All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren [41]
It brought down the house. Some women began to cry. The other people began to come up and grab Willie by the hand. Pretty soon there was scarcely a dry eye in the crowd. Willie’s weren’t dry, either.
It was Willie’s luck. But the best luck always happens to people who don’t need it.
He had Mason County in the palm of his hand. And in the city his picture was in all the papers. But he didn’t run for anything. He kept on working on his father’s farm and studying his law books at night. The only thing he did about politics was to get out and make some speeches for a fellow who was running in the primary against the Congressman who had always been a pal of Pillsbury. Willie’s speeches weren’t any good, at least the one I heard wasn’t any good. But they didn’t have to be good. People didn’t bother to listen to them. They just came to look at Willie and clap and then go vote against the Pillsbury man.
Then one day Willie woke up and found himself running for Governor. Or rather, he was running in the Democratic primary, which in our state is the same as running for governor.
Now it wasn’t any particular achievement to be running in the primary. Anybody who can scrape together a few dollars for the qualifying fee can offer for election and have the pleasure of seeing his name printed on the ballot. But Willie’s case was a little different.
There were then two major factions in the Democratic party in the state, the Joe Harrison outfit and the MacMurfee outfit. Harrison had been Governor some time back, and MacMurfee was in then and was going to try to hold the job. Harrison was a city man and practically all of his backing was city backing. MacMurfee wasn’t exactly a hick, having been born and bred in Duboisville, which is a pretty fair-sized place, maybe ninety thousand, but he had a lot of country backing and small-town backing. He had played pretty smart with the cocklebur vote and mostly had it. It was due to be a close race. That situation was what got Willie into the show.
Somebody in the Harrison outfit got the idea, which God knows he didn’t invent, of putting in a dummy who might split the MacMurfee vote. This has to be somebody who had a strong appeal in the country. So that was Willie, who could throw some weight up in the north end of the state. There wasn’t any deal with Willie, it developed Some gentlemen form the city called on him up in Mason City, driving up there in a fine car and striped pants. One of them was Mr. Duffy, Tiny Duffy, who was a lot grander now that he had been back that day when he and Willie had first met in the back room of Slade’s beer parlor. The gentlemen from the city persuaded Willie that he was the savior of the state. I suppose that Willie had his natural quota of ordinary suspicion and cageyness, but hose things tend to evaporate when what people tell you is what you want to hear. Also there was the small matter of God. People said that God had taken a hand in the schoolhouse business. That God had stepped in on Willie’s side. The Lord had justified him. Willie was not religious by any ordinary standards, but the schoolhouse business very probably gave him the notion–which was shared by a lot of to local citizenry–that he stood in a special relation to God. Destiny, or plain Luck. And it doesn’t matter what you call it or if you go to church. And since the Lord moves in a mysterious way, it should not have surprised Willie that He was using some fat men in striped pants and a big car to work His will. The Lord was calling Willie, and Tiny Duffy was just an expensively dressed Western Union boy in a Cadillac instead of on a bicycle. So Willie signed the receipt.
Willie was ready to ride. He was a lawyer now. He had been for some little time, for after he ad lost out as County Treasurer,