s ragged
cigar sticking from the corner of his mouth, with his black eyes
blazing, and his shock of black hair on end, begging, bulldozing, and
buying delegates to vote for him. He had the river wards behind him to
a man, and he had the upland townships where the farmers needed a
second name on their notes at the bank; and in the gentleman's
ward--the silk-stocking ward--he had Gabriel Carnine, chairman of
the first ward delegation, casting the solid vote of that ward for
Bemis ballot after ballot. And when Bemis got Minneola township for
fifty dollars,--and everybody in the convention knew it,--he was
declared the nominee of the party with a whoop.

But behind Bemis was the sinister figure of young John Barclay working
for his Elevator Company. He needed Bemis in politics, and Bemis
needed Barclay in business. And there the alliance between Barclay and
Bemis was cemented, to last for a quarter of a century. Barclay and
Bemis went into the campaign together and asked the people to rally to
the support of the party that had put down the rebellion, that had
freed four million slaves, and had put the names of Lincoln and of
Grant and Garfield as stars in the world's firmament of heroes. And
the people of Garrison County responded, and State Senator Elijah
Westlake Bemis did for Barclay in the legislature the things that
Barclay would have preferred not to do for himself, and the Golden
Belt Elevator Company throve and waxed fat. And Lige Bemis, its
attorney, put himself in the way of becoming a "general counsel," with
his name on an opaque glass door. For as Barclay rose in the world, he
found the need of Bemis more and more pressing every year. In politics
the favours a man does for others are his capital, and Barclay's
deposit grew large. He was forever helping some one. His standing with
the powers in the state was good. He was a local railroad attorney,
and knew the men who had passes to give, and who were responsible for
the direction which legislation took during the session. Barclay saw
that they put Bemis on the judiciary committee, and by manipulating
the judiciary committee he controlled a dozen votes through Bemis. He
changed a railroad assessment law, secured the passage of a law
permitting his Elevator Company to cheat the farmers by falsely
grading their wheat, and prevented the passage of half a dozen laws
restricting the powers of railroads. So at the close of the
legislative session his name appeared unde