This calm old man from whose fibre of ambition the years had burned out
selfishness, greed, graft, and chicanery was a different proposition.
His words sounded as though he meant what he said. And when he asked
the chairman if he had any objection to offer to a system of
administration that carried out exactly what the party had put in its
pledges to the people, Presson glowered at him with hatred in his soul
and malice twinkling in his eyes, and could find no language that would
not brand him as a conspirator against the honor of his State.
But he went back to headquarters swearing and sulking.
In this spirit did candidate and managers face the campaign.
It is not easy to hide family squabbles of that magnitude. The men
concerned in the principal secret of the State Convention kept their
mouths shut for the sake of self-preservation. But unquiet suspicion was
abroad. The Democrats nosed, figured, guessed, and acted with more
duplicity than had characterized their usual campaigns against the
dominant party.
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