ences with "Doc" Ames, the maneuvers
of the peripatetic boss. Ames was four times mayor of the city, but
never his own successor. Each succeeding experience with him grew more
lurid of indecency, until his third term was crystallized in Minneapolis
tradition as "the notorious Ames administration." Domestic scandal
made him a social outcast, political corruption a byword, and Ames
disappeared from public view for ten years.

In 1900 a new primary law provided the opportunity to return him to
power for the fourth time. Ames, who had been a Democrat, now found it
convenient to become a Republican. The new law, like most of the early
primary laws, permitted members of one party to vote in the primaries
of the other party. So Ames's following, estimated at about fifteen
hundred, voted in the Republican primaries, and he became a regular
candidate of that party in a presidential year, when citizens felt the
special urge to vote for the party.

Ames was the type of boss with whom discipline is secondary to personal
aggrandizement. He had a passion for popularity; was imposing of
presence; possessed considerable professional skill; and played
constantly for the support of the poor. The attacks upon him he turned
into political capital by saying that he was made a victim by the rich
because he championed the poor. Susceptible to flattery and fond of
display, he lacked the power to command. He had followers, not henchmen.
His following was composed of the lowly, who were duped by his phrases,
and of criminals, who knew his bent; and they followed him into any
party whither he found it convenient to go, Republican, Democratic, or
Populist.

The charter of Minneapolis gave the mayor considerable appointing power.
He was virtually the dictator of the Police Department. This was the
great opportunity of Ames and his floating vote. His own brother, a weak
individual with a dubious record, was made Chief of Police. Within a few
weeks about one-half of the police force was discharged, and the
places filled with men who could be trusted by the gang. The number
of detectives was increased and an ex-gambler placed at their head. A
medical student from Ames's office was commissioned a special policeman
to gather loot from the women of the street.

Through a telepathy of their own, the criminal classes all over the
country soon learned of the favorable conditions in Minneapolis, under
which every form of gambling and low vice flourished;