, sometimes it was
outsiders, who bribed them--but most of the time it was the chiefs
of the trust. Now for instance, they were having winter racing in New
Orleans and a syndicate was laying out each day's program in advance,
and its agents in all the Northern cities were "milking" the poolrooms.
The word came by long-distance telephone in a cipher code, just a little
while before each race; and any man who could get the secret had as good
as a fortune. If Jurgis did not believe it, he could try it, said the
little Jew--let them meet at a certain house on the morrow and make a
test. Jurgis was willing, and so was Duane, and so they went to one
of the high-class poolrooms where brokers and merchants gambled (with
society women in a private room), and they put up ten dollars each upon
a horse called "Black Beldame," a six to one shot, and won. For a secret
like that they would have done a good many sluggings--but the next day
Goldberger informed them that the offending gambler had got wind of what
was coming to him, and had skipped the town.

There were ups and downs at the business; but there was always a living,
inside of a jail, if not out of it. Early in April the city elections
were due, and that meant prosperity for all the powers of graft. Jurgis,
hanging round in dives and gambling houses and brothels, met with
the heelers of both parties, and from their conversation he came to
understand all the ins and outs of the game, and to hear of a number of
ways in which he could make himself useful about election time. "Buck"
Halloran was a "Democrat," and so Jurgis became a Democrat also; but he
was not a bitter one--the Republicans were good fellows, too, and were
to have a pile of money in this next campaign. At the last election the
Republicans had paid four dollars a vote to the Democrats' three; and
"Buck" Halloran sat one night playing cards with Jurgis and another man,
who told how Halloran had been charged with the job voting a "bunch" of
thirty-seven newly landed Italians, and how he, the narrator, had met
the Republican worker who was after the very same gang, and how the
three had effected a bargain, whereby the Italians were to vote half and
half, for a glass of beer apiece, while the balance of the fund went to
the conspirators!

Not long after this, Jurgis, wearying of the risks and vicissitudes
of miscellaneous crime, was moved to give up the career for that of a
politician. Just at this time there was