At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward the State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was being read to the legislature met in joint session.The committee reported that it had examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor, James, Reedy, Kellor, and Ward, and that each of then had testified that former Congressman Pelton or others had approached him on behalf of Warner; that an agreement had been made by which the eight votes being cast for Bascom would be give to Warner in consideration of $300,000 in cash, to be held in escrow by Yesler, and that the committee now had the said package, supposed to contain the bills for that amount, in its possession, and was prepared to turn it over to the legislature for examination.
Except for the clerk's voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay tensely over the crowded hall.Men dared not look at their neighbors, scarce dared breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts.Scores were there who expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all the world to read.They waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the clerk went from paragraph to paragraph, and when at last he sat down, having named only the bribers and not the receivers of bribes, a long deep sigh of relief swept the house.Fear still racked them, but for the moment they were safe.Furtively their glances began to go from one to another of their neighbors and ask for how long safety would endure.
One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the committee stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer the incriminating parcel.It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened it, counted the bills, and announced that one hundred thousand dollars was the sum contained within.
Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his resolution, that since the evidence submitted was sufficient to convict of bribery, the judge of the district court of the County of Mesa be requested to call a special session of the grand jury to investigate the report.It was not until Sam Yesler rose to speak upon that report that the pent-up storm brokeloose.
He stood there in the careless garb of the cattleman, a strong clean-cut figure as one would see in a day's ride, facing with unflinching steel-blue eyes the tempest of human passion he had evoked.The babel of voices rose and fell and rose again before he could find a chance to make himself heard.In the gallery two quietly dressed young, women, one of them with her arm in a sling, leaned forward breathlessly and waited Laska's eyes glowed with deep fire.She was living her hour of hours, and the man who stood with such quiet courage the focus of that roar of rage was the hero of it.
"You call me Judas, and I ask you what Christ I have betrayed.You call me traitor, but traitor to what? Like you, I am under oath to receive no compensation for my services here other than that allowed by law.To that oath I have been true.Have you? "For many weeks we have been living in a carnival of bribery, in a debauched hysteria of money-madness.The souls of men have been sifted as by fire.We have all been part and parcel of a man-hunt, an eager, furious, persistent hunt that has relaxed neither night nor day.The lure of gold has been before us every waking hour, and has pursued us into our dreams.The temptation has been ever-present.To some it has been irresistible, to some maddening, to others, thank God! it has but proved their strength.Our hopes, our fears, our loves, our hates: these seducers of honor have pandered to them all.Our debts and our business, our families and our friendships, have all been used to hound us.To-day I put the stigma for this shame where it belongs--upon Simon Harley, head of the Consolidated and a score of other trusts, and upon Waring Ridgway, head of the Mesa Ore-producing Company.These are the debauchers of our commonwealth's fair name, and you, alas! the traffickers who hope to live upon its virtue.I call upon you to-day to pass this resolution and to elect a man to the United States senate who shall owe no allegiance to any power except the people, or to receive forever the brand of public condemnation.Are you free men? Or do you wear the collar of the Consolidated, the yoke of Waring Ridgway? The vote which you will cast to-day is an answer that shall go flying to the farthest corner of your world, an answer you can never hope to change so long as youlive."
He sat down in a dead silence.Again men drew counsel from their fears.The resolution passed unanimously, for none dared vote against it lest he brand himself as bought and sold.
