Mr. John Wharton returned with the secretary to the City Hall, and for more than three hours he was closeted alone with the chief magistrate. When his visitor had gone the mayor dictated to his stenographer a statement for the press. He outlined the proposition of Strong & Co., who, he said, were acting on behalf of a syndicate which preferred to conceal its identity. Of its ability to carry out its proposal, the mayor declared he had received abundant assurance. The offer was not in his estimation, the mayor explained, in any ordinary sense a business proposition. It took rank instead as the greatest private or public benefaction of modern times. It was a boon which would change the whole future history of the metropolis and of the Empire State. It was an inestimable gift, and he called upon the city to join him in unmeasured gratitude to the unknown donors. Regarding the practical execution of the scheme, the mayor said: “I have not hesitated to assure Messrs. Strong & Co., informally, that they may count upon the city’s grateful and unanimous acceptance of this munificent proposal, with all the public-spirited conditions which are attached. Although approval by the state legislature is necessary, I feel that an appeal to the governor to summon a special session for the purpose is not called for. Any material opposition to a plan so magnificent and patriotic is not conceivable. There appears, therefore, to be no good reason why the great preliminary work which such an enterprise involves should not proceed at once. Actual construction can then begin immediately after the necessary legislation has been provided next winter.” There was a sensation in the morning newspaper offices when the mayor’s proclamation was received, and an army of reporters searched the city for more information about the latest wonder of wealth and philanthropy. The next morning all New York wondered, and so did the world at large. And the only people who did not join in the general rejoicing were the owners of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad. They saw in the announcement, beneath the black-typed headlines in all the newspapers, the doom of their great monopoly, the sudden birth of a power greater than theirs. How could they cope with it, how could they compel the city’s inhabitants to tolerate any longer their makeshift devices for postponing rather than solving a vital problem? They were helpless before this new monetary force, just as the people had been helpless before the selfish tyranny of the railroad company’s short-sightedness. Political power the Manhattan Company’s managers had, both in the municipal councils and at Albany, but of what use to exert it in face of such a proposition as this? No politician of any party would dare to put a straw in the way of its execution.