added.

"Krebs is the whole show, I tell you. They wouldn't be anywhere without
him. The yaps that listen to him don't understand him, but somehow he
gets under their skins. Have you seen him lately?"

"Never saw him," replied Tallant.

"Well, if you had, you'd know he was a sick man."

"Sick!" I exclaimed. "How do you know?"

"It's my business to know things," said Judd Jason, and added to
Tallant, "that your reporters don't find out."

"What's the matter with him?" Tallant demanded. A slight exultation in
his tone did not escape me.

"You've got me there," said Jason, "but I have it pretty straight. Any
one of your reporters will tell you that he looks sick."....

The Era took Mr. Jason's advice and began to publish those portions of
Krebs's speeches that were seemingly detrimental to his own cause. Other
conservative newspapers followed suit....

Both Tallant and I were surprised to hear these sentiments out of the
mouth of Mr. Jason.

"You don't think that crowd's going to win, do you?" asked the owner of
the Era, a trifle uneasily.

"Win!" exclaimed the boss contemptuously. "They'll blow up, and you'll
never hear of 'em. I'm not saying we won't need a little--powder," he
added--which was one of the matters we had come to talk about. He
gave us likewise a very accurate idea of the state of the campaign,
mentioning certain things that ought to be done. "You ought to print
some of Krebs's speeches, Judah, like what he said about me. They're
talking it all around that you're afraid to."

"Print things like his proposal to make you mayor!"

The information that I was to enter the lists against Krebs was received
with satisfaction and approval by those of our friends who were called
in to assist at a council of war in the directors' room of the Corn
National Bank. I was flattered by the confidence these men seemed to
have in my ability. All were in a state of anger against the reformers;
none of them seriously alarmed as to the actual outcome of the
campaign,--especially when I had given them the opinion of Mr. Jason.
What disturbed them was the possible effect upon the future of the
spread of heretical, socialistic doctrines, and it was decided to
organize a publicity bureau, independently of the two dominant political
parties, to be in charge of a certain New York journalist who made a
business of such affairs, who was to be paid a sum commensurate with the
emergency. He was to have carte blanche, even