A Gentleman from Mississippi

carried his 230 pounds with ease, bespeaking great muscular power in spite of his gray hairs. His rugged courage, unswerving honesty an

im, but most folks don't know this because their own virt

But the stirring events of the past had served to increase the planter's fondness for his home life and his children, whose mother had died years before. At times he regretted th

on's visit he sat in his library conferring with several prominent citizens of his county regarding a plan to ask Congress to

s gravely decorous negro bodyguard, who boasted that he "wuz brung up by Cunel Marse Langd

right in," command

ing around the room, he continued, bending toward the Colonel and muffling his now w

" was the reply in no uncertain voice. "When I talk politics they have a per

the face and stared at Langdon, amazed. At last he had discovered somethin

s a business?" quickly

am in politics for my party's sake, just like everybody

sked Langdon, in a tone hinting that

sk about an appointment an' to tip you off on a couple o' propositions. I want Jim Hagley taken care of-you've heard

zation, aren't you

help those that don't. Why, Langdon, what'n h-l are you kickin' an' questioning' about? Didn't you get my twelve votes in the Legislature? Did you have a chance for Senator without 'em? Answer

y aroused Senator-elect, rising and shaking his clenched fis

ne. I tell you, jest like I had 'em in my pocket, an' that's where I

Capitol that I would not make you or anybody else any promise

ose to leave, in spite of the urgent request of Colonel Langdon that they remain. The only one reluctant to go was Deacon Amos Smallwood,

stretched his five feet three inches of stature on tiptoe, and

You're unrighteous! You should have belonged to th

Sanders, deeply puzzled. "Guess they

over the leg of a chair, he fell headlong into the arms of the watchful Jackson, who r

ou were careful not to personally promise me anything for my support at the election, as you say," the leade

ult to a man elected Senator from Mississippi, an insult to my State and to my friend Sen

el Langdon, a Senator is a man who holds out for his own pocket as much as us fello

nees shook, and he sank weakly into a chair. When he finally spoke his voice was strained and laborious. "Sanders, you and I, sir, must never meet again, because I might not succeed in keeping my hands off you. What would my old comrades of the Third Mississippi say if they saw me sitting here and

se you, the sole accuser, are the only

s he had and in dragging the name of Senator Stevens into the controversy. He must try to keep Stevens from hearing of this day's blunder,

ge of actual happenings that give you the right to talk as you have? I want to know if I must feel shame, feel disgrace, sir, t

t my head because you wouldn't promise me something I needed-that appointment for Hagley. What I said about Senators an' such was all wild words-not

ldn't be; it isn't possible. Now you go, sir, and let it be your gr

You may need my help some day, but you'l

id, '

ht to live. I'm a human bein', an' humans are pretty much the same all over th

s table, his head resting in his hand, the eve

nto," he murmured. "Fighting o conquer oneself is harder than tur

only just begun, that perhaps his own flesh and blood and that of the wife and mother