was to this condition that I had to adapt my campaigning plans. I
determined first to raise the market price of Addicks' securities; to
turn the tide against the "Standard Oil" by that most potent of
stock-market weapons, publicity; and then to attack Rogers from the rear
through the City Hall. For Addicks to attempt to match pocket-books with
Rogers and "Standard Oil" in corrupting city or State officials I knew
would be useless; and besides a fundamental stipulation in the agreement
with the Delaware financier on the _Now-Then_ had been that under no
circumstances should bribery or corruption be allowed to enter into any
of our plans while I was connected with the enterprise. I had always
held, do now, and always shall hold, that the meanest crime in the
calendar of vice is bribery of the servants of the people. I felt pretty
sure, moreover, that I could play a card that would more than offset the
dollars of "Standard Oil." Nathan Matthews was on the high-road to the
governor's chair, but I happened to know that, however ambitious he
might be for political preferment, his temperament rendered him more
avid for distinction in business. Addicks had within his gift the
richest plum in all the Boston commercial world. As controller of the
affairs of the Bay State Company of Delaware, which controlled the
nomination and consequent election of the officers of the old Boston gas
companies, he could award to any one he pleased the presidency of these
corporations, together with the large salary that went with the
office.[6]

My plans in shape, I rushed to the firing-line. I began with a statement
to the investors of New England and the gas consumers of Boston brimming
over with facts and figures. Then I fired a volley of candid details as
to the manner in which city and State officials had recently betrayed
the public's interests. Lastly, I discharged at "Standard Oil" a
broadside which my attorneys and friends assured me meant jail on a
libel charge. I put my banking-house and my personal guarantee behind
the old and new loans, and proceeded to roll up my sleeves in the
stock-market. I got results at once. A change became apparent in public
sentiment--the rottenness of Addicksism was overcome by the stench of
"Standard Oil." The prices of Bay State stocks and bonds shot up; loan
funds were offered freely and at lower rates of interest.

There were, however, reprisals. Rogers met my onslaught by a manoeuvre
new in "Standard