et. Wherefore,
Richard did not take his place in the procession and waver painfully
forward, at a snail's pace, to shake the Presidential hand. It was a
foolish ceremony at which Richard's self-respect rebelled. There was no
hand, no masculine hand, at least, which Richard would wait in line to
grasp.

Richard, while declining to become part of the pageant, looked on. It
was worth while as a study in human nature. The President peculiarly
claimed his notice; by every sign it was this man who would oppose
Senator Hanway, if the latter gentleman achieved his ambition and was
put forward to lead his party's ticket. Richard compared the present
handshaking President with Senator Hanway, the latter being thereby
advanced. The President was a smooth, smug personage, of an appetite
rather than an ambition for office. Ambition is a captain, appetite a
camp-follower; for which reason the President was one who would never
lead, never oppose a movement. Essentially, he was of the candidate
class. Indeed, he had, as an individual, the best characteristics of a
canal. He was narrow, even, currentless, with a mental fall of two feet
in the mile. He lived conservatively between his banks, and went never
so foolishly lucid as to show you how shallow he was. Just a trifle
thick, he seemed to the eye as deep as the skies were high; any six-foot
question, however, would have sounded him.

And yet he was in his day much lauded as a safe executive. There may
have been truth in that. Your man of timid, slim, and shallow
mediocrities, comparable to a canal, is not to be despised. He will not
be the Mississippi, truly; he will sweep away no bridges, overflow no
regions roundabout; no navies will battle on his bosom; the world in its
giant commerces will not make of him a thoroughfare. But he will mean
safety and profit for a horde of little special selfish interests, and
that is the sort of President a day dominated of Money demands. In the
far Southwest the cattle barons knock the horns off cattle; a hornless
steer comes to the slaughter pen more quietly and with less of threat to
those who handle him. In a day when Money rules as King, its first care
is to knock the horns off originality and brains. Money wants no great
horned mental forces roaming the world; they might become a threat.
Richard thought on these matters as he considered this conservative,
careful White House one, whose pains had ever been to think nothing that
hadn't been t