220 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



And yet the practice of bribery is robbed of half 

 its virulence, because it is done openly — coram 

 puUico. More, the present political system — the 

 machine, as it is called — works fairly well, for the 

 bosses and wire-pullers serve a fickle public, and 

 are constrained, willy-nilly, to behave themselves. 

 One of the best known bosses of California has 

 never made a penny out of his politics. He loves 

 power, of course, and he controls his " gang " with 

 the unerring skill and instinct of a dictator, but 

 outside of politics he is known and respected as 

 an honest and honourable man. He will talk 

 quite frankly about himself and his methods. " If 

 I want a thing," he says, "I don't fool about 

 with understrappers, but I go to headquarters and 

 ask squarely the price to be paid. If I can pay 

 that price — good. If not, I bear no ill-feeling, 

 and I always try to give value received. I buy 

 and sell political privileges in the open market." 



Our methods in England are not so very dis- 

 similar. 



Not long ago an experiment was made, which 

 failed. A young man of large wealth and good 

 education presented himself as candidate for an 

 important municipal office. In the clubs and in 

 the streets it was confidently asserted that the 

 "boss" had had his day. And it really seemed 

 to be so. None doubted that the candidate was 

 honestly anxious to inaugurate a new and happier 

 system; that he was sacrificing himself and his 

 interests on behalf of the state. A great many 

 infamous jobs upon the part of the city super- 

 visors had inflamed the public mind, and the can- 



