THE LAST STAND.
Deprived of the services of his able lieutenant, Boss Coggswell faced
the coming primary-election contest with some misgivings. He realized
that he was up against the biggest battle of his political career.
Several times in the past attempts had been made to wrest the district
leadership from him, but in all those cases his opponents had been so
weak, and their campaigns so poorly organized, that he had been able to
defeat them without much effort. The Honorable Sugden Lawrence, he had
reason to believe, would prove a much more formidable foeman. The
ex-judge possessed a personality which made him an opponent to be feared
even by so powerful a boss as Samuel J. Coggswell. Therefore the latter
had spoken with the utmost sincerity when he told Jake Hines that he
would miss him. He feared that in order to win, much dirty work would
have to be done; and Boss Coggswell disliked dirty work--when he had to
do it himself. It would have been so much pleasanter to have the
indefatigable Jake on hand to take care of the hiring of “guerrillas,”
the “fixing” of election inspectors, and various other details of a
similarly sordid and disagreeable character which Jake had always taken
care of so faithfully.
Perhaps it is needless to say that the enforced absence of his trusty
helper did not increase the boss’ good will toward the man who was
directly responsible for that calamity. Coggswell promised himself
grimly that if the primary election went his way Mr. Owen Sheridan’s
chances of holding down his job as post-office inspector wouldn’t be
worth a plugged nickel.
True, Sheridan was protected--to some extent, by the civil-service laws;
but that fact did not worry Coggswell. He had his own little ways for
overcoming such obstacles.
It was not only a desire for vengeance which actuated him; fear and
self-preservation were also his motives. He considered it positively
dangerous to have Sheridan remain in the detective branch of the postal
service, for there were certain transactions past, present, and
contemplated, with which he was closely identified, which would not bear
the scrutiny of a post-office inspector.
He was afraid, however, to bring about the dismissal of the man before
primary-election day; he knew that if he did so Judge Lawrence would not
fail to make political capital out of the incident; so he decided to
wait until the contest for the district leadership was over. In the
meantime, for safety’s sake, he contrived to have Sheridan transferred
from the New York district. This he could bring about without laying
himself open to the charge of persecution. A little wire pulling at
Washington, and, without Boss Coggswell’s name being mentioned in the
matter at all, Owen received peremptory orders to report to the chief
inspector of the San Francisco branch.
“I wouldn’t mind the change at all,” said Owen to Judge Lawrence. “It
will be a nice honeymoon trip for us”--for the transfer order reached
him on the very day of his marriage to Dallas--“but I hate the idea of
being away from New York while you are waging your primary battle
against that crook. I was in hopes that I would be able to repay a
little of what you have done for me by helping you in your campaign.”
“For shame!” exclaimed the ex-jurist good-humoredly. “Even if you were
in New York, you couldn’t possibly afford to take any part in the fight.
Don’t you know that employees of the United States postal service are
forbidden to mix up in politics?”
He smiled ironically as he said the words, for, although things are
somewhat different to-day, in those days it was an open secret that
every member of the service, from the humblest letter carrier to the
head of the department, was an active political worker.
“Besides,” Judge Lawrence continued seriously, “I shall not need your
help. There isn’t any doubt in my mind that I am going to defeat that
rascal. All the trickery and corrupt practices which his crooked brain
can devise won’t suffice to avert his downfall. You can go to San
Francisco thoroughly assured that the days of Samuel J. Coggswell as a
political boss are numbered.”
This did not appear to be an idle boast. As primary day drew nearer,
Coggswell grew more and more alarmed by the strength which his opponent
displayed. Word reached him that the voters of the district were
flocking by thousands to the ex-jurist’s banner. Men who had never taken
the trouble to vote at a primary election before were taking a keen
interest in this fight. Judge Lawrence was conducting a whirlwind
campaign, and his forceful oratory had the district stirred as it had
never been stirred before.
So worried was Boss Coggswell that he decided to take the stump
himself--a step which he had never before found necessary in all the
years he had been a political boss.
During the closing days of the campaign he followed his opponent around
the district, speaking from carts and in halls, denying vehemently the
judge’s charge that he had been mixed up in the conspiracy for which his
man--Jake Hines--was in prison stripes, and hotly denouncing the rival
candidate’s “mud-slinging” tactics as “un-American and ungentlemanly.”
But, although he was an eloquent speaker, he was forced to realize that
his oratory could not save the day. His audiences smiled skeptically
when he protested that he had had nothing to do with the desperate
attempt to railroad young Sheridan to jail. They smiled still more
incredulously when he denied Judge Lawrence’s charge that he had derived
revenue from the sale of tickets for the various outings of the Samuel
J. Coggswell Association.
The judge made it a point to go extensively into the details of those
notorious outings. He quoted figures to show that at each outing the
sale of tickets had brought in several thousand dollars more than the
total expenses. He charged that this surplus had gone into the boss’
coffers, and exposed the blackmailing methods by which Jake Hines and
the other lieutenants had forced the reluctant civil-service employees
and business men of the district to take tickets. It made excellent
campaign material.
What worried Boss Coggswell most of all was the fear that he would not
be able to carry out successfully on election day the corrupt practices
which now constituted his only hope of winning. That he could not win by
fair means he was already sadly convinced, but he hoped to be able to
steal the election by the aid of the guerrilla bands of “repeaters,”
fraudulent election inspectors, and stuffed ballot boxes.
But a doubt had arisen within Coggswell’s troubled mind whether, with a
fighter like the Honorable Sugden Lawrence to contend with, it would be
possible to “get away” with these violent measures. The judge had issued
a warning from the stump that he intended to have a fair, honest
primary, and that if any rough work were attempted, those participating
would be prosecuted.
Moreover--most serious blow of all--Judge Lawrence had enough pull at
police headquarters to bring about the transfer of the captain of the
precinct--an officer kindly disposed toward Coggswell. The man who had
been sent up to take his place was an officer who was noted for his
impartiality at elections and his ability to quell disorder at the
voting places.
Altogether, things looked very bad for the boss. But just when the
outlook appeared darkest and he was about to give up hope, he suddenly
saw an opportunity to crush the enemy by a single blow.