Possibly, however, Professor Ford underestimates the penetrating force of “political ideals which receive literary expression.” If by this phrase he means only the highest conclusions of philosophy clothed in the noblest language, it is apparent that a very small circle will be reached at first, although in time these ideals also are certain to be widely diffused by the schools, by journalism and by the learned professions. If, on the other hand, “literary expression” is understood to include the news and editorial columns and the cartoons of the daily newspaper, a great and constantly increasing body of readers are becoming amenable to ideals higher than those bred by the personal relation of “boss and client.” Tweed’s sensitiveness to the terribly cutting cartoons of Thomas Nast shows this process in the course of development. In spite of the fact, of which the Tammany chieftain had boasted, that most of his constituents could not read, he was nevertheless forced to exclaim:—“If those picture papers would only leave me alone I wouldn’t care for all the rest. The people get used to seeing me in stripes, and by and by grow to think I ought to be in prison.”[105] Even that portion of our foreign population which differs most widely in language and customs from the native American stock is being brought with amazing swiftness under the influence of the daily papers published in English.[106] That influence may not be all that we would like it, but at any rate it is much more broadening than the ethics of the clan. In addition to the perverted class ideas current in the lower political ranks there are other causes of the astounding garrulity which prevails regarding corrupt practices. One of these is the exaggerated vanity which all penologists note as a common trait of criminal character. The most adequate explanation, however, is to be found in the fact that so many of the offenders of this sort are allowed to escape the penalties of the law. If corruption even in its grosser forms were as certain of punishment as burglary or forgery, its still unterrified votaries would speedily learn to keep their mouths shut. One almost amusing consequence of the large degree of immunity they enjoy at present is the maudlin sympathy expressed by confrères when an occasional unlucky rascal is fairly caught in the net of the law. Well they know, these friends of his, that he is no more guilty than a score of others who go scot free. Often the untoward event is made the subject of denunciations on the flagrant injustice involved, and if the gang is particularly impudent its next accession to power is pretty apt to be marked by the complete rehabilitation of the “martyrs” who suffered during the reform uprising.