I told him that the politicians in China were the greatest scholars; that the policy of the Government was to make all offices competitive, as we thus secured the brightest, smartest, and most gifted men for officials. "Smart h----!" retorted the "Boss." "Why, we've got smart men. Look at our school-teachers. Them guys[9] is crammed with guff,[10] and passing examinations all the time; but there ain't one in a thousand that's got sense enough to run a tamale[11] convention. The State governor would get left here if all the boys that wanted office had to pass an examination. We've got something like it here," he said, "that blank Civil Service, that keeps many a natural-born genius out of office; but it don't 'cut ice with me.' I'm the whole thing in the ward." Despite his rough exterior, ---- was a good-hearted fellow, as they say, no rougher than his constituents, and I was with him several days during a local election with a view to studying American politics. Much of the time was spent in the saloons of the district where the "Boss" held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white Chink," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the "Boss" took and the cigars he smoked _per diem_. Perhaps it is as well I did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd, that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a "slugger," that counted for much in such an assemblage, and he confided to me one evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was "Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into respectable persons in New York and other cities.