e which staggers the imagination."

The comment set her thoughts running on the accusations of corruption
which were bandied from lip to lip during this campaign.

"Are many votes really bought?" she asked.

"Yes, many," Shelby answered frankly. "I shouldn't care to have you
quote me, but I'll admit that I've sometimes bought them myself."

She was dumfounded at his candor, and half regretted it.

"Is it--is it quite necessary?"

"I think it is--sometimes. And so it will be till the reformers show
the practical politician a better system, or human nature changes its
spots. Indiana was bought for Lincoln in '64. It would take an
unpractical man, even an unpatriotic man, to deny that the crisis did
not justify the step."

"Every candidate is not a Lincoln."

"Nor every year a '64. Timid people compound with their conscience by
calling that Indiana affair a war measure. But we're talking of our
own state, whose political name has justly or unjustly become a hissing
among the nations. I don't deny there's some reason for it. We are
big, with big opportunities for corruption, and the tradition of sharp
practice is of long standing. We bribed, intimidated, and filibustered
in swaddling clothes, and stole a governorship as early as 1791. The
tricks of to-day have all gone stale with handling, for the patriots we
honor were politicians too."

"That is a novel point of view for me," Ruth admitted. "It's so easy
to think the old time the best time." This was the pleader of the
court-house rally, and she forgot the gaucheries and limitations of a
moment since.

"All in all, the Catilines meet their Ciceros," said Shelby; "the
Tildens undo the Tweeds. General Jackson once said he was not a
politician, but if he were, he should be a New York politician. You
see the state is an eternal riddle--'pivotal,' as the saying goes--the
mother of parties, the devotee of none; and there lies half its
fascination for the politician--I might say for the statesman. What
passes for mere politics here might well figure as statesmanship
elsewhere. We don't call our commonwealth the Empire State for naught;
its interests are indeed imperial, and it is no mean office to shape
its destinies. It is the man in politics who does this, whether you
will or no. A free government requires parties, parties require
politicians--in last analysis the mouthpiece of the sovereign people.
I dare say you're wondering what all these gener