It is the boast of prominent railroad men that their influence elected President Garfield, and the statement has been made upon good authority that "not until a few days before the election did the Garfield managers feel secure," and that "when the secret history of that campaign comes to be written it will be seen that Jay Gould had more influence upon the election than Grant and Conkling." It cannot be said that railroad managers, as a class, have often openly supported a presidential candidate. This may be due to the fact that with the uncertainty which has for years attended national politics they deem it the part of discretion to pretend friendship for either party and then shout with the victor. In conformity with this policy, a well-known New York railroad millionaire has for years made large and secret contributions to the campaign funds of both political parties. He thereby places both parties under political obligations, and believes his interests safe, whichever turn the political wheel may take. After the contest he is usually the first to congratulate the successful candidate. In the national campaign of 1884 this railroad king completely outwitted a prominent Western politician and member of the Republican national campaign committee who has always prided himself on his political sagacity. This gentleman had taken it upon himself to enlist the rich and powerful New Yorker in the Republican cause, and to obtain from him, as a token of his sincerity, a large contribution to the Blaine campaign fund. He succeeded, at least so far as the contribution was concerned; but when the struggle was over and the opposition, in the exuberance of joy over their victory, told tales out of school, he was not a little chagrined to find that the managers of the Cleveland campaign had received from the astute railroad millionaire a campaign contribution twice as large as that which he had obtained from him. The diatribes which for weeks after the election filled the columns of his paper reflected in every line the injured pride of the outwitted general.