eet, New York, and fought among themselves for
possession of the United States of America. It is interesting to note
that in these struggles a certain chivalry was observed among the
combatants, no matter how bitter the rivalry: for instance, it was
deemed very bad form for one of the groups of combatants to take the
public into their confidence; cities were upset and stirred to the
core by these conflicts, and the citizens never knew who was doing
the fighting, but imagined that some burning issue was at stake that
concerned them. As a matter of fact the issue always did concern them,
but not in the way they supposed.

Gradually, out of the chaotic melee in which these titans were engaged
had emerged one group more powerful than the rest and more respectable,
whose leader was the Personality to whom I have before referred. He and
his group had managed to gain control of certain conservative fortresses
in various cities such as the Corn National Bank and the Ashuela
Telephone Company--to mention two of many: Adolf Scherer was his ally,
and the Boyne Iron Works, Limited, was soon to be merged by him into a
greater corporation still. Leonard Dickinson might be called his local
governor-general. We manned the parapets and kept our ears constantly to
the ground to listen for the rumble of attacks; but sometimes they burst
upon us fiercely and suddenly, without warning. Such was the assault on
the Ashuela, which for years had exercised an apparently secure monopoly
of the city's telephone service, which had been able to ignore with
complacency the shrillest protests of unreasonable subscribers. Through
the Pilot it was announced to the public that certain benevolent
"Eastern capitalists" were ready to rescue them from their thraldom if
the city would grant them a franchise. Mr. Lawler, the disinterestedness
of whose newspaper could not be doubted, fanned the flame day by day,
sent his reporters about the city gathering instances of the haughty
neglect of the Ashuela, proclaiming its instruments antiquated compared
with those used in more progressive cities, as compared with the very
latest inventions which the Automatic Company was ready to install
provided they could get their franchise. And the prices! These, too,
would fall--under competition. It was a clever campaign. If the city
would give them a franchise, that Automatic Company--so well named!
would provide automatic instruments. Each subscriber, by means of a
numeric