great zeal and effectiveness. General Divvy, the ex-Governor of
South Carolina, who had grown wealthy reforming that State and had
thereafter naturally come to be regarded as an authority on all matters
connected with reform, had written an earnest letter commending the
rally as one of the most important steps that had ever been taken in the
direction of pure and frugal government. The Rev. Dr. Lillipad Froth,
from his pulpit in the Memorial Church of the Sacred Vanities, had taken
occasion to say that great results to the community might be expected
from the success of this patriotic enterprise, and ex-Congressman Van
Shyster, being interviewed by a reporter of _The Sting_, after
expressing his unqualified opinion that all political parties were
utterly corrupt and abandoned, whereof his opportunity of judging had
certainly been excellent, since he had suffered numerous defeats as the
candidate of each of them successively, emphatically declared that he
saw no hope for the city except in the cause this meeting was called to
foster.

No definite purpose had been expressed in the published call as to what
should be done at the Rally, but Colonel Sneekins's plans were fully
matured. The Hon. Doyle O'Meagher, the Boss of Tammany Hall, had
promised that his organization should indorse for the office of Mayor
the nominee presented by the Reformers. As to the identity of their
candidate there was but one mind among the Reformers. Who should he be
but that champion of Reform, the Hon. Perfidius Ruse? Mr. Ruse was not
an experiment. He had already served as the City's Chief Magistrate, and
had filled many remunerative offices with Reformers. Being of a modest
and retiring disposition, he was now holding aloof from the honors
sought to be thrust upon him. He had begged his friends to take some new
candidate, he had pleaded his well-known dislike of office and the
pressing demands of his private affairs. But, nevertheless, zealous as
he was in the Reform cause, he had consented to furnish a delegation of
500 citizens from his morocco factories in Hoboken to swell the Grand
Rally in the Cooper Union, and had given his friend, Colonel Sneekins,
an ample check wherewith to procure portraits and pamphlets presenting
to the public the features and the services of the Hon. Perfidius Ruse.
It was Colonel Sneekins's intention totally to disregard Mr. Ruse's
plea for rest from official cares, and as he now from behind the wings
contemplat