142 Machine Politics 



by pay and other compensation, the services of the 

 gang of young fellows to which X belonged. On 

 one occasion he failed to reward them for their work, 

 and in other ways treated them so shabbily as to 

 make them very angry, more especially X, who was 

 their leader. There was no way to pay Larry off 

 until the next election ; but they determined to break 

 his influence utterly then, and as the best method for 

 doing this they decided to "vote as far away from 

 him" as possible, or, in other words, to strain every 

 nerve to secure the election of all the candidates 

 most opposed to those whom Larry favored. After 

 due consultation, it was thought that this could be 

 most surely done by supporting the Republican 

 ticket. Most of the other bodies of young laborers, 

 or, indeed, of young roughs, made common cause 

 with X and his friends. Everything was kept very 

 quiet until election day, neither Larry nor the few 

 Republicans having an inkling of what was going on. 

 It was a rough district, and usually the Republican 

 booths were broken up and their ballot-distributers 

 driven off early in the day ; but on this occasion, to 

 the speechless astonishment of everybody, things 

 went just the other way. The Republican ballots 

 were distributed most actively, the opposing workers 

 were bribed, persuaded, or frightened away, all 

 means fair and foul were tried and finally there 

 was almost a riot, the outcome being that the Re- 

 publican actually obtained a majority in a district 

 where they had never before polled ten per cent of 

 the total vote. Such a phenomenon attracted the 



