The President | Page 9

in mighty state, like some
ancient walrus on his cake of ice, and made the new one feel his
littleness. If through ignorance or worse the new one sought to be heard,
the old walruses goggle-eyed him ferociously. If the new one persisted,
they slipped from their cakes of ice and swam to the seclusion of the
cloakrooms, leaving the new one talking to himself. This snub was
commonly enough to cause the collapse of the new one, after which the
old walruses would return to their cakes of ice.
Senator Hanway--one should give him his title when now he has earned
it--was not inclined to abide by those gag traditions that ruled the
Senate beaches. He was supple, smooth, apologetic, deprecatory, and
his nature was one which would sooner run a mile than fight a moment.
For all that he was wise in his generation, fearing no one who could not
reach him for his injury. He did not, for instance, fear the Senate
walruses, goggle-eying him from their ice cakes. They could do him no
harm; he did not take his seat by their permission. Upon deliberate plan,
therefore, Senator Hanway had not been in his place a fortnight before
he got the floor on an appropriation, and began to voice his views. The
walruses at first goggle-eyed him in wrathful amazement; but he kept

on. Then, as was their habit, they set sail for the cloakrooms, waving
condemnatory flippers.
[Illustration: One of the Most Reverend of the Senate Walruses]
Senator Hanway had thought of this, and the cloakroom move did not
disconcert him. He seized on one of the most reverend of the Senate
walruses, one festooned with the very seaweed of Senate tradition, and,
casting him, as it were, on the coals of his hot rhetoric, proceeded to
roast him exhaustively. The cloakroom walruses smelled the odor of
burning blubber and returned eagerly to their cakes of ice, for there is
nothing so pleasing to your true walrus as the spectacle of a brother
walrus being grilled. It was in time understood that if the walruses
placed an affront upon Senator Hanway he would assail them singly or
in the drove. Then the walruses made their peace with him and
admitted him to fellowship before his time; for your walrus cannot
carry on a war and is only terrible in appearance.
Now, when the seal of silence was taken from Senator Hanway and he
found himself consented to as a full-grown walrus possessed of every
right of the Senate beaches, he became deferential to his fellow
Senators. He curried their favor by pretending to consult with them,
personally and privately, on every Senate question that arose. He could
be a great courtier when he pleased and had a genius for flattery, and
now that his right to go without a gag was no longer disputed he
devoted himself to healing what wounds he had dealt the vanity of the
oldsters. By this he grew both popular and powerful; as a finale no man
oftener had his Senate way.
Senator Hanway, modestly and unobtrusively, did sundry Senate things
that stamped him a leader of men. He bore the labor of a staggering
filibuster, and more than any other prevented a measure that was meant
for his party's destruction. In the lists of that filibuster he met the
champion of the opposition--a Senator of pouter-pigeon characteristics,
more formidable to look upon than to face--and, forensically speaking,
beat him like a carpet.
On another day when one of his party associates was to be unseated by

so close a vote that a single member of the Committee on Privileges
and Elections would determine the business either way, it was Senator
Hanway, no one knew how, who in manner secret captured that
member from the enemy. The captured one voted sheepishly in
committee and continued thus sheepish on the open Senate floor,
although a beautiful woman smiled and beamed upon him from the
gallery as women smile and beam when granted favors.
It was during Senator Hanway's second term, however, that he
accomplished the work which placed him at his party's fore and
confirmed him as its chief. The Senate, following a certain national
election, fell to be a tie. The party of Senator Hanway still had control
of the committees and generally of the Senate organization; but that
election had sent to be the Senate's presiding officer a Vice-President
who belonged with the opposition. On a tie, Senator Hanway's party
would find defeat by the vote of that new Vice-President.
It was then the pouter-pigeon chieftain moved that the Senate
organization be given over to him and his fellows. The motion would
seem to settle it. The vote on the floor would be equal, and the
sagacious pouter-pigeon reckoned on the