Page:Bad Girl (1929).pdf/187

 planks, platforms, and balloting, William Jennings Bryan, Senator Walsh, and Izetta Jewel Brown. Alabama casts twenty-four votes for Underwood. . . . Missouri will be polled. . . . Alaska votes under the unit rule. . . . Speeches about Salisbury, Glass, McAdoo, and Underwood. Jonathan Davis, John W. Davis, Governor Silzer of New Jersey, Governor Smith of New York. The Ku Klux Klan. We will adjourn for the evening out of respect to President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, whose son died this morning. . . . "East Side, West Side." Governor Al Smith. Good old Al. Mad, insane demonstration. Noise. Singing. Screams. "California, Here I Come." William Gibbs McAdoo. We want McAdoo. Mac'll do. Another demonstration. More noise. Bryan speaks. Texas provokes a raucous, scornful query: "Is that Sam Houston's state?" Will Rogers gets a vote. Kansas decides to caucus.

It came to Dot through Graham McNamee. His smooth, clear voice brought Madison Square Garden into her living-room. She saw the states hurrying with their banners to join the latest demonstration. She saw Alabama, proud and pompous, casting her inevitable twenty-four votes for the inevitable Mr. Underwood.

The Democratic Convention proved to be the only thing that could make Dot forget her unhappy body, the suit that Eddie must buy, the carriage that had to be managed. Even the pangs of indigestion, her latest burden, could be lulled by listening to Senator Walsh taking the ballots.

It wasn't all quite clear to Dot. The people down at the Convention seemed so terribly excited over the whole thing, and Eddie had it direct from Mr. Williams that Coolidge was going to do another term. What did it matter, then, who they decided on? Ritchie was a nice name. Why didn't they take Ritchie? If Coolidge was