Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)

THE RIVAL CANDIDATES. 89 inward fire. All at once the hum of female voices came up the gravel path, and in a moment the room was filled with women who all seemed to talk at once. No fumes of gin and tobacco here ! Each woman was filled with an enthusiasm over what seemed a sacred mission in life, and just now the object of their combined enthusiasm was Ellen Ainslee. Winthrop sprang from his chair with amazement as he heard the object of the visit. What was that? A delegation from the Woman's Suffrage Party to ask that Ellen Ainslee accept the nomination as Mayor ! Merciful Heaven ! Ellen and he, life partners, rival candidates ! Was there ever such a mix-up? He glanced at her. She glanced at him in mute appeal. Then she speaks : "Will you renounce if I do?" He pauses. All the red signs of glory come floating before his inflamed imagination. He had no fear whatever of the Suffrage Party, and his ambition even blinded him to the danger of his comfort by a wife's candidacy. No ! He shook his head firmly. Ellen turned to the ladies and in a few well chosen words, accepted the nomination. War was silently declared between the political minds of husband and wife, and the clays of excitement and restless anxiety which followed held up that once peaceful home life as a bit of heaven, pushed ruthlessly out of reach by two harmonious beings, poisoned with the views of political longings. Days pass quickly and the once peaceful home of Winthrop Ainslee has become the scene of verbal war. Confusion reigns in all parts of the house. The servants take sides in the political discussions and neglect their duties, and the children, served with irregular meals at late hours, become ill looking and irritable. The cry of little fouryear-old Edna is often heard, and the unhappiness which the unsettled mind creates, reigns in that once model home. Neither Winthrop Ainslee nor his wife ever had the least idea of "giving up." The fight was getting into the blood, as it were, and all else was forgotten in the exciting struggle. Over the door of the front veranda hung a great linen sign showing the house to be the headquarters of the Suffrage Party, and Winthrop, unable longer to endure the racket of female tongues, which made his home a den of distractions, finally decided to leave. Not that any serious intention of abandonment entered his head. He craved rest in order to prepare his great orations, which were to amaze the world. So, a modest little tent grew out of the center grass plot in the front yard, and a meeting of importance was called. A brass band furnished by the Fusion Party struck a great din, but out from the house came a greater din of wash pans, kettles, brass tongs on metal platters and the shouts of many women, which soon put a stop to the Fusion Headquarters meetings in the front yard. But when the moon rose high in the quiet heavens and the majesty of night silenced with dewy pressure the babbling of tongues and the surging of turbulent thought, little white clad figures could be seen stealing across the lawn and into the lonely tent. There, tender "good-nights" from childish lips brought tears to the eyes of the troubled father, and the return patter of those little feet to the house left a bereaved and despondent heart to grace the Headquarters of the Fusion Party. Poor Ellen indoors, was no less miserable. Many a tear wet her lonely pillow, but she was no weakling, this woman of the Madonna type of brow, and the Suffrage Party's success had now become her duty in life, as it appeared to her. The campaign became heated as the season advanced and the hopes of the Fusion Party ran high. Hie Suffrage Party annoyed itself by its vain attempts to stem the tide of the Fusion enthusiasm, and Ellen as candidate felt the full bitterness of a struggle which in her own heart she felt was not worth the heartbreak invested in it. She had not desired political position, feeling ever that tho the national household was as much woman's affair as it was man's, her real helpfulness to her country's need was in the casting