Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/267

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ollected

and organized by the newsboys, marched up and down the main streets, yelling for Lindsey. By the time the procession had reached the Demo- cratic Club, the cries of the children had developed into a song which they sang as they marched and countermarched and halted before the club:

“Who, which, when ?

Wish we was men,

So we could vote for our little Ben.”

And they kept it up all that night and all the next day. It was most embarrassing to the

politicians. “Little sons of -!” exclaimed

a leader in the club, “they are doing more than anybody else to beat us.” But the answer was that cry from the street, “Who, which, when?” All day long, everywhere, the boys kept at it. And then the mothers of the city held a mass- meeting at the Women’s Club. And then there was a mass-meeting of men, women, and children in the Opera House.

Ben Lindsey was nominated, “ amid howls and curses” — and on his own terms, on his own party ticket, and all other tickets, excepting only that of the Socialists. Nominated by the people, he was elected by their unanimous vote; but that didn’t settle it.

The Judge believed that the election of two County Judges was unconstitutional; if it was,