ence in the gallery of
many of the fair daughters of the old Hoosier State. (Applause.) They
hover above us like guardian angels. They have come in the spirit that
brought their sisters of old to watch true knights battle in the
tourney. As a mark of respect to these ladies who do us so much honor, I
ask the chair to request gentlemen to desist from smoking, and that the
sergeant-at-arms be ordered to enforce the rule throughout our
deliberations." (Long-continued applause.)

The state chairman was annoyed and showed his annoyance. He had been
about to ingratiate himself with the ladies by making this request
unprompted; he made it now, but the gentleman from Fraser sat down
conscious that the renewed applause was his.

"Why don't they keep on smoking?" asked Mrs. Owen. "The hall couldn't
be any fuller of smoke than it is now."

"If they would all put on their coats the room would be more beautiful,"
said Marian. "They always say the Republicans are much more gentlemanly
than the Democrats."

"Hush, Marian; some one might hear you," Mrs. Bassett cautioned.

She did not understand her husband's absence; he rarely or never took
her into his confidence in political matters. She had not known until
that morning that he was not to be present at the convention. She did
not relish the idea that he had been defeated in the primaries; in her
mind defeat was inseparable from dishonor. The "War Eagle of the Wabash"
was in excellent voice and he spoke for thirty minutes; his speech would
have aroused greater enthusiasm if it had not been heard in many
previous state conventions and on the hustings through many campaigns.
Dan Voorhees had once expressed his admiration of that speech; and it
was said that Tom Hendricks had revised the original manuscript the year
he was chosen Vice-President. It was a safe speech, containing nothing
that any good American might not applaud; it named practically every
Democratic President except the twenty-second and twenty-fourth, whom it
seemed the better part of valor just then to ignore. With slight
emendations that same oration served admirably for high-school
commencements, and it had a recognized cash value on the Chautauqua
circuit. The peroration, closing with "Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of
State!" was well calculated to bring strong men to their feet. The only
complaint the War Eagle might have lodged against the Ship of State (in
some imaginable admiralty court having jurisdiction of t