d
that "Gulmore's negroes" voted to a man, and that he thereby controlled
the Republican party. In the second year of his residence in Tecumseh he
got the contract for lighting the town with gas. The contract was to
run for twenty years, and was excessively liberal, for Mr. Gulmore had
practically no competitor, no one who understood gas manufacture, and
who had the money and pluck to embark in the enterprise. He quickly
formed a syndicate, and fulfilled the conditions of the contract. The
capital was fixed at two hundred thousand dollars, and the syndicate
earned a profit of nearly forty per cent, in the first year. Ten years
later a one hundred dollar share was worth a thousand. This first
success was the foundation of Mr. Gulmore's fortune. The income derived
from the gas-works enabled him to spend money on the organization of his
party. The first manager of the works was rewarded with the position of
Town Clerk--an appointment which ran for five years, but which under Mr.
Gulmore's rule was practically permanent. His foremen became the most
energetic of ward-chairmen. He was known to pay well, and to be a kind
if strenuous master. What he had gained in ten years by the various
contracts allotted to him or his nominees no one could guess; he was
certainly very rich. From year to year, too, his control of the city
government had grown more complete. There was now no place in the civil
or judicial establishment of the city or county which did not depend on
his will, and his influence throughout the State was enormous.

A municipal election, or, indeed, any election, afforded Mr. Gulmore
many opportunities of quiet but intense self-satisfaction. He loved
the struggle and the consciousness that from his office-chair he had so
directed his forces that victory was assured. He always allowed a broad
margin in order to cover the unforeseen. Chance, and even ill-luck,
formed a part of his strategy; the sore throat of an eloquent speaker;
the illness of a popular candidate; a storm on polling-day--all were to
him factors in the problem. He reckoned as if his opponents might have
all the luck upon their side; but, while considering the utmost malice
of fortune, it was his delight to base his calculations upon the
probable, and to find them year by year approaching more nearly
to absolute exactitude. As soon as his ward-organization had been
completed, he could estimate the votes of his party within a dozen or
so. His plan was t