The Boss, and How He Came to Rule New YorkLewis, Alfred Henry
History
The Boss, and How He Came to Rule New York
Lewis, Alfred Henry
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Political fiction; Politicians -- Fiction
On each attempt they were encountered and dispersed. More than once the
Red Jackets, backed by the faithful Tin Whistles, took possession of a
meeting, put up their own orators and adopted their own resolutions.
If the police were called, they invariably arrested our enemies, being
sapient of their own safety and equal to the work of locating the butter
on their personal bread. If the enemy through their henchmen or managers
made physical resistance, the Tin Whistles put them outside the hall,
and whether through door or window came to be no mighty matter.
At times the Red Jackets and their reserves of Tin Whistles would
permit the opposition to open a meeting. When the first orator had been
eloquent for perhaps five minutes, a phalanx of Tin Whistles would arise
in their places, and a hailstorm of sponges, soaking wet and each
the size of one's head, would descend upon the rostrum. It was a
never-failing remedy; there lived never chairman nor orator who would
face that fusillade. Sometimes the lights were turned out; and again,
when it was an open-air meeting and the speakers to talk from a truck,
a bunch of crackers would be exploded under the horses and a runaway
occur. That simple device was sure to cut the meeting short by carrying
off the orators. The foe arranged but one procession; that was disposed
of on the fringe of our territory by an unerring, even if improper,
volley of eggs and vegetables and similar trumpery. The artillery used
would have beaten back a charge by cavalry.
Still the enemy had the money, and on that important point could
overpower us like ten for one, and did. Here and there went their
agents, sowing sly riches in the hope of a harvest of votes. To
counteract this still-hunt where the argument was cash, I sent the word
abroad that our people were to take the money and promise votes. Then
they were to break the promise.
“Bunco the foe!” was the watchword; “take their money and 'con' them!”
This instruction was deemed necessary for our safety. I educated our men
to the thought that the more money they got by these methods, the higher
they would stand with Big Kennedy and me. If it were not for this,
hundreds would have taken a price, and then, afraid to come back to
us, might have gone with the banners of the enemy for that campaign at
least. Now they would get what they could, and wear it for a feather
in their caps. They exulted in such enterprise; it was spoiling the
Egyptian; having filled their pockets they would return and make a brag
of the fact. By these schemes we kept our strength. The enemy parted
with money by the thousands, yet never the vote did they obtain. The
goods failed of delivery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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