people, and for which the "System's" votaries would willingly pay
millions of dollars if they were compelled to. I shall dwell on the
performance that ensued at this juncture of my story long enough to
present an outline of such a proceeding.

Head-quarters for Whitney's Massachusetts Pipe Line were opened at
Young's Hotel--Parlors 9, 10, and 11, Rooms 6, 7, 8, second story front.
Parlors 9 and 10 were the general reception-room, while 11 was reserved
for the commander himself and for important and "touchy" interviews. The
rooms 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 were used for educational purposes. In the morning
the place was deserted, but at noon the parlors began to fill up with
the different officers of the "Machine" and their friends, trustworthy
members of the Legislature. A little later an elaborate luncheon would
be served, the supernumeraries eating in one room, Towle and his chiefs
and the legislators in the other. At table the gossip of the morning
session at the State House was exchanged and the work laid out for the
afternoon legislative and committee sessions. Another interval of
silence and peace until at 5.30 the real business of the day began. Mr.
Patch was generally on the ground first, carrying the books in which the
bribery records were kept, for be it remembered that the efficiency of
the Whitney machine was largely due to the thoroughly systematic manner
in which its operations were conducted. Nothing was left to chance or to
any one's memory. In turn, the subordinates presented careful reports of
the day's transactions. At 6.30 Mr. Towle would go over these documents,
"sizing up" the actual results for submission later to the chief
himself. Between 7.30 and 8.30 the "Machine" dined; the remains of the
feast having been removed, the doors were locked and the books brought
out.

If an outsider could possibly have obtained the entry to the
head-quarters of the Whitney Massachusetts Pipe Line, say at nine
o'clock any evening during the session, he might easily have imagined
himself at the Madison Square Garden or at Tattersall's on the evening
of the first day of an international horse-sale. This is what he would
have seen: In Parlor 10, seated at a long table a dozen of Mr. Towle's
chiefs, all in their shirt-sleeves, smoking voluminously; before each a
sheet of paper on which is printed a list of the members of the
Legislature; against every name a blank space for memoranda; at the head
of the table Towle himself, fro