It was the custom of the geographers of a period not remote to grapplesomewhat jejune facts to the infant mind by means of fancifulcomparison: thus, Italy was likened to a boot, France to a coffee-pot,and the European domain of the Sultan to a ruffling turkey. In thispleasant scheme the state of New York was made to figure as a couchantlion, his massy head thrust high in the North Country, his forepawsdabbled in the confluence of the Hudson and the Sound, his middle andhinder parts stretched lazily westward to Lake Erie and the Niagara.Roughly speaking, in this noble animal's rounding haunch, which Ontariocools, lies the Demijohn Congressional District whose majority partywas now in convention assembled. In election returns and officialutterances generally the Demijohn District bore a number like everydistrict in the land, but the singular shape lent it by the lastgerrymander had settled its popular title till another politicaloverturn should distort its outline afresh.
The spokesman of the defeated faction had been recognized by the chair,and was moving that the convention's choice of the gentleman fromTuscarora County be declared unanimous. His manner was even moreperfunctory than his words.
"The name of Calvin Ross Shelby," he ended colorlessly, "spellssuccess."
"Screws it out as if it hurt him," whispered the Hon. Seneca Bowers tothe nominee. "I tell you, Ross, there's no argument like delegates."
Bowers was a thick-set man of the later sixties, with a certain surfaceresemblance to General Grant of which he was vain. So far as he couldhe underlined the likeness, affecting a close-trimmed beard, a campaignhat, and the inevitable cigar; when the occasion promised publicitysufficient to outweigh the physical discomfort he even rode onhorseback; and he was a notable figure on Decoration Day and at allpublic ceremonies of the Grand Army of the Republic. Shelby was hisprotégé.
The present member of Congress from the Demijohn District, whose seatShelby coveted, may be most charitably described as a man of tactlessintegrity. His course in Washington had been a thorn in the side ofthe organization by whose sufferance he rose, with the upshot that theTartar neared the end of his stewardship backed by a faction ratherthan a party. The faction clamored for his renomination and pushedtheir spirited, if poorly generalled, fight to the floor of theconvention. In debate they were eloquent, in logic unanswerable; nordid any one attempt to answer them. With the bes