vote. They
not only attended all the Italian christenings and funerals, but also
kept a close lookout for the marriages in order to be on hand with
wedding presents.

At first, each had his own reporter in the Italian quarter to keep track
of the marriages. Later, Foley conceived a better plan. He hired a man
to stay all day at the City Hall marriage bureau, where most Italian
couples go through the civil ceremony, and telephone to him at his
saloon when anything was doing at the bureau.

Foley had a number of presents ready for use and, whenever he received a
telephone message from his man, he hastened to the City Hall with a
ring or a watch or a piece of silver and handed it to the bride with his
congratulations. As a consequence, when Divver got the news and went to
the home of the couple with his present, he always found that Foley had
been ahead of him. Toward the end of the campaign, Divver also stationed
a man at the marriage bureau and then there were daily foot races and
fights between the two heelers.

Sometimes the rivals came into conflict at the death-bed. One night a
poor Italian peddler died in Roosevelt Street. The news reached Divver
and Foley about the same time, and as they knew the family of the
man was destitute, each went to an undertaker and brought him to the
Roosevelt Street tenement.

The rivals and the undertakers met at the house and an altercation
ensued. After much discussion the Divver undertaker was selected. Foley
had more carriages at the funeral, however, and he further impressed the
Italian voters by paying the widow's rent for a month, and sending her
half a ton of coal and a barrel of flour.

The rivals were put on their mettle toward the end of the campaign by
the wedding of a daughter of one of the original Cohens of the Baxter
Street region. The Hebrew vote in the district is nearly as large as
the Italian vote, and Divver and Foley set out to capture the Cohens and
their friends.

They stayed up nights thinking what they would give the bride. Neither
knew how much the other was prepared to spend on a wedding present, or
what form it would take; so spies were employed by both sides to keep
watch on the jewelry stores, and the jewelers of the district were
bribed by each side to impart the desired information.

At last Foley heard that Divver had purchased a set of silver knives,
forks and spoons. He at once bought a duplicate set and added a silver
tea service. When the