The Candidate.
Observe the candidate.
Not that it is difficult to observe him, but merely as a civic duty.
Note the fullness of his replies to questions on which all men agree. Kindly refrain from asking him any other kind of question.
Perceive the largeness of his promises to benefit the common people. Don't embarrass him by asking for particulars.
Notice the papers that are shouting for the candidate. Smell their breaths.
If you are a bookkeeper at the candidate's bank, forget it.
Analyze the candidate's speeches as models of abstract patriotism.
Regard the candidate's personal bearing, and take a lesson in comprehensive cordiality.
If you know the candidate's domestic, find out who calls there after so P. M. But keep still.
Remember, the political game is interesting as a spectacle, but the dice are loaded. Don't butt in.
Merely observe the candidate.
The Two Ballots.
Two ballots lay together in the ballot-box. One had been cast by a thoughtless, ignorant voter, who had no idea of the fitness of the various candidates, who read only the political gossip of the newspapers, who was a hide-bound partisan and merely voted as his party leader told him to vote. The other had been cast by an intelligent, conscientious voter, who took pains to learn the issues involved in each campaign, who investigated the character and ability of each candidate, and who cast his ballot with a deep sense of his civic responsibility.
And both ballots were alike. Both men had voted for precisely the same candidates.
Moral: Nevertheless, it pays to vote thoughtfully and conscientiously; for (1) the result is far more likely to be right, and (2) even when the ballot is the same as that of the heedless voter, the man back of the ballot is worth a thousand times as much to the state.