“Would you care to explain that, mister? My daddy is a politician.”
“Well, look, Molly. Right now, there are Bryan and Taft in there who are old political foes, and you just heard them greeting each other, like the best of buddies.”
“That’s what daddy calls the grease of courtesy,” Molly said.
“No, I think it is more than that. I believe that regardless of political party or political philosophy, among most of them there is a discernible bond, forged out of the commonality of their profession. It is a bond that manifests itself in a sort of loose form of comradeship.”
Molly sighed. “Don’t quite understand what you are saying. How strong is this bond?”
Seth held out his arm and they continued walking down the hall. “Not sure I know,” he confessed. “Maybe this anecdote would help. During the Baltimore Convention last summer, Bryan had written that scathing speech about the fat cat political reactionaries—you may know the one, where he demanded the convention kick out J.P. Morgan, August Belmont and Thomas Fortune Ryan.”
“Yes, I heard daddy talking about it.”
“Well, I personally know that speech contained a real blistering of President Taft and a castigation of his Chicago nomination. As Will was walking across the platform to deliver this speech, I saw him stop and greet Mrs. Taft, who was sitting with her friends in a special box.”
“What was the wife of the Republican candidate doing at the Democratic Convention?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she thought it the best show in town,” Seth replied. “Anyway, to continue my point, when Bryan delivered that speech minutes later, it contained absolutely no reference to President Taft.”
Molly punched him on the arm. “Whoa! I don’t see any bonding there. It was just the grease of courtesy, like Daddy says.”
“It could also be a sign of respect for the wife of an adversary considered to be a member of the club.”
She looked skeptical. “Then what about Morgan, Belmont and Ryan, Bryan’s targets. Weren’t they in the same club and where is the bonding there?”
He looked at her sharply. “That was different.”
“Oh? How so? Are they not members of the Democratic Party?”
“I said my theory applied to most politicians. Nobody considers those financial moguls full-time politicians whose careers depend upon politics.”
“Oh, really?” Molly looked at him archly. “Champ Clark is Speaker of the U.S. House. Would you not consider him a career politician? What about Bryan’s vicious attack upon him for allegedly plotting with those moguls and Tammany?”
“Shouldn’t we be getting upstairs to the gallery to meet your mother?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m busy re-casting my theory.”
“Back to the grease of courtesy?”
“I could use a little of that grease right now.”
10
THEY SIFTED THROUGH THE THRONG gathering near the doors to the Senate gallery, but no Bessie Mae. She had their tickets for admission to the visitors gallery. Giving up, they pressed back into a vacant space against the wall, content to ogle the ladies in their finery and their less fashionably dressed male escorts, in plain dark business suits.
“Why do you suppose Bryan wants to talk to me?” Seth said, more to himself than to Molly.
“Maybe he wants to appoint you Ambassador to Mexico.”
“How about Ambassador to England or France? Get serious, Molly, only the President makes those kinds of appointments. Besides, one has to have lots of personal fortune for those positions.”
“OK. Then about a serious position in the State Department?”
“Molly, I’m a small town lawyer. What in blazes do I know about international law?”
“You can buy a text book.”
“No, I reckon he’s just being friendly—maybe something about the Democratic Party.”
Molly touched his arm. “Stay here, Seth! Washington isnot so bad a place to live and work. There have to be simply scads of opportunities for a very bright small town lawyer.” Her green eyes suddenly sparkled with an inspiration, “Oh, dumb bunny me, of course, Daddy!”
Seth looked at her sharply. “Daddy?”
“Yes. Don’t you see, he’s not exactly without considerable influence around here. He knows how to pull a few strings and he darn sure can pull a few for a member of the Cane family. Think about it. You won’t have to go back to that dreary town in Oklahoma.”
“Pawhuska is certainly not a dreary town, and Molly-”
“Why didn’t I think of that this morning at breakfast? That’s a capital idea. Why I bet—”
Seth laughed and put his finger lightly across her lips. “You are very sweet, dear, but your father has already made me an offer of his assistance.”
“He did, when?”
“This morning, after breakfast, while you and Bessie Mae were getting dressed up for today.”
“What did you say?”
He smiled wryly and looked out at the crowd that was growing impatient for the gallery to open.
“You turned him down, didn’t you?”
“You have to understand something about me, Molly. I appreciate your father’s offer to help, but I simply don’t need it. I am not really keen on having an office job in some department here in Washington.”
Her lips formed a small girl pout. “How do you know what it would be like unless you try it?’
“I don’t have to try sitting at one of a hundred desks in a large room of the Treasury Department to know that I wouldn’t like it.”
“You don’t know that’s the kind of a position Daddy has in mind. How about a job in the House of Representatives? That could be real exciting.”
“Oh, yes.”
‘ A sergeant of arms suddenly opened the heavy wood doors to the gallery and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, please have your passes ready. We will begin entering now.”
“I don’t see mother, yet. I do hope she hasn’t been sidetracked.” Suddenly she gave his arm a squeeze. “Don’t look now, Counselor, but I think you have an admirer over there.”
“Where?”
“Over there, that woman in green. Oh! I know who she is. She was with you and the German Ambassador that night in the Rennert Hotel dining room in Baltimore. Look, she’s coming over to us.”
She came toward them with a confident stride, each step revealing a daring slit of four inches in the skirt of her forest green suit. Her eyes seemed to dance with pleasure at seeing him again. She thrust her gloved hand toward him, in the manner of men.
“Well, Seth Cane, you finally got to Washington.”
“How are you, Annaliese?” he said, grasping her outstretched hand. Even that slight physical contact awakened the desire he had known in Baltimore. Her quick smile seemed to indicate that she read his emotion and caused her to gently withdraw her hand from his and offer it to Molly.
“I believe we’ve met, have we not? I am Annaliese Faver.”
Seth remembered his manners. “Annaliese, this is Miss Langdon. Molly, you must remember Miss Faver from the Rennert in Baltimore.”
I just told you, I did. Golly, I don’t remember her being that pretty.She touched Annaliese’s hand with her finger tips, bestowing a quick smile. “Of course, I do, Seth. That night, Miss Faver, you were with those two gentlemen from the German Embassy.”
“Actually, I was with Seth that night. The two from the German Embassy were his Excellency, Count von Bernstorff, the Ambassador, and Lieutenant Paul Dohrman, the Assistant Naval Attache?’ She turned abruptly to Seth. “You are here for the Inauguration of your Mr. Wilson, I presume.”
“Not exactly. I mean, I’m not here primarily—wasn’t in my plans to come to Washington for that p
urpose. I’ve brought my daughter Ginny here for schooling. This visit just happened to coincide with the Inauguration—which I shall of course attend.” I sound like a stuffed shirt.
“Ginny would be Ginevra?”
“Yes. How nice of you to remember.”
“And, your wife, Elizabeth, she is here with you?”
Molly looked at him quickly and took his arm in a possessive manner, which did not go unnoticed by Annaliese.
“My wife died last year.”
Her eyes briefly flickered toward Molly and back to him. Her tone softened as she said, “Allow me to offer my condolences, Seth. I had not heard. Will you be staying long in Washington?”
“No more than a few days. I have to return home to Oklahoma.”
Molly tightened her grip on his arm. “Unless I can convince him to remain longer with us,” she said.
Annaliese glanced at Seth, questioningly. He said, “I am staying with Congressman Langdon and his family, old Texas friends.”
Annaliese smiled. “Yes, well, perhaps we can lunch before you leave.”
“Where may I telephone you?” He felt Molly stiffen beside him.
“At my office—the Brooklyn Tagblatt. The number is in the directory.”
“I will call you,” he said.
“Nice, but now you must excuse me. I’m here to work, you know.” Looking at Molly, she added, “A pleasure seeing you again, Miss Langdon.” She gave Seth a nod. “Until later, Seth.”
They watched her stride purposefully to the Press Gallery side of the chamber. He didn’t have to be a mind reader in order to interpret the sudden chill in Molly’s demeanor. He was going to ignore it, but she elected to sound him out about Annaliese.
“Were you very good friends in Baltimore?” It was more like an accusation rather than an idle question.
“She was new to national political party conventions and her paper had assigned her to cover the Baltimore one, without much background. She sought my consultation on the undercurrents and the tactics of the candidates.”
“Uh huh. Consultation, how nice you were available to help the poor girl.”
“It is not like you to be catty, Molly. Look, she is a reporter for this German language newspaper in New York. This was her first political convention. I merely tried to explain some of what was taking place. That’s all.”
“Wait just one moment!” She laughed sharply. “That night when you, Mom, Dad and I were having dinner at the Emerson Hotel, she came in with those same two Germans and you told us of your embarrassment when you arrived in Baltimore and found a naked young woman in your hotel room bath tub. Was that Annaliese?”
Annoyed that she had remembered his attempt at being amusing at dinner that night, he snapped, “She wasn’t in the tub and she was holding a robe in front of her. Yes, that was Annaliese.”
Molly was grinning. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. So she held a robe in front of her and you didn’t get to see much of Miss Faver.”
“Can we drop it now?” He pointed, “Look, there is your mother waving at us to join her.”
11
LIKE MOST OF THE OTHER women heading into the Senate Gallery, Bessie Mae Langdon was wearing purple. Hat, gown and gloves, all purple. Obviously, it was the fashionable color in the national capital that spring.
“I’m sorry to have kept you two waiting, but I simply could not get away from Uncle Joe Cannon. I will really miss him, you know. Just think, forty years of his life in the House of Representatives, much of it as Speaker, and it will all end at twelve noon today. It’s the end of an era, I tell you. Now, what have you two been up to since breakfast and why are we standing around out here when we’d best be claiming our seats.”
As they found their seats in the gallery, down on the Senate floor, the Sixty-Second Congress was plodding through desultory debate on an override of President Taft’s last minute veto of something called the “Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill.” From the way it looked from the gallery, few senators were paying attention to the debate. They were walking about and talking without being called to order by the Chair.
Bored spectators in the gallery were paying more attention to the large clock hanging in the chamber as it clicked slowlytoward twelve p.m. and the hour mandated for constitutional termination of this Congress.
A sudden murmur coursed through the people in the gallery. Necks stretched to see the new First Lady, Ellen Wilson, and her three daughters, Jesse, Margaret and Eleanor, assume their seats in the special reserved section. They were accompanied by two military aides.
“Behold! The royal family doth arrive,” Bessie Mae said.
Embarrassed, Molly whispered, “Hush, Mother. People will hear you.”
“Those Wilson girls will never win any prizes for beauty.”
“So what, I think they are attractive.”
“And, those gowns indicate that Mr. Sears and Mr. Roebuck’s catalogue was put to good use.”
“Mother, please! That is ridiculous.”
Seth was shocked by Bessie Mae’s rudeness. He thought Mrs. Wilson’s tan gown and her sweeping hat with light tan plumes were most attractive. As for the Wilson girls, what was wrong with their purple gowns? Each carried a small bouquet. He couldn’t understand what was motivating his friend’s unkind attack on the president-elect’s family.
Down on the floor now, the debate was interrupted by all the Senators moving to the Republican side of the chamber to make room for the House members who would be coming into joint session for the swearing in of Mr. Thomas Marshall, the Vice-President Elect, and to hear his address.
The attention of the gallery shifted to the entrance of William Jennings Bryan, the nominee for Secretary of State. Beaming and waving his hat to the senators and to the appreciative gallery, he went over to stand with Josephus Daniels, William McAdoo and the other cabinet appointees.
The debate resumed. Senator Poindexter from the State of Washington at the podium was using the debate on the Taft veto as an opportunity to blast the police of the District of Columbia for their lack of protection of the Suffragettes in yesterday’s parade.
“Mr. President, they not only didn’t afford those fine ladies protection, they acted in cooperation with those rowdies to try and break up the parade. They purposely let automobiles and ambulances go through the lines of those marching women.” He was shouting as his outrage mounted with each example of police inaction.
Molly nudged Seth with her elbow and nodded her agreement with the Senator.
“Point of order, Mr. President!” Senator Fletcher from Florida was on his feet. When recognized to state his point, he demanded that Senator Gallagher, the presiding officer, rule Senator Poindexter out of order because his remarks on the parade were not germane to the President’s veto. Immediately, several senators were on their feet to question Fletcher’s point of order but were interrupted by a committee of two senators returning from the President to announce that he had no further business with the Senate.
By Seth’s watch, it was only a few minutes to twelve and mandatory adjournment. But then a ripple of laughter in the gallery caused him to look at the floor where a very young assistant sergeant-at-arms was coming down the middle aisle carrying a long pole with a hook on its tip. Arriving at the official clock, he reached up with the pole to accompanying laughter from the gallery, and pulled the minute hand back twenty nine minutes.
“So much for the twelve o’clock deadline,” Molly commented.
Actually, that young man was to repeat that performance one more time before Senator Gallagher, rapping his gavel, announced the arrival of the House members. Shortly after the representatives had filed in, he rapped the gavel again and announced, “The President of the United States and the President-Elect of the United States!” All on the floor and in the gallery rose out of re
spect for the two men coming down the aisle.
They were escorted to two large arm chairs that had been placed facing the rostrum. Seth thought Woodrow Wilson looked a bit frail beside the height and enormous bulk of William Howard Taft
Every one remained standing as Vice President-Elect Thomas Marshall was escorted to the podium accompanied by applause and was administered the oath of office. The new Vice President turned to the lectern and proceeded to deliver what Seth felt was an overly long and uninspiring address.
Apparently the portly, expensively dressed man seated directly behind Seth felt the same about the address for he muttered loud enough for several rows to hear, “Tom Marshall is such a pin head.” Several of the spectators seated below, thinking Seth had said it, turned and glared at him. Molly was unable to stifle a giggle.
Grateful applause greeted the end of Marshall’s speech and Bessie Mae leaned around Molly to say to Seth, “Thank goodness! Now we have the privilege of going outside and freezing our behinds watching the center ring attraction.”
She was right about the cold outside. Seth’s vantage point was next to a fat column at the top of the steps on the east entrance of the Capitol. The wind was bone chilling. He could see Molly, Bessie Mae and Congressman Henry Dalworth being seated below in three of the several hundred wooden chairs placed near the flag draped temporary wooden inaugural platform.
He recalled seeing an old photograph of Lincoln’s first inauguration at this very site. Suddenly curious, he walked down a few steps and looked up at the roof. Just as in the old photograph, there were several hundred people seated or standing behind the balustrade on the roof and some, including women, were seated precariously on the slanting tiles of the portico itself.
An all too familiar voice behind him, said, “Gosh, they’ve got more guts than I have.”
He turned slowly to face a grinning Maury O’Bannion, his ex law partner, former friend and his dead wife’s lover.
12
SETH’S EYES NARROWED AT THE grinning face of Maury O’Bannion and he thrust both gloved fists into the pockets of his overcoat.
Call Down The Hawk Page 6