"So they are," said Sam. "What is that tune the young ladies are beginning to sing?"
"Don"t you know?" said the Mayor, laughing. "It"s "Captain Jinks."
You"ll know it well enough before you are here long. Listen."
Sam listened and heard sung for the first time lines that were to be imprinted upon his tympanum until they became a torture:
"I"m Captain Jinks of the Cubapines, The pink of human war-machines, Who teaches emperors, kings, and queens The way to run an army."
The news of the kissing reached the City Hall before the procession, and when he alighted there Sam had to kiss an immense number of women who were determined not to be outdone by their sisters at the wharf, while the whole crowd sang "Captain Jinks" in a frenzy of enthusiasm.
The reception accorded to Sam at St. Kisco was so elaborate, and the arrangements made to do him honor were so extended, that he was obliged to stay there for several days. Meanwhile the news of his arrival and of his gallantry in kissing his countrywomen, young and old, spread all over the land and took hold of the popular imagination. Invitations to visit various cities on his way across the Continent began to come in, and everywhere Sam was acclaimed as the hero and idol of the people.
"It"s great, it"s great, old man!" cried Cleary. "Why, that kissing business is worth a dozen victories! The people here say that no general or admiral has had such a send-off in St. Kisco. Look at to-day"s papers! Thirteen places have pet.i.tioned to have their post-offices named after you. There will be Jinksvilles and Jinkstowns everywhere, and one is called Samjinks. Then they"re naming their babies after you like wildfire. Samuela is becoming a common girl"s name, and one chap has called his girl Samjinksina. All the girls are practising the Jinks limp, too. I saw one huge picture of you painted on the dead side of a house. It was an ad. of the "Captain Jinks 5-cent Cigar." That"s the limit of a man"s ambition, I should say. And now they"re beginning to nominate you for President. I"m going to try to work that up. I"m sending a despatch to _The Lyre_ this morning. If they take it up, we can put it through. The Republicrats hold their convention at St. Lewis next month, and they"ve been looking around for a military candidate, and you"re just the thing. Every woman in the country will be for you. They won"t dare to put up a candidate against you. You"ll just have a walk-over. That song, "Captain Jinks," will do it alone. Everybody is singing it."
"I thought I was too young," said Sam. "Isn"t there an age limit?"
"Not a bit of it. They abolished that when they amended the Const.i.tution and made the President"s term six years, and made him ineligible for reelection."
"I"d rather have a military position," said Sam. "I"d rather be general of the army. But I"ve lost my nerve--I"m not well; and perhaps it"s just as well that I should take a civilian position."
"Civilian position! Nonsense! The President is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and the marines, too, for that matter."
"But he hasn"t a uniform," said Sam sorrowfully. "And as for all this kissing, I"m sick of it. It tires me to death, and I don"t know what Marian will think of it. I"ve written to explain that I can"t help it, but she will see the reports first in the papers and she may not like it at all."
"Oh, she"s a sensible woman," said Cleary. "She will understand a political and military necessity. She won"t mind."
CHAPTER XV
Politics
[Ill.u.s.tration]
But Marian did mind, and for once Cleary was mistaken. She was delighted at the prominence which Sam had achieved, and saw him mentioned as a candidate for President with pride and gratification, but she did not see how that excused his promiscuous osculation of the female population of the country, and she determined that it should cease. She wrote to him frequently and decidedly on the subject, and he reported her protests to Cleary, who absolutely refused to allow them.
"It won"t do," said he, as they discussed the subject at a hotel in a small city on their line of progress. "This kissing is your strong point. _The Lyre_ is backing you up on the strength of it. So is the Benevolent a.s.similation Trust, Limited. In every city and town the girls have turned out, and you"ve captured them hands down. If you stop now it will upset the whole business. The Convention delegates are coming out for you by the dozen. Our committee is working it up so that it will be nearly unanimous. There won"t be another serious candidate, and I doubt if they put anybody up against you when you"re nominated.
You"re as good as President now, but you must go on kissing. That"s all there is of it."
Sam wrote to Marian rehearsing these arguments, and he got Cleary to write too, but the letters had no effect. At last he received a telegram from her announcing her intention of meeting him at St. Lewis.
She reached that city before him and was present at the station when he arrived, altho he did not know it, and from a good point of vantage she saw him kissing the young ladies of that city by wholesale to an accompaniment of "Captain Jinks." It was more than she could stand, and when she joined her _fiance_ at the hotel the meeting was very different from the one he had so often pictured to himself. It was a stormy scene, intermixed with tender episodes, but she gave it as her ultimatum that the kissing must cease forthwith, and, in order to give a good reason for it, she insisted that they be married at once. Sam was willing to take this course, and Cleary was called into their counsels. At first he bitterly opposed the project, but Marian"s blandishments finally succeeded, and she gained him as an ally. He was sent as an emissary to the campaign committee and presented the case as strongly as he could for her. The proposition really seemed most plausible. Could anything help the chances of a candidate more than his marriage to a handsome young woman? The committee had doubts on the subject and waited in person on Miss Hunter, but she persuaded them as she had persuaded Cleary, and furthermore convinced them that whether they were persuaded or not the marriage would take place. Marian determined to fix the hour for the next day. She pledged the committee to secrecy, and no word of the proposed wedding got into the papers. At noon a clergyman was called into the hotel, and in Sam"s private sitting-room the pair were married with Cleary and a few of the members of the committee as witnesses. Almost before the ceremony was over they could hear the newsboys crying out the tidings of the event.
"It"s out of the question to talk about a wedding-tour," said Sam, after the ceremony. "I can"t walk in the streets alone without being mobbed, and with Marian we could not keep the clothes on our backs.
Just hear them singing "Captain Jinks" now!"
"Mark my words, dear," said his wife. "You will see when we get the papers to-morrow with the news of our marriage, that it has made you more popular than ever. Now send out word to the reporters that you will not do any more public kissing."
In obedience to these orders Cleary, acting as go-between, conveyed the information as gently as he could to the representatives of the press, that as a married man General Jinks expected to be spared the ordeal of embracing all the young ladies of the country.
No one was prepared for the striking effect which this news, coupled with that of the marriage, had upon the newspapers and their readers.
The first papers which Sam and his wife saw on the following morning were those of St. Lewis. They expressed sorrow at the fact that Captain Jinks had taken such a resolution when only a handful of the fair women of St. Lewis had had the opportunity of saluting him. Were they less beautiful and attractive than the ladies of St. Kisco who had kissed him to their hearts" content? Marian was visibly annoyed when she saw these articles, but she advised her husband to wait till they received the papers from other cities. These journals came, but, alas! they went rapidly from bad to worse. The Eastern papers with scarcely an exception took up the strain of those of St. Lewis. Why did Captain Jinks discriminate against the women of the East? He had kissed the whole West. Probably he had also kissed all the women of the Cubapines and Porsslania. It was only the women of the East that he could not find heart to salute in the same way. Here was a hero indeed, who insulted one-half of his own nation! It might have been expected that the Western press would have come to Sam"s support, but they did not.
They accused him of gross deception in not announcing that he had been from the first engaged to be married. Their young women had been fraudulently induced to kiss lips which had already been monopolized, but which they had been led to believe to be as free as the air of heaven. Black indeed must be the soul of a man who could stoop to such deception! As the days went on the public became more excited and the attacks more ferocious. It was rumored that his _fiancee_ had married him against his will, that she was a virago and a termagant. Would the country be contented to see the Executive Mansion ruled by petticoats, and by those of a hussy at that? What sort of a hero was the man who could be ordered about by a woman and could not call his soul his own?
Then they began to overhaul his record. Was he really the hero of San Diego? Was it not the mistakes of Gomaldo which caused his defeat? Was it not true that the boasted subjugation of the Moritos was brought about by the superst.i.tious fear of the savages inspired by the figures tattooed on the captain"s body? And the capture of Gomaldo, was it anything but a green-goods game on a large scale? What, too, was the burning of the great White Temple but an act of vandalism? And as for the friendship and praise of the Emperor, who was the Emperor, anyway, but an effete product of an exhausted civilization? Then had not Captain Jinks opposed the promotion of men from the ranks? What sort of a democrat was this? Sam felt these thrusts keenly. He had had no idea of the fickleness of the people, and it was hard to believe that in a single day they had ceased to adore him and begun to revile him; and yet such was the case. Marian was also overcome with mortification, and she heaped reproaches upon him for their forlorn condition. Cleary proved himself to be a stanch friend.
"It"s too bad, old man," he said. "It"ll blow over, but you"ll have to withdraw a while for repairs. The bottom has dropped out of your boom, and of course you can"t be a candidate for President. Let"s go quietly home. I"ll go along with you. _The Lyre_ has had to drop you for the time. _Scribblers"_ has sent back the first article I wrote for you, and they say your name has lost its commercial value. I"ve seen Jonas.
He"s here to make sure of a friendly candidate, and he says you"re out of the question. He"s doing well, I tell you. I asked him how it paid to run a war for half a million a day and get a trade in return of a few millions a year? "It"s the people pay for the war and we get the trade," said he. He"d like to have you President to help them along, but he says it won"t be possible. It"s a shame. You"d have run so well, if----Your platform of "Old Gory, the Army and Navy," would have swept everything before it. But never mind. We"ll try it again some day. I suppose your luck couldn"t hold out forever."
"Thanks, my dear Cleary," said Sam, grasping his hand. "You"ve been a true friend. I don"t think it makes much difference. I am a sick man, and I must go home as soon as I can."
CHAPTER XVI
The End
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Sam was indeed a sick man, and the journey to the East proved to be a severe strain upon him. Cleary saw that it would be unwise to let him travel alone with his wife, and accordingly he accompanied him to s...o...b..rgh, which was on the way to Homeville. They arrived in the afternoon, and Sam could hardly walk to the carriage which awaited him.
He was put to bed as soon as he reached his uncle"s house, and on the advice of his uncle"s doctor they sent at once to the county town for a trained nurse to take charge of him, for it was out of the question for him to travel farther. There was no train which Cleary could conveniently take that evening to the metropolis, and he accepted the urgent invitation of Congressman Jinks to spend the night. It so happened that it was a gala day for s...o...b..rgh. Four of her soldier sons had returned a few days before from Porsslania and the Cubapines, and this day had been set aside for a great celebration and a ma.s.s-meeting at the Methodist church to welcome them. The procession was to take place early in the evening, and after supper Cleary went out alone to watch the proceedings, leaving his friend to the care of his relatives.
He took his place on the curbstone of the princ.i.p.al street and was soon conversing with his neighbors on each side, one of whom was our old friend, Mr. Reddy, and the other the young insurance agent whose acquaintance Sam had made at the hotel.
"It"s going to be a great show," said the former. "I wish I was spry enough to parade too. It"s going to be splendid, but it won"t come up to the time we had when I came back from the war. They"ve kept them four boys drunk three days for nothing, but we was drunk a month."
"They"ve sobered them down for this evening, I believe," said the young man.
"They"ve done their best," said Reddy, "and I think they"ll go through with it all right. It"s a great time for them, but they"ll have their pension days all the rest of their lives to remind them of it, four times a year."
"Who are going to take part in the procession?" asked Cleary.
"They"re going to have all the military companies and patriotic societies of these parts," answered Reddy, "and then the firemen too of course; but they won"t amount to much, for most of them are in the societies, and they"d rather turn out in them."
"What societies are there?" said Cleary.
"Oh, there"s the Grandsons of the Revolution and the Genuine Grandsons of the Revolution, and the Daughters of Revolutionary Camp-Followers and the Genuine Daughters, and then the Male Descendants of Second Cousins of Heroes, and the Genuine Male Descendants, and the Connections by Marriage of Colonial Tax-Collectors, and then the Genuine Connections, and a lot of others I can"t remember."
"The names seem to go in pairs," said Cleary.
"Well, you see, they always have a fight about something in these military societies, and then they split, and the party that splits away always takes the same name and puts "Genuine" in front of it. That"s the way it is."
"I suppose these societies do a lot of good, don"t they?" asked Cleary.
"These splits and quarrels remind me of the army. They must spread the military spirit among the people."
"Yes, they do," said the young man. "It"s what they call _esprit de corps_. If fighting is military, they fight and no mistake, and the women fight more than the men. I don"t know how many lawsuits they"ve had. Half of them won"t speak to the other half. But they"re all united on one thing, I can tell you, and that is in wanting to put down the Cubapinos."
"That they are," cried Reddy. "That"s why they call "em "Patriotic Societies." It was our ancestors as fought for freedom that they made the societies for. Our ancestors were patriotic and fought for freedom oncet, and now we"re going to be patriotic and stick by the government just like they did."