I had been one of those who
refused to act on his reception committee, and he had come to this
country with a commission from twenty brother officers to shoot
me on sight. But in his lecture he was using the photographs I had
taken of the scene of his escape, and which I had sent him from
Pretoria as a souvenir, and when he arrived I was at the hotel to
welcome him, and that same evening three hours after midnight he
came, in a blizzard, pounding at our door for food and drink. What
is a little thing like a war between friends?
During his "tour," except of hotels, parlor-cars, and "Lyceums," he
saw very little of this country or of its people, and they saw very
little of him. On the trip, which lasted about two months, he
cleared ten thousand dollars. This, to a young man almost entirely
dependent for an income upon his newspaper work and the sale of
his books, nearly repaid him for the two months of "one night
stands." On his return to London he took his seat in the new
Parliament.
It was a coincidence that he entered Parliament at the same age as
did his father. With two other members, one born six days earlier
than himself, he enjoyed the distinction of being among the three
youngest members of the new House.
The fact did not seem to appall him. In the House it is a tradition
that young and ambitious members sit "below" the gangway; the
more modest and less assured are content to place themselves
"above" it, at a point farthest removed from the leaders.
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