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When the Black Widowers opened the new season with their Septe hard upon the national conventions, it was not surprising that the talk turned to politics

Eht be expected) considerable fault to find with both candidates, and a hly unacceptable

Thomas Trumbull scowled He said, "Who&039;s your write - in candidate, then?"

"Hi the lapel of a jacket that bore the pattern of a patchwork quilt of the louder sort "Manny has voted the straight Rubin ticket for years"

Rubin said, "It certainly doesn&039;t make sense to vote for someone I know to be less capable than I aument, I admit I lack the capacity to be President of the United States, then any lesser et my vote, or anyone&039;s"

Geoffrey Avalon, sipping slowly at his second drink, which had not yet reached the midpoint at which he auto equal, I don&039;t think it good practice to oust a sitting President Experience and continuity count for a great deal"

Jaarette smoke, cleared his throat and said softly, "How o when"

Rubin interrupted and overrode Drake "Don&039;t reason with hily beard lifted and he glared through the thick lenses of his eyeglasses

Avalon stood more stiffly than usual and a faint flush rose to his cheeks "I&039;n policy, and I believe to this day that Nixon&039;s foreign policy was a rational and useful one"

"He was corrupt," said Rubin

"That was not known at the tie"

"What future knowledge? I&039;ve known he was not to be trusted ever since he entered Congress in 1947"

"We don&039;t all have your 20 - 20 hindsight vision, Manny," said Avalon ounded dignity

"Hindsight, hell," said Rubin "I can produce a hundred witnesses who heard me denounce Nixon over a period of thirty years"

"We all heard you er Halsted, looking over the hors d&039;oeuvres tray critically

Avalon, reaching the halfway mark of his drink, put it down firmly and said, "I believe we&039;re allowed our political differences, Manny Membership in the Black Widowers does not deprive hts"

"Vote as you please," said Rubin, "but I would like to remind you that you were the only Black Widower to vote Republican that year"

Avalon touched his neat graying h to convince himself his drink had not wetted it and said, "Does that include Henry?"

Gonzalo said eagerly, "Whom did you vote for in &039;72, Henry?"

Avalon said, "You needn&039;t answer, Henry Your political opinions are your own"

Henry, the invaluable waiter at the Black Widower banquets, was putting the final touches at the table He said, "I have no reason to keep it secret, Mr Avalon Like Mr Rubin, I distrusted the President and so, with so, I voted for the other ainst you, Geoff," said Rubin, grinning widely

Avalon said, "What about your guest?" With perhaps just a touch of spite, he added, "For who on this show"

"Because he&039;s interviewing uest closed his notebook with a snap, loudly enough to draw all eyes, and said, in a surprisingly gentle voice, "Actually, I voted for Nixon I&039;enerally vote Republican"

"Six to two," said Avalon, in low - voiced satisfaction, shooting a swift glance at Rubin, who looked a little put out

Gonzalo said, looking up frouest, "How can you be a reporter and not be keyed in to politics?"

"I&039;m not exactly a "

Tru, Mario, damn you If you&039;d come on time, you could have been introduced to Mr Gardner"

"I don&039;t have to take lessons in early arrival fro Park Avenue, andpatiently, sent his voice through a momentary hole in the conversation "Gentleht&039;s host, our chef has been pleased to prepare a sh to help yourselves from the dishes on the sideboard"

They lined up with the avidity of healthy trenchermen and Halsted, whose incipient paunch was eloquent evidence of his brotherly affection for calories, said, "We&039;ve never had a s with trying so new," said Rubin

"Oh I approve - I approve" Halsted&039;s eyes wandered avidly over the selection

Gonzalo said, "That leaves you only seht, Henry" Henry smiled paternally and said, "I shall try to keep myself occupied, Mr Gonzalo"

The sideboard&039;s contents had been reduced to frag served, when Rubin clattered spoon on water glass and said, "Brother Black Widowers, it is ti, and Mario has cla to let him Mario"

Gonzalo sently over the back He said, "Mr Gardner, I apologize for having been late Park Avenue was being paved"

"We know all that," said Rubin "Get on with it"

"I ed to catch up over the meal, however You are Arthur Gardner, and you work on a free - lance basis for Personalities azine Aray hair, thick, ed, made him look the fiftyish he was, but none of his other features concurred With a bit of hair dye he could easily have passed for soood but his smile was uneasy He didn&039;t seem quite at hoather that your current assign Manny Rubin for a piece in Personalities"

"That&039;s right Front - of - the - book piece"

"And you&039;ve conment"

"Yes," said Gardner "I do not conduct a simple interview I try to sample Mr Rubin&039;s activities, so to speak"

"Ah," said Gonzalo, "that brings us to the key question If your activities are concerned with presenting Manny to the public, how can you possibly justify your existence?"

Gardner said, "If Mr Rubin can justify his, then hed loudly "That&039;s a good answer You&039;re squelched, Mario"

"He was prinantly, "but never mind Mr Gardner, before dinner you said you weren&039;t familiar with politics Isn&039;t that a handicap in your line of work?"

"No, sir If I were a political reporter, it would be, but I deal with personalities"

"What if your personality is a politician?"

"I know enough for that"

"Have you ever norance of politics?"

"I&039;norant of politics," said Gardner softly, and not noticeably annoyed "I have never needed more than I have, even when - I have done an interview, for instance, with Hubert Hum -"

Trumbull broke in, "Hold it, Mario Mr Gardner, we of the Black Widowers have grown sensitive over ss You said, &039;even when - &039; then paused, and changed subjects on us Please unchange Even hat?"

Gardner looked genuinely puzzled, "I don&039;t understand"

"You were about to say so and didn&039;t Noere you about to say?"

Gardner comprehended "Oh - that&039;s a war story that seems to bother me a bit every presidential election year It&039;s not important"

"Could you tell us just the sao It&039;s all over"

"Even so, that&039;s the turn the grilling has taken I&039;a said here is confidential"

Gardner looked about hi confidential about it It was the winter of 1950 In Korea, the army under General MacArthur had reached the Manchurian border in late Nove to be home by Christmas"

"I know," said Drake, with dry reht us with our pants down"

"You&039;re so right," said Gardner bitterly "To this day, I don&039;t knoe could have been caught so flat - footed Anyway, the South Korean divisions just melted away After all, they could become part of the countryside Take off the uniform and each of them is just another local peasant For A We just had to scurry south as fast as we could and stay together as best we could till we had built a line that would hold

"Lots of us were separated from our units I was For five days I ht spot ht trap me for what I wore and carried

"I hid by day and one and after a while I went hungry I didn&039;t knoas ahead or if there was an American army anywhere at all It was the worst defeat in the field an American army had ever suffered since the Civil War

"The third day I came across another Anized him as one of us He nearly shotI helped hi but that slowedhim behind I couldn&039;t quite make myself do that I&039;d like to say it was a huht see so that I alone would see too late Besides that, he was co for co I knew it and he knew it I didn&039;t knohat to do to help him, or to just make it easier for him So I stayed with him and he talked I didn&039;t really listen, you know I just kept trying to watch all sides at once and was half wishing he would die so that I couldhe wouldn&039;t die and leave htheaded and rambled on from topic to topic He talked Ah and the Republicans would probably put Taft in the White House in &039;52 I remember he said that would be the fourth set of relatives to become Presidents and the second father - son combination That rather stuck inelse he said is just gone, except that it was all about Presidents I think heabout them

"Just before the end, he talked about hiirl twoout of a pocket and give it to me &039;Get it to her,&039; he said, &039;please She&039;ll know I at least saw her holding the little girl; that I thought of theraph of a woman and a baby and I suppose it had reached him just before the army had fallen apart

"I said, &039;Okay What&039;s your naether, we hadn&039;t exhanged names Names hadn&039;t been i and he was ood name Presidential naetter on the list They love him&039; His voice trailed away, but I reht of it a lot, you see

"I shook him, but he was dead Well, what could I do? I certainly wasn&039;t going to linger behind to give hi like that I just wanted out But I did try to reach for his dog tags so I could hand theet his naot back I had the obligation to try to do that

"My hand never touched hiuess it was Chinese - and someone was on top ofhitin English and I raised , "American! American!&039;

"I ith an American coot hts sorted out, and part of that time I think I was on a stretcher"

There was a pause and Halsted said, "So you never got the soldier&039;s dog tags"

"No, sir," said Gardner e We didn&039;t stop and turn till ell south of Seoul, and then we came back only to the boundary between the two Koreas more or less My buddy, whoever he was, died deep in North Korea, and he remains in North Korea to this day"

"Then you couldn&039;t deliver the photo?" said Halsted

Gardner said, "I tried The trouble was I didn&039;t even knohat his unit was and we lost a great many men in that retreat I checked as far as I could I suppose I could have run a copy of the picture in soazine and waited for a woman to co to spend

"It bothers hter should be in her late twenties now, and his wife should be hter ht to a father she&039;s never seen Still - it&039;s just possible ithe touched as he was dying, sohts But what can I do? Still, when presidential elections are in the air, I think of it more than I usually do"

Avalon said, "One can&039;t bla that is completely outside one&039;s control"

Halsted said, "But you said you tried, Mr Gardner How could you possibly have tried? You had nothing to go on"

Gardner said, "Sure I did He said he had the name of one of the American Presidents It was probably the accident of his name that made him such a presidential buff And he said the President was the second - best vote - getter in the list and that the people loved hiot out, I wrote to Washington and I was able to have the in action in the course of the retreat It seemed certain to me that his body was never recovered so he wouldn&039;t be listed as killed in action, and that cut down on the numbers a bit"

"I take it you didn&039;t find anything," said Drake, lighting a fresh cigarette

"Nothing There wasn&039;t a single Roosevelt on the list"

Rubin exploded "Roosevelt? Why Roosevelt?"

Gardner looked surprised "Why not Roosevelt? It&039;s the obvious na what he said The only name I don&039;t knohy there wasn&039;t so in action It could be typical Army snafu, but since there wasn&039;t I came to a dead end"

"How do you make out Roosevelt?" said Rubin

"Surely you&039;re old enough to remember the 1936 election I was ten years old then, but I remember the fuss it made Franklin Roosevelt carried forty - six of the forty - eight states and left poor Alf Landon with Maine and Verht electoral votes"

"And that ton was elected twice by unanie, in 1788 and in 1792 That put him in first place You can&039;t do better than unanimous And FDR is in second place"

Avalon, sitting bolt upright, his neat little pepper - and - salt beard giving hiether and grew portentous, said, "Actually not In 1820, Ja for re - election The United States was practically a one - party nation at the time The Federalist Party had virtually co injudiciously in what ca the War of 1812 Everyone who counted politically, therefore, called himself a Democratic - Republican Later on new factions and new parties formed about several of the dominant personalities, but that time had not yet come Therefore, Monroe ran for re - election with no forazed about at the others with a touch of complacence fr

Tom Trumbull said, "Come on, Geoff, you just happened to read all about this recently, so don&039;tit up fro at?"

"I did not read about it recently These are facts every schoolchild knows, or would know if schools orth anything these days The point is that Monroe got every electoral vote but one The lone dissenter - from New Hampshire, I believe - cast his vote for John Quincy Ada unaniton, he said, should be elected unanimously

"You see, then," Avalon continued, "that if Washington is in first place as a vote - getter, Monroe is in second place, FDR is only in third That is why you found no Roosevelts a in action The dead soldier&039;s name must have been Monroe"

Gardner stared about him with astonishment "Incredible!" he said "I can&039;t believe it I never thought for one minute there was anyone other than Roosevelt that it could be Are you sure?"

Avalon shrugged "We can look it up We have a couple of almanacs on the reference shelf"