Reel Life (Mar-Sep 1915)

"The Man from Oregon" (A MUTUAL MASTERPICTURE) An Exceptionally Powerful Drama in Four Parts, Featuring Clara Williams, Howard Hickman and Herschel Mayall SHOULD he go to her? "Honest Jim" Martin, senator from Oregon, crumpled Harriet Lane's note in his sensitive, strong fingers — and the events of the last fortnight passed in rapid review before his mind's eye. He had not seen her since the evening of the senatorial reception, when she had fascinated him completely — and had ended by asking him to vote for the railway land bill. It was the big thing he had come to Washington to fight against. William Landers, chief of the secret railway lobby, had had the audacity to offer him a good round sum in "appreciation," if he would use his influence in Congress to put the measure through — and the senator had shown him the door. When Harriet brought up the matter again, Martin had felt an evil presentiment. He broke off his musings to reread her note. "Dear Senator Martin," it ran, "I am in great trouble. If you have the slightest regard for me, I implore you to come to me today at three o'.clock. Llarriet Lane." Five minutes later the senator was on his way to her hotel. Meanwhile, a very beautiful, but intensely miserable, woman was pleading with Landers to spare her her part in the plot to force the vote of the man from Oregon. Since the senatorial reception, Harriet's conscience had been acutely roused. The kind of a man she found Senator Martin to be had a great deal to do with her strange, new feeling; "Mother" Martin was another influence. "Mother" Martin had taken an immense liking to Harriet. In their Washington home, the fair lobbyist had witnessed the affection which united mother and son. Their tenderness was more perfect, she told herself, than the tenderness of lovers. Involuntarily, the heart of the worldly wise younger woman had responded. And now — for hard cash, accepted weeks ago and already spent, she found herself brutally held to her agreement to help ruin all this. The bell rang. Landers, an open camera in his hands, concealed himself behind the heavy velour curtains at the end of the room. The next moment, Harriet and the senator stood facing each other. Her agitated appearance left no doubt in his mind. To his sympathetic questioning she answered at first incoherently. Then he drew from CAST "Honest Jim" Martin... Howard Hickman "Mother" Martin her the confession that she had lost everything in a bad investment. He put his arms about her, and her head sank on his shoulder. For an instant, feelings that were more than sympathy, more than protecting tenderness, possessed the man from Oregon. And then — he could not have told how it happened. He vaguely supposed at the moment she had been seized with hysteria. There was a struggle. He came to himself holding a dishevelledhaired woman, her gown loosened to expose her bare arm and shoulder. From between the velour curtains Landers, now visible, was in the act of lowering his camera. "What does it mean, senator?" he asked sneeringly. "It means we want your vote. If we don't get it, this negative goes to the newspapers." The following day the final discussion of the land bill came before the Senate. James Martin lived through a great deal in the short time his opponent was speaking. "Remember," ran a telegram from Landers, which burned in his pocket, "we count on you implicitly in the decision." Then the He stood on a wooden staging before the town hall of a small Oregon town. The space below was filled with the flushed and eager faces of men and women who believed in him. He was speaking. "And my chief joy in having won," (Martin remembered the very words) "is that now I shall be able to fight for you." Better this slander than that he should betray his constituents ! The tool of the railroad sat down. Instantly the man from Oregon was on his feet. "Gentlemen," rang out the voice of "Honest Jim" Martin, "this bill is robbery !" The speech of ) Martin had carried the upper house. Landers, entering his library, walked in on a group of three — a detective, an, expert safe opener and Harriet. She held to the light the negative. Landers snatched it from her, and she turned on him like a tigress — but shrank back at sight of the revolver in his hand. The lobbyist chief coolly stood the glass plate on the table. As he talked, Lander's hold on the weapon relaxed. The next instant she had seized the automatic. A click of the trigger — and the incriminating negative lay shattered in a score of pieces. "It Means We Want Your Vote," He Said, Sneeringly scene about him was erased. [ Fourteen ]