Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III WHAT HAPPENED ELECTION NIGHT 7 HEN Seebar at last descended to his office, he found three men awaiting him. They were Henry Bornheim and Edgar Jeppels,— both candidates for office on the Socialistic ticket,;—and Harry Thornton, managing editor of the Daily Globe. They had been receiving reports of the general election by telephone, and as Seebar learned by a question or two, these reports so far had merely confirmed the expected—that the cities were going heavily Socialistic and the rural districts almost solidly Individualistic. Since the old system of balloting for presidential electors had been displaced by direct vote for the candidates themselves, returns by states had largely lost their significance. " You've got a cold hand to-night, Seebar," said Bornheim. " I bet ten to one you've been mooning up in that tower. Your crow's nest seems to chill your blood." " Yes," answered Seebar, slightly smiling; though his dark eyes were a trifle sterner than his lips. Indeed his greeting of Bornheim had not been more than polite, for despite the latter's outward polish there was something about the man he had always instinctively disliked. " Oh, he's got a warm enough hand for his friends, I guess," put in Thornton bluntly. " Seebar's an orator, not a politician." " No, not a practical politician," retorted Bornheim. " What's a practical politician ? " asked See- bar with mild insolence. " Oh, come now, Seebar," broke in Jeppels, the active ward heeler. " You big fellows make a devil of a bluff at being ' clean-handed,' and all that sort of rot; but all you do is talk a lot of bunk about ' civic virtue,' and let us little guysdo the dirty work. If it ain't done though, how you howl!" " I've never condoned dirty work," replied Seebar with a sh...