Deacon Surface realized that he was not gaining ground, and changed his tactics.
“You had work on Congressman Baldwin’s new streets at Maple Heights, last fall, did you not?�
“Indade I did, and I earned ivery cint I got, too, so I did, Deacon Surface.�
“But there will be no work at Maple Heights this year unless Mr. Sharp is elected Selectman.�
“Maple Heights may go to Perdition. I’ll not vote for old Jake Sharp if I niver get another day’s work from the Baldwins. The likes of yerself cannot drive Dave Moriarty one inch. Ye may stand there and threaten till doomsday. I’ll not vote for that slave-driver, Sharp. He ought to be behind the bars.�
Deacon Surface moved on, to appeal to workmen who would “hear to reason,� as he expressed it.
As for David Moriarty, he hurried over to his neighbor, John Wycliff, to tell him of this latest game of the Baldwins. He had barely left Wycliff’s, to return, when Hugh Maxwell called to see John Wycliff.
This gentleman was fully as easy and gracious in his manner, fully as well qualified to get through the world without provoking opposition, as Deacon Surface; but, unlike the Deacon, he had to depend upon his own resources, with no millionaires to back him. He had a good business as a retail merchant, and in building up his trade had won many friends and very little enmity. Mere formalities over, Mr. Maxwell asked:
“What would be my chances in a campaign against Jacob Sharp?�
“If it were a perfectly fair election, they ought to be the very best,� replied Wycliff. “The workingmen, who form the large majority of the voters of Papyrus, are favorable to you. But Mr. Sharp is the candidate of the millionaire paper-makers, and they practically own the town. You know the methods which the Baldwins will use as well as I do. Coaxing and threatening, of the kind which Deacon Surface knows so well how to use, will have their effect. Any employee of the Baldwins who openly advocates your election will lose his job. The Baldwins are already promising employment if you are defeated, and threatening to take away employment if you are elected. Work on the new streets at Maple Heights, will not be the only job held up to the unemployed as a bribe and a threat in this election. The cry is already raised by the Baldwin agents: ‘Elect Sharp, and the Baldwins will build a sewer for Papyrus; defeat Sharp, and the Baldwins will defeat the sewer.’ This cowardly sort of bribery and threat is permitted by Massachusetts Law, and the Baldwins know full well how to use it. Still, if you wish to run against Sharp for Selectman, I will place your name before the voters of Papyrus, through the columns of the Elmfield Star.�