BIG KENNEDY could not live a year; his doom was written. It was the
word hard to hear, and harder to believe, of one who, broad, burly,
ruddy with the full color of manhood at its prime, seemed in the very
feather of his strength. And for all that, his hour was on its way.
Death had gained a lodgment in his heart, and was only pausing to
strengthen its foothold before striking the blow. I sought to cheer him
with the probability of mistake on the side of ones who had given him
this dark warning of his case.
“That's all right,” responded Big Kennedy in a tone of dogged dejection;
“I'm up ag'inst it just th' same. It didn't need th' doctor to put me
on. More'n once I've felt my heart slip a cog. I shall clean up an'
quit. They say if I pull out an' rest, I may hang on for a year. That's
th' tip I've got, an' I'm goin' to take it. I'm two millions to th'
good, an' when all is done, why, that's enough.”
Big Kennedy declared for a vacation; the public announcement went for
it that he would rest. I was to take control as a fashion of Boss by
brevet.
“Of course,” said Big Kennedy when we talked privately of the situation,
“you understand. I'm down an' out, done for an' as good as dead right
now. But it's better to frame th' play as I've proposed. Don't change
th' sign over th' door for a month or two; it'll give you time to
stiffen your grip. There's dubs who would like th' job, d'ye see, an' if
they found an openin' they'd spill you out of th' place like a pup out
of a basket. It's for you to get your hooks on th' levers, an' be in
control of th' machine before I die.” Then, with a ghastly smile: “An'
seein' it's you, I'll put off croakin! till th' last call of th' board.”
Big Kennedy, seeking that quiet which had been the physician's
prescription, went away. When, later by ten months, he came back, his
appearance was a shock to me. The great, bluff man was gone, and he who
feebly took me by the hand seemed no more than a weak shadow of that
Big John Kennedy whom I had followed. The mere looks of him were like a
knife-stab. He stayed but a day, and then returned to his retreat in the
silent hills. Within a month Big Kennedy was dead.
“You've got things nailed,” said he, on the last evening, “an' I'm glad
it's so. Now let me give you a few points; they may help you to hold
down your place as Boss. You're too hungry for revenge; there's your
weakness. The revenge habit is worse than a taste for whisky. Th' best
you can say for it is it's a waste of time. When you've downed a man,
stop. To go on beatin' him is like throwin' water on a drowned rat.
“When it comes to handin' out th' offices an' th' contracts, don't play
fav'rites. Hand every man what's comin' to him by th' rules of th' game.
It'll give you more power to have men say you'll do what's square, than
that you'll stick by your friends. Good men--dead-game men, don't want
favors; they want justice.
“Never give a man the wrong office; size every man up, an' measure him
for his place th' same as a tailor does for a suit of clothes. If you
give a big man a little office, you make an enemy; if you give a little
man a big office, you make trouble.
“Flatter th' mugwumps. Of course, their belfry is full of bats; but
about half th' time they have to be your pals, d'ye see, in order to be
mugwumps. An' you needn't be afraid of havin' 'em around; they'll never
ketch onto anything. A mugwump, as some wise guy said, is like a man
ridin' backward in a carriage; he never sees a thing until it's by.
“Say 'No' nineteen times before you say 'Yes' once. People respect th'
man who says 'No,' an' his 'Yes' is worth more where he passes it out.
When you say 'No,' you play your own game; when you say 'Yes,' you're
playin' some other duck's game. 'No,' keeps; 'Yes,' gives; an' th' gent
who says 'No' most will always be th' biggest toad in his puddle.
“Don't be fooled by a cheer or by a crowd. Cheers are nothin' but a
breeze; an' as for a crowd, no matter who you are, there would always be
a bigger turn-out to see you hanged than to shake your mit.
“Always go with th' current; that's th' first rule of leadership. It's
easier; an' there's more water down stream than up.
“Think first, last, an' all th' time of yourself. You may not be of
account to others, but you're the whole box of tricks to yourself. Don't
give a man more than he gives you. Folks who don't stick to that steer
land either in bankruptcy or Bloomin'dale.
“An' remember: while you're Boss, you'll be forced into many things
ag'inst your judgment. The head of Tammany is like th' head of a snake,
an' gets shoved forward by the tail. Also, like th' head of a snake, th'
Boss is th' target for every rock that is thrown.
“Have as many lieutenants as you can; twenty are safer than two. Two
might fake up a deal with each other to throw you down; twenty might
start, but before they got to you they'd fight among themselves.
“Have people about you who distrust each other an' trust you. Keep th'
leaders fightin' among themselves. That prevents combinations ag'inst
you; an' besides they'll do up each other whenever you say the word,
where every man is hated by the rest.
“Always pay your political debts; but pay with a jolly as far as it'll
go. If you find one who won't take a jolly, throw a scare into him and
pay him with that. If he's a strong, dangerous mug with whom a jolly
or a bluff won't work, get him next to you as fast as you can. If you
strike an obstinate party, it's th' old rule for drivin' pigs. If you
want 'em to go forward, pull 'em back by th' tails. Never trust a man
beyond his interest; an' never love the man, love what he does.
“The whole science of leadership lies in what I've told you, an' if you
can clinch onto it, you'll stick at th' top till you go away, like I do
now, to die. An' th' last of it is, don't get sentimental--don't take
politics to heart. Politics is only worth while so long as it fills your
pockets. Don't tie yourself to anything. A political party is like a
street car; stay with it only while it goes your way. A great partisan
can never be a great Boss.”
When I found myself master of Tammany, my primary thought was to be
cautious. I must strengthen myself; I must give myself time to take
root. This was the more necessary, for not only were there a full score
of the leaders, any one of whom would prefer himself for my place, but
the political condition was far from reassuring. The workingman--whom as
someone said we all respect and avoid--was through his unions moving to
the town's conquest. It was as that movement of politics in the land
of the ancient Nile. Having discovered a Moses, the hand-workers would
offer him for the mayoralty on the issue of no more bricks without
straw.
Skilled to the feel of sentiment, I could gauge both the direction
and the volume of the new movement. Nor was I long in coming to the
knowledge that behind it marched a majority of the people. Unless
checked, or cheated, that labor uprising would succeed; Tammany and its
old-time enemies would alike go down.
This news, self-furnished as a grist ground of the mills of my own
judgment, stimulated me to utmost action. It would serve neither my
present nor my future should that battle which followed my inauguration
be given against me. I was on my trial; defeat would be the signal for
my overthrow. And thus I faced my first campaign as Boss.
That rebellion of the working folk stirred to terror the conservatives,
ever the element of wealth. Each man with a share of stock to shrink in
value, or with a dollar loaned and therefore with security to shake, or
with a store through the plate-glass panes of which a mob might hurl
a stone, was prey to a vast alarm. The smug citizen of money, and of
ease-softened hands, grew sick as he reflected on the French Revolution;
and he predicted gutters red with blood as the near or far finale
should the town's peasantry gain the day. It was then those rich ones,
panic-bit, began to ask a succor of Tammany Hall. There were other
septs, but Tammany was the drilled, traditional corps of political
janissaries. Wherefore, the local nobility, being threatened, fled to it
for refuge.
These gentry of white faces and frightened pocket-books came to me by
ones and twos and quartettes; my every day was filled with them; and
their one prayer was for me to make a line of battle between them and
that frowning peril of the mob. To our silken worried ones, I replied
nothing. I heard; but I kept myself as mute for hope or for fear as any
marble.
And yet it was sure from the beginning that I must make an alliance with
my folk of purple. The movement they shuddered over was even more of a
menace to Tammany than it was to them. It might mean dollars to them,
but for Tammany it promised annihilation, since of every five who went
with this crusade, four were recruited from the machine.
Fifth Avenue, in a fever, did not realize this truth. Nor was I one to
enlighten my callers. Their terror made for the machine; it could be
trained to fill the Tammany treasure chest with a fund to match those
swelling fears, the reason of its contribution. I locked up my tongue;
it was a best method to augment a mugwump horror which I meant should
find my resources.
Young Morton, still with his lisp, his affectations, his scented gloves,
and ineffable eyeglass, although now no longer “young,” but like myself
in the middle journey of his life, was among my patrician visitors.
Like the others, he came to urge a peace-treaty between Tammany and the
mugwumps, and he argued a future stored of fortune for both myself and
the machine, should the latter turn to be a defense for timid deer from
whom he came ambassador.
To Morton I gave particular ear. I was never to forget that loyalty
wherewith he stood to me on a day of trial for the death of Jimmy the
Blacksmith. If any word might move me it would be his. Adhering to a
plan, however, I had as few answers for his questions as I had for those
of his mates, and wrapped myself in silence like a mantle.
Morton was so much his old practical self that he bade me consider a
candidate and a programme.
“Let us nominate my old gentleman for mayor,” said he. “He's very old;
but he's clean and he's strong, don't y' know. Really he would draw
every vote to his name that should of right belong to us.”
“That might be,” I returned; “but I may tell you, and stay within the
truth, that if your father got no more votes than should of right be
his, defeat would overtake him to the tune of thousands. Add the machine
to the mugwumps, and this movement of labor still has us beaten
by twenty thousand men. That being the case, why should I march
Tammany--and my own fortune, too--into such a trap?”
“What else can you do?” asked Morton.
“I can tell you what was in my mind,” said I. “It was to go with this
labor movement and control it.”
“That labor fellow they've put up would make the worst of mayors.
You and Tammany would forever be taunted with the errors of his
administration. Besides, the creature's success would vulgarize the
town; it would, really!”
“He is an honest man,” said I.
“Honest, yes; but what of that? Honesty is the commonest trait of
ignorance. There should be something more than honesty, don't y' know,
to make a mayor. There be games like draw poker and government where
to be merely honest is not a complete equipment. Besides, think of the
shock of such a term of hobnails in the City Hall. If you, with your
machine, would come in, we could elect my old gentleman over him or any
other merely honest candidate whom those vulgarians could put up; we
could, really!”
“Tell me how,” said I.
“There would be millions of money,” lisped Morton, pausing to select a
cigarette; “since Money would be swimming for dear life. All our fellows
at the club are scared to death--really! One can do anything with money,
don't y' know.”
“One can't stop a runaway horse with money,” I retorted; “and this labor
movement is a political runaway.”
“With money we could build a wall across its course and let those idiots
of politics run against it. My dear fellow, let us make a calculation.
Really, how many votes should those labor animals overrun us, on the
situation's merits?”
“Say twenty-five thousand.”
“This then should give so experienced a hand as yourself some shade of
comfort. The Master of the Philadelphia Machine, don't y' know, is one
of my railway partners. 'Old chap,' said he, when I told him of the
doings of our New York vandals, 'I'll send over to you ten thousand men,
any one of whom would loot a convent. These common beggars must be put
down! The example might spread to Philadelphia.' So you see,” concluded
Morton, “we would not be wanting in election material. What should ten
thousand men mean?”
“At the least,” said I, “they should count for forty thousand. A man
votes with a full beard; then he votes with his chin shaved; then he
shaves the sides of his face and votes with a mustache; lastly he votes
with a smooth face and retires to re-grow a beard against the
next campaign. Ten thousand men should tally forty thousand votes.
Registration and all, however, would run the cost of such an enterprise
to full five hundred thousand dollars.”
“Money is no object,” returned Morton, covering a yawn delicately with
his slim hand, “to men who feel that their fortunes, don't y' know, and
perhaps their lives, are on the cast. Bring us Tammany for this one war,
and I'll guarantee three millions in the till of the machine; I
will, really! You would have to take those ten thousand recruits from
Philadelphia into your own hands, however; we Silk Stockings don't own
the finesse required to handle such a consignment of goods. Besides, if
we did, think what wretched form it would be.”
To hide what was in my thought, I made a pretense of considering the
business in every one of its angles. There was a minute during which
neither of us spoke.
“Why should I put the machine,” I asked at last, “in unnecessary peril
of the law? This should be a campaign of fire. Every stick of those
three millions you speak of would go to stoke the furnaces. I will do as
well, and win more surely, with the labor people.”
“But do you want to put the mob in possession?” demanded Morton,
emerging a bit from his dandyisms. “I'm no purist of politics; indeed,
I think I'm rather practical than otherwise, don't y' know. I am free
to say, however, that I fear a worst result should those savages of a
dinner-can and a dollar-a-day, succeed--really! You should think once in
a while, and particularly in a beastly squall like the present, of the
City itself.”
“Should I?” I returned. “Now I'll let you into an organization tenet.
Tammany, blow high, blow low, thinks only of itself.”
“You would be given half the offices, remember.”
“And the Police?”
“And the Police.”
“Tammany couldn't keep house without the police,” said I, laughing.
“You've seen enough of our housekeeping to know that.”
“You may have the police, and what else you will.”
“Well,” said I, bringing the talk to a close, “I can't give you an
answer now. I must look the situation in the eyes. To be frank, I don't
think either the Tammany interest or my own runs with yours in this. I,
with my people, live at the other end of the lane.”
While Morton and I were talking, I had come to a decision. I would name
the reputable old gentleman for mayor. He was stricken of years; but
I bethought me how for that very reason he might be, when elected, the
easier to deal with. But I would keep my resolve from Morton. There was
no stress of hurry; the election was months away. I might see reason
to change. One should ever put off his contract-making until the last.
Besides, Morton would feel the better for a surprise.
Before I went to an open alliance with the mugwumps, I would weaken the
labor people. This I might do by pretending to be their friend.
There was a strip of the labor candidate's support which was rabid
anti-Tammany. Let me but seem to come to his comfort and aid, and every
one of those would desert him.
Within the week after my talk with Morton, I sent a sly scrap of news
to the captains of labor. They were told that I had given utterance
to sentiments of friendship for them and their man. Their taste to
cultivate my support was set on edge. These amateurs of politics came
seeking an interview. I flattered their hopes, and spoke in high terms
of their candidate, his worth and honesty. The city could not be in
safer hands.
There were many interviews. It was as an experience, not without a side
to amuse, since my visitors, while as pompous as turkey cocks, were as
innocently shallow as so many sheep. Many times did we talk; and I gave
them compliments and no promises.
My ends were attained. The papers filled up with the coming partnership
between the labor movement and the machine, and those berserks of
anti-Tammany, frothing with resentment against ones who would sell
themselves into my power as the price of my support, abandoned the
laborites in a body. There were no fewer than five thousand of these to
shake the dust of labor from their feet. When I had driven the last of
them from the labor champion, by the simple expedient of appearing to be
his friend, I turned decisively my back on him. Also, I at once called
Tammany Convention--being the first in the field--and issued those
orders which named the reputable old gentleman.
There arose a roar and a cheer from my followers at this, for they read
in that name a promise of money knee-deep; and what, than that word,
should more brighten a Tammany eye! I was first, with the machine at
my back, to walk upon the field with our reputable old gentleman. The
mugwumps followed, adopting him with all dispatch; the Republicans,
proper, made no ticket; two or three straggling cliques and split-offs
of party accepted the reputable old gentleman's nomination; and so the
lines were made. On the heels of the conventions, the mugwump leaders
and I met and merged our tickets, I getting two-thirds and surrendering
one-third of those names which followed that of the reputable old
gentleman for the divers offices to be filled.
When all was accomplished, the new situation offered a broad foundation,
and one of solvency and depth, whereon to base a future for both Tammany
and myself. It crystallized my power, and my grip on the machine was set
fast and hard by the sheer effect of it. The next thing was to win at
the polls; that would ask for studied effort and a quickness that must
not sleep, for the opposition, while clumsy, straggling, and unwieldly
with no skill, overtopped us in strength by every one of those thousands
of which I had given Morton the name.
“Really, you meant it should be a surprise,” observed Morton, as he
grasped my hand. It was the evening of the day on which the Tammany
Convention named the reputable old gentleman. “I'll plead guilty; it
was a surprise. And that's saying a great deal, don't y' know. To be
surprised is bad form, and naturally I guard myself against such a
vulgar calamity. But you had me, old chap! I was never more baffled
and beaten than when I left you. I regarded the conquest of the City by
those barbarians as the thing made sure. Now all is changed. We will go
in and win; and not a word I said, don't y' know, shall be forgotten and
every dollar I mentioned shall be laid down. It shall, 'pon honor!”