Why He Was Elected

1895

A member of the Ohio legislature of some years ago had been elected from a district which had always sent a representative of a different political complexion, and it happened that he was given to bibulosity. He did well for a week or so, but then the temptations of a great city like Columbus were too much for him, and he began to drink. He kept it up for a whole week, and for that long he never appeared about the capitol. Then his friends looked him up.

"By George, old man," said one of them, "you'll have to quit this and get down to business."

"Oh, I guess not," he replied carelessly.

"You're bound to, or your constituents won't stand it. They sent you here to do something for them, and they expect you to do it."

"No; they didn't," he insisted.

This was a poser.

"They didn't?" exclaimed the spokesman. "What did they send you for, then?"

"Why," he laughed, "they had to send me to keep the other fellow from coming."

— Detroit Free Press.