rch of
work. The League always went early into campaign because it pursued a
much slower and less expensive method of electioneering than either of
the old parties--or than any of the "upper class" reform parties that
sprang up from time to time and died away as they accomplished or
failed of their purpose--securing recognition for certain personal
ambitions not agreeable to the old established bosses. Besides, the
League was, like the bosses and their henchmen, in politics every day
in every year. The League theory was that politics was as much a part
of a citizen's daily routine as his other work or his meals.

It was the night of the League's great ratification meeting. The next
day the first campaign number--containing the biographical sketch of
Tony Rivers, Kelly's right-hand man ... would go upon the press, and on
the following day it would reach the public.

Market Square in Remsen City was on the edge of the power quarter, was
surrounded by cheap hotels, boarding houses and saloons. A few years
before, the most notable citizens, market basket on arm, could have
been seen three mornings in the week, making the rounds of the stalls
and stands, both those in the open and those within the Market House.
But customs had rapidly changed in Remsen City, and with the exception
of a few old fogies only the poorer classes went to market. The
masters of houses were becoming gentlemen, and the housewives were
elevating into ladies--and it goes without saying that no gentleman and
no lady would descend to a menial task even in private, much less in
public.

Market Square had even become too common for any but the inferior
meetings of the two leading political parties. Only the Workingmen's
League held to the old tradition that a political meeting of the first
rank could be properly held nowhere but in the natural assembling place
of the people--their market. So, their first great rally of the
campaign was billed for Market Square. And at eight o'clock, headed by
a large and vigorous drum corps, the Victor Dorn cohorts at their full
strength marched into the centre of the Square, where one of the stands
had been transformed with flags, bunting and torches into a speaker's
platform. A crowd of many thousands accompanied and followed the
procession. Workingmen's League meetings were popular, even among
those who believed their interests lay elsewhere. At League meetings
one heard the plain truth, sometimes extremel