A Woman for Mayor | Page 3

men say?" reflected Mrs. Jewett.
"It'll give 'em a shock," murmured Mrs. Mason, decidedly. "They need
a shock. Yes, Gertrude, you are just the woman to try it,--to try for it, I
mean. We'll all work for you,--and with you."
"Now, ladies, let us look the situation squarely in the face," said Mrs.
Bateman. "I've lain awake many a night of late, thinking out things. It
will mean a tremendous amount of hard and systematic work to elect a
woman to the mayor's chair in Roma. But if we are thoroughly
organized and can get some of the men's leagues and clubs to endorse
us, I believe we can win. Think of it seriously a few minutes, and let us
keep silence for a little while."
Then ensued the strange spectacle of fifteen women sitting at
luncheon--speechless. It was a custom they had, whenever an important
subject came up for discussion, to take ten or fifteen minutes for silent

thought instead of wasting that time in discussion that did not get
anywhere; so that when the moment for talking arrived the
club-members, being accustomed to exert their mental powers, were
prepared to advance and weigh such arguments as might be brought
forth.
"Gertrude," said Mrs. Bateman at last, "you haven't spoken yet. You
see your civic duty?"
"It will call for an appalling amount of courage and self-reliance and
belief in the ideals of good government," began Gertrude--and stopped.
Her voice thrilled with a new emotion and her fine eyes glowed with
prophetic hopefulness.
"But the best people would be all with you," put in a young woman at
the other end of the table.
"Would they, I wonder?" queried Miss Van Deusen. "From the time of
the Nazarene down to today, some of the best people have found it
inexpedient to stand by the right when it was presented in strange or
new guise; and surely this would be a novel innovation--a woman for
mayor."
"But you have courage enough," urged Mrs. Mason.
"If there was ever a woman with ideals," said Mary Snow, a newspaper
woman who had not yet spoken, "her name was--is Gertrude Van
Deusen."
"Friends," said Miss Van Deusen, "I'm going to stick to my guns. I said
in my haste that I'd never let the figure-head of Defeat worry or scare
me; that I would put up a fight. Well, I'll make the fight, I'll stand for
the nomination and if I get it, for election."
"Three cheers for Gertrude Van Deusen," cried Mrs. Mason, and a
vigorous round of hand-claps was her answer. Handkerchiefs were
waved and there was excitement among the P. W.'s.

"My husband has just got to take the stump for you," said the fluffy
woman. "I'll make him."
"Thank you, Bella," was Miss Van Deusen's reply. "I suppose I shall be
emblazoned and lauded and berated in the newspapers, and shall come
out at the end of the campaign with scarcely a rag of reputation left,
whether I win or lose."
"You are going to win, Gertrude," said Mrs. Bateman calmly.
"Yes, I'm going to win," answered the younger woman. And as she sat
with her handsome head thrown hack and her far-seeing gaze looking
out and past the assembled women into the stormy future, not one of
them doubted, at the moment, the truth of her confident prophecy.
CHAPTER II
A Perplexed Reformer
The chairman of the Roma Municipal League had just finished
dictating his morning's letters and was leaning back in his half-turned
swivel chair. At another desk his secretary worked perfunctorily,
awaiting orders from his chief.
"Anything from Wilkins?" asked the latter.
"Worse. Won't live many weeks. Going South tomorrow," answered
the secretary.
"Or Bateman?--or Mason?"
"Mason wouldn't touch politics with a pair of tongs,--so he says," the
secretary answered. "As for Judge Bateman,--I tell you, Allingham, if
such men as he would do their duty, there'd be some hope of cleaning
out the Augean stables. But it's hopeless. There isn't a decent
Republican citizen in this town who'll take hold with us,--I mean as
candidate for mayor."

"The more shame to Roma, then," said Allingham. "Things have come
to a pretty state of graft when--"
He stopped suddenly, for the door was opening and Mrs. Bateman
walked in. With her were two other women, one white-haired and
graciously dignified, the other young and tall and handsome.
"Good-morning, Mr. Allingham," said Mrs. Bateman, taking the hand
which the young man, coming forward, stretched forth. "May I present
you to Mrs. Stillman and Miss Van Deusen? And may we have a few
minutes' talk with you?"
"Certainly," he replied, wondering what these society women could
want with the Municipal League, "certainly. Be seated."
The secretary slipped quietly from the room while the visitors drew up
in a half-circle around the