ion began its campaign early that autumn, long before the
Hons. Jonathan Parks and Timothy MacGuire--Republican and Democratic
candidates for Mayor--thought of going on the stump. For several weeks
the meetings were held in the small halls and club rooms of various
societies and orders in obscure portions of the city.

The forces of "privilege and corruption" were not much alarmed. Perry
Blackwood accused the newspapers of having agreed to a "conspiracy of
silence"; but, as Judah B. Tallant remarked, it was the business of the
press to give the public what it wanted, and the public as yet hadn't
shown much interest in the struggle being waged in its behalf. When the
meetings began to fill up it would be time to report them in the columns
of the Era. Meanwhile, however, the city had been quietly visited by an
enterprising representative of a New York periodical of the new type that
developed with the opening years of the century--one making a specialty
of passionate "muck-raking." And since the people of America love nothing
better than being startled, Yardley's Weekly had acquired a circulation
truly fabulous. The emissary of the paper had attended several of the
Citizens meetings; interviewed, it seemed, many persons: the result was a
revelation to make the blood of politicians, capitalists and corporation
lawyers run cold. I remember very well the day it appeared on our news
stands, and the heated denunciations it evoked at the Boyne Club. Ralph
Hambleton was the only one who took it calmly, who seemed to derive a
certain enjoyment from the affair. Had he been a less privileged person,
they would have put him in chancery. Leonard Dickinson asserted that
Yardley's should be sued for libel.

"There's just one objection to that," said Ralph.

"What?" asked the banker.

"It isn't libel."

"I defy them to prove it," Dickinson snapped. "It's a d--d outrage! There
isn't a city or village in the country that hasn't exactly the same
conditions. There isn't any other way to run a city--"

"That's what Mr. Krebs says," Ralph replied, "that the people ought to
put Judd Jason officially in charge. He tells 'em that Jason is probably
a more efficient man than Democracy will be able to evolve in a coon's
age, that we ought to take him over, instead of letting the capitalists
have him."

"Did Krebs say that?" Dickinson demanded.

"You can't have read the article very thoroughly, Leonard," Ralph
commented. "I'm afraid you onl