Word: benning
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Meanwhile Democrats gave Charles Ben ("Cowboy Ben") Ross, an astute Bible-quoting politician who is the first Governor of Idaho ever to serve three successive terms, the Senatorial nomination over blind U. S. District Attorney John A. Carver. Idaho had, Senator Borah noted to his dismay, cast 7,000 more Democratic votes than Republican...
Last week, girding himself for the toughest fight in his political career against "Cowboy Ben" Ross, Senator Borah turned up at Boise to say of his loyal constituency with unprecedented warmth and familiarity: "I do not believe any public man ever owed the debt of gratitude to the people whom he was seeking to serve that I owe to the people of Idaho. After 30 years of service and under rather involved circumstances, they have given anew their assurance of confidence. I prize this above all things that could come to me in the way of compensation...
...begins in a matter-of-fact way with a dry, ironic account of the christening of the hero, Ben, born into a family of clergymen. The ceremony is marred when a poor, ugly, distant relative called Miserable Sarah breaks in on the good-hearted soft-headed assemblage with words of cruel wisdom. Groaning heavily, she tells Ben that he has a thin skin "and a thin skin is easy scratched and easy tickled...Play the fool when you come to something you don't understand...If you must play games, choose the one you're good at." Ben...
Climax of Ben's life occurs when he falls in love with a queen. Ruler of a small country famed for its tyranny, she is on a visit arranging a loan; Ben meets her by accident while she is sneaking a last cigaret before a state reception begins. Although the Queen, in manner, speech and display of her girlish charms, has a good deal in common with less elevated wenches, Ben is straightway transported by his love to the isles of enchantment. At a house party with her he makes a romantic fool of himself before her worldly companions...
Thereupon The Moon's No Fool leaves its practical moorings as Ben experiences nightmarish visions where friends are all enemies; where the Queen is successively a prostitute, a torch-singer, a dancing partner, a captive; where his fashionable companions turn into policemen and thugs who are chasing him everywhere; where his beloved changes her being whenever he tries to embrace her. Thereupon, too, The Moon's No Fool takes on its elusive moral tone as Author Matthews suggests the evil consequences and addled wits that follow from self-deception and acceptance of worldly standards. Ben is saved from...