He attracted to the grim old man the loyalty of the youth
of the State, and at the same time won that loyalty for himself. He had
come forward at a time when men were ready to accept new ideals, even
if they were obliged to wade to them through such mire as now soiled the
execution of the new laws.
That proposed convention for the unprejudiced consideration of the
liquor laws was taking form. The intemperate radicals were the only ones
declaiming against "compromise with the devil." But the new conditions
were revealing the real colors of those impractical zealots, and it was
plain that their noisy minority would no longer be allowed to bluster
down the truer and more equable spirit of "the best for all the people."
The men and women of the State were taking time to analyze some of those
high-sounding phrases with which so-called temperance had disguised
vicious theories which left human nature out of the equation.
The politicians of the old school remained aloof.
They were pointing to "the wreck of the party.
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