radicals they want to bring to confusion. When the people cry
for a reform you'll shout louder than anybody else--and you'll be made
leader--and you'll lead--into the marshes. Your followers will perish,
but you'll come back, ready for the next treachery for which the
plutocracy needs you. And you'll look honest and respectable--and
you'll talk virtue and reform and justice. But you'll know what you
are yourself. David Hull, I despise you as much as you despise
yourself."

He did not follow as she walked away. He returned to the log, and
slowly reseated himself. He was glad of the violent headache that made
thought impossible.

Remsen City, boss-ridden since the Civil War, had experienced many a
turbulent election day and night. The rivalries of the two bosses,
contending for the spoils where the electorate was evenly divided, had
made the polling places in the poorer quarters dangerous all day and
scenes of rioting at night. But latterly there had been a notable
improvement. People who entertained the pleasant and widespread
delusion that statute laws offset the habits and customs of men,
restrain the strong and protect the weak, attributed the improvement to
sundry vigorously worded enactments of the legislature on the subject
of election frauds. In fact, the real bottom cause of the change was
the "gentlemen's agreement" between the two party machines whereunder
both entered the service of the same master, the plutocracy.

Never in Remsen City history had there been grosser frauds than those
of this famous election day, and never had the frauds been so open. A
day of scandal was followed by an evening of shame; for to overcome the
League the henchmen of Kelly and House had to do a great deal of
counting out and counting in, of mutilating ballots, of destroying
boxes with their contents. Yet never had Remsen City seen so peaceful
an election. Representatives of the League were at every polling
place. They protested; they took names of principals and witnesses in
each case of real or suspected fraud. They appealed to the courts from
time to time and got rulings--always against them, even where the
letter of the decision was in their favor. They did all this in the
quietest manner conceivable, without so much as an expression of
indignation. And when the results were announced--a sweeping victory
for Hull and the fusion ticket, Hugo Galland elected by five hundred
over Falconer--the Leaguers made