Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town - Stephen Leacock (best ebook reader under 100 TXT) 📗

It was Mullins, the banker, who told Mariposa all about the plan of a Whirlwind Campaign and explained how it was to be done. He’d happened to be in one of the big cities when they were raising money by a Whirlwind Campaign for one of the universities, and he saw it all.

He said he would never forget the scene on the last day of it, when the announcement was made that the total of the money raised was even more than what was needed. It was a splendid sight⁠—the business men of the town all cheering and laughing and shaking hands, and the professors with the tears streaming down their faces, and the Deans of the Faculties, who had given money themselves, sobbing aloud.

He said it was the most moving thing he ever saw.

So, as I said, Henry Mullins, who had seen it, explained to the others how it was done. He said that first of all a few of the business men got together quietly⁠—very quietly, indeed the more quietly the better⁠—and talked things over. Perhaps one of them would dine⁠—just quietly⁠—with another one and discuss the situation. Then these two would invite a third man⁠—possibly even a fourth⁠—to have lunch with them and talk in a general way⁠—even talk of other things part of the time. And so on in this way things would be discussed and looked at in different lights and viewed from different angles and then when everything was ready they would go at things with a rush. A central committee would be formed and subcommittees, with captains of each group and recorders and secretaries, and on a stated day the Whirlwind Campaign would begin.

Each day the crowd would all agree to meet at some stated place and each lunch together⁠—say at a restaurant or at a club or at some eating place. This would go on every day with the interest getting keener and keener, and everybody getting more and more excited, till presently the chairman would announce that the campaign had succeeded and there would be the kind of scene that Mullins had described.

So that was the plan that they set in motion in Mariposa.

I don’t wish to say too much about the Whirlwind Campaign itself. I don’t mean to say that it was a failure. On the contrary, in many ways it couldn’t have been a greater success, and yet somehow it didn’t seem to work out just as Henry Mullins had said it would. It may be that there are differences between Mariposa and the larger cities that one doesn’t appreciate at first sight. Perhaps it would have been better to try some other plan.

Yet they followed along the usual line of things closely enough. They began with the regular system of some of the business men getting together in a quiet way.

First of all, for example, Henry Mullins came over quietly to Duff’s rooms, over the Commercial Bank, with a bottle of rye whiskey, and they talked things over. And the night after that George Duff came over quietly to Mullins’s rooms, over the Exchange Bank, with a bottle of Scotch whiskey. A few evenings after that Mullins and Duff went together, in a very unostentatious way, with perhaps a couple of bottles of rye, to Pete Glover’s room over the hardware store. And then all three of them went up one night with Ed Moore, the photographer, to Judge Pepperleigh’s house under pretence of having a game of poker. The very day after that, Mullins and Duff and Ed Moore, and Pete Glover and the judge got Will Harrison, the harness maker, to go out without any formality on the lake on the pretext of fishing. And the next night after that Duff and Mullins and Ed Moore and Pete Glover and Pepperleigh and Will Harrison got Alf Trelawney, the postmaster, to come over, just in a casual way, to the Mariposa House, after the night mail, and the next day Mullins and Duff and⁠—

But, pshaw! you see at once how the thing is worked. There’s no need to follow that part of the Whirlwind Campaign further. But it just shows the power of organization.

And all this time, mind you, they were talking things over, and looking at things first in one light and then in another light⁠—in fact, just doing as the big city men do when there’s an important thing like this under way.

So after things had been got pretty well into shape in this way, Duff asked Mullins one night, straight out, if he would be chairman of the Central Committee. He sprung it on him and Mullins had no time to refuse, but he put it to Duff straight whether he would be treasurer. And Duff had no time to refuse.

That gave things a start, and within a week they had the whole organization on foot. There was the Grand Central Committee and six groups or subcommittees of twenty men each, and a captain for every group. They had it all arranged on the lines most likely to be effective.

In one group there were all the bankers, Mullins and Duff and Pupkin (with the cameo pin), and about four others. They had their photographs taken at Ed Moore’s studio, taken in a line with a background of icebergs⁠—a winter scene⁠—and a pretty penetrating crowd they looked, I can tell you. After all, you know, if you get a crowd of representative bank men together in any financial deal, you’ve got a pretty considerable leverage right away.

In the second group were the lawyers, Nivens and Macartney and the rest⁠—about as levelheaded a lot as you’d see anywhere. Get the lawyers of a town with you on a thing like this and you’ll find you’ve got a sort of brain power with you that you’d never get without them.

Then there were the business men⁠—there was a solid crowd for you⁠—Harrison, the harness