laugh.

I was in an unenviable state of mind when he left me. I had an impulse
to send for Miss McCoy and ask her if she had understood what Krebs was
"driving at," but for reasons that must be fairly obvious I refrained.
I read over again that part of Krebs's speech which dealt with the
immediate programme of the Citizens Union. After paying a tribute to
Greenhalge as a man of common sense and dependability who would make a
good mayor, he went on to explain the principle of the new charter they
hoped ultimately to get, which should put the management of the city
in the hands of one man, an expert employed by a commission; an expert
whose duty it would be to conduct the affairs of the city on a business
basis, precisely as those of any efficient corporation were conducted.
This plan had already been adopted, with encouraging results, in
several smaller cities of the country. He explained in some detail,
with statistics, the waste and inefficiency and dishonesty in various
departments under the present system, dwelling particularly upon the
deplorable state of affairs in the city hospital.

I need not dwell upon this portion of his remarks. Since then text-books
and serious periodicals have dealt with these matters thoroughly. They
are now familiar to all thinking Americans.

XXV.

My entrance into the campaign was accompanied by a blare of publicity,
and during that fortnight I never picked up a morning or evening
newspaper without reading, on the first page, some such headline as
"Crowds flock to hear Paret." As a matter of fact, the crowds did flock;
but I never quite knew as I looked down from platforms on seas of faces
how much of the flocking was spontaneous. Much of it was so, since the
struggle had then become sufficiently dramatic to appeal to the larger
public imagination that is but occasionally waked; on the other
hand, the magic of advertising cannot be underestimated; nor must
the existence be ignored of an organized corps of shepherds under the
vigilant direction of Mr. Judd Jason, whose duty it was to see that none
of our meetings was lacking in numbers and enthusiasm. There was always
a demonstrative gathering overflowing the sidewalk in front of the
entrance, swaying and cheering in the light of the street lamps, and on
the floor within an ample scattering of suspiciously bleary-eyed voters
to start the stamping and applauding. In spite of these known facts, the
impression of popularity, of re