"Mr. Smith," said the chairman of a delegation of the manufacturers of
Mariposa, "what do you propose to do in regard to the tariff if you're
elected?"

"Boys," answered Mr. Smith, "I'll put her up so darned high they won't
never get her down again."

"Mr. Smith," said the chairman of another delegation, "I'm an old free
trader--"

"Put it there," said Mr. Smith, "so'm I. There ain't nothing like it."

"What do you think about imperial defence?" asked another questioner.

"Which?" said Mr. Smith.

"Imperial defence."

"Of what?"

"Of everything."

"Who says it?" said Mr. Smith.

"Everybody is talking of it."

"What do the Conservative boys at Ottaway think about it?" answered Mr.
Smith.

"They're all for it."

"Well, I'm fer it too," said Mr. Smith.

These little conversations represented only the first stage, the
argumentative stage of the great contest. It was during this period, for
example, that the Mariposa Newspacket absolutely proved that the price
of hogs in Mariposa was decimal six higher than the price of oranges in
Southern California and that the average decennial import of eggs into
Missinaba County had increased four decimal six eight two in the last
fifteen years more than the import of lemons in New Orleans.

Figures of this kind made the people think. Most certainly.

After all this came the organizing stage and after that the big public
meetings and the rallies. Perhaps you have never seen a county being
"organized." It is a wonderful sight.

First of all the Bagshaw men drove through crosswise in top buggies and
then drove through it again lengthwise. Whenever they met a farmer they
went in and ate a meal with him, and after the meal they took him out to
the buggy and gave him a drink. After that the man's vote was absolutely
solid until it was tampered with by feeding a Conservative.

In fact, the only way to show a farmer that you are in earnest is to go
in and eat a meal with him. If you won't eat it, he won't vote for you.
That is the recognized political test.

But, of course, just as soon as the Bagshaw men had begun to get the
farming vote solidified, the Smith buggies came driving through in the
other direction, eating meals and distributing cigars and turning all
the farmers back into Conservatives.

Here and there you might see Edward Drone, the Independent candidate,
wandering round from farm to farm in the dust of the political buggies.
To each of the fa