The Candidacy of Mr.Smith "Boys," said Mr.Smith to the two hostlers, stepping out on to the sidewalk in front of the hotel,--"hoist that there British Jack over the place and hoist her up good."Then he stood and watched the flag fluttering in the wind."Billy,"he said to the desk clerk, "get a couple more and put them up on the roof of the caff behind the hotel.Wire down to the city and get a quotation on a hundred of them.Take them signs 'American Drinks' out of the bar.Put up noo ones with 'British Beer at all Hours'; clear out the rye whiskey and order in Scotch and Irish, and then go up to the printing office and get me them placards."Then another thought struck Mr.Smith.
"Say, Billy," he said, "wire to the city for fifty pictures of King George.Get 'em good, and get 'em coloured.It don't matter what they cost.""All right, sir," said Billy.
"And Billy," called Mr.Smith, as still another thought struck him (indeed, the moment Mr.Smith went into politics you could see these thoughts strike him like waves), "get fifty pictures of his father, old King Albert.""All right, sir."
"And say, I tell you, while you're at it, get some of the old queen, Victorina, if you can.Get 'em in mourning, with a harp and one of them lions and a three-pointed prong."It was on the morning after the Conservative Convention.Josh Smith had been chosen the candidate.And now the whole town was covered with flags and placards and there were bands in the streets every evening, and noise and music and excitement that went on from morning till night.
Election times are exciting enough even in the city.But there the excitement dies down in business hours.In Mariposa there aren't any business hours and the excitement goes on all the time.
Mr.Smith had carried the Convention before him.There had been a feeble attempt to put up Nivens.But everybody knew that he was a lawyer and a college man and wouldn't have a chance by a man with a broader outlook like Josh Smith.
So the result was that Smith was the candidate and there were placards out all over the town with SMITH AND BRITISH ALLEGIANCE in big letters, and people were wearing badges with Mr.Smith's face on one side and King George's on the other, and the fruit store next to the hotel had been cleaned out and turned into committee rooms with a gang of workers smoking cigars in it all day and half the night.
There were other placards, too, with BAGSHAW AND LIBERTY, BAGSHAW ANDPROSPERITY, VOTE FOR THE OLD MISSINABA STANDARD BEARER, and up town beside the Mariposa House there were the Bagshaw committee rooms with a huge white streamer across the street, and with a gang of Bagshaw workers smoking their heads off.
But Mr.Smith had an estimate made which showed that nearly two cigars to one were smoked in his committee rooms as compared with the Liberals.It was the first time in five elections that the Conservative had been able to make such a showing as that.
One might mention, too, that there were Drone placards out,--five or six of them,--little things about the size of a pocket handkerchief, with a statement that "Mr.Edward Drone solicits the votes of the electors of Missinaba County." But you would never notice them.And when Drone tried to put up a streamer across the Main Street with DRONE AND HONESTY the wind carried it away into the lake.
The fight was really between Smith and Bagshaw, and everybody knew it from the start.
I wish that I were able to narrate all the phases and the turns of the great contest from the opening of the campaign till the final polling day.But it would take volumes.
First of all, of course, the trade question was hotly discussed in the two newspapers of Mariposa, and the Newspacket and the Times-Herald literally bristled with statistics.Then came interviews with the candidates and the expression of their convictions in regard to tariff questions.
"Mr.Smith," said the reporter of the Mariposa Newspacket, "we'd like to get your views of the effect of the proposed reduction of the differential duties.""By gosh, Pete," said Mr.Smith, "you can search me.Have a cigar.""What do you think, Mr.Smith, would be the result of lowering the ad valorem British preference and admitting American goods at a reciprocal rate?""It's a corker, ain't it?" answered Mr.Smith."What'll you take, lager or domestic?"And in that short dialogue Mr.Smith showed that he had instantaneously grasped the whole method of dealing with the press.
The interview in the paper next day said that Mr.Smith, while unwilling to state positively that the principle of tariff discrimination was at variance with sound fiscal science, was firmly of opinion that any reciprocal interchange of tariff preferences with the United States must inevitably lead to a serious per capita reduction of the national industry.
"Mr.Smith," said the chairman of a delegation of the manufacturers of Mariposa, "what do you propose to do in regard to the tariff if you're elected?""Boys," answered Mr.Smith, "I'll put her up so darned high they won't never get her down again.""Mr.Smith," said the chairman of another delegation, "I'm an old free trader--""Put it there," said Mr.Smith, "so'm I.There ain't nothing like it.""What do you think about imperial defence?" asked another questioner.
"Which?" said Mr.Smith.
"Imperial defence."
"Of what?"
"Of everything."
"Who says it?" said Mr.Smith.
"Everybody is talking of it."
"What do the Conservative boys at Ottaway think about it?" answered Mr.Smith.
"They're all for it."
"Well, I'm fer it too," said Mr.Smith.
