n the children. It puzzled and troubled me.

The Citizens Union began its campaign early that autumn, long before
the Hons. Jonathan Parks and Timothy MacGuire--Republican and Democratic
candidates for Mayor--thought of going on the stump. For several weeks
the meetings were held in the small halls and club rooms of various
societies and orders in obscure portions of the city.

The forces of "privilege and corruption" were not much alarmed. Perry
Blackwood accused the newspapers of having agreed to a "conspiracy of
silence"; but, as Judah B. Tallant remarked, it was the business of the
press to give the public what it wanted, and the public as yet hadn't
shown much interest in the struggle being waged in its behalf. When the
meetings began to fill up it would be time to report them in the columns
of the Era. Meanwhile, however, the city had been quietly visited by
an enterprising representative of a New York periodical of the new
type that developed with the opening years of the century--one making a
specialty of passionate "muck-raking." And since the people of America
love nothing better than being startled, Yardley's Weekly had acquired
a circulation truly fabulous. The emissary of the paper had attended
several of the Citizens meetings; interviewed, it seemed, many
persons: the result was a revelation to make the blood of politicians,
capitalists and corporation lawyers run cold. I remember very well the
day it appeared on our news stands, and the heated denunciations it
evoked at the Boyne Club. Ralph Hambleton was the only one who took it
calmly, who seemed to derive a certain enjoyment from the affair. Had
he been a less privileged person, they would have put him in chancery.
Leonard Dickinson asserted that Yardley's should be sued for libel.

"There's just one objection to that," said Ralph.

"What?" asked the banker.

"It isn't libel."

"I defy them to prove it," Dickinson snapped. "It's a d--d outrage!
There isn't a city or village in the country that hasn't exactly the
same conditions. There isn't any other way to run a city--"

"That's what Mr. Krebs says," Ralph replied, "that the people ought to
put Judd Jason officially in charge. He tells 'em that Jason is probably
a more efficient man than Democracy will be able to evolve in a coon's
age, that we ought to take him over, instead of letting the capitalists
have him."

"Did Krebs say that?" Dickinson demanded.

"You can't have read the article ve