tes of it with the other
most promising candidate. He did not see very much of him, for they were
interrupted by another caller, and Peter had to leave before he could
have a chance to continue the interview.

"I had a call to-day from that fellow Stirling, who's a delegate from
the sixth ward," the candidate told a "visiting statesman" later. "I'm
afraid he'll give us trouble. He asks too many questions. Fortunately
Dewilliger came to see me, and though I shouldn't have seen him
ordinarily, I found his call very opportune as a means of putting an end
to Stirling's cross-examination."

"He's the one doubtful man on the city's delegation," said the
statesman. "It happened through a mistake. It will be very unfortunate
if we can't cast a solid city vote."

Peter talked more in the next few days. He gave the "b'ys" his
impressions of the two candidates, in a way which made them trust his
conclusions. He saw his two fellow delegates, and argued long and
earnestly with them. He went to every saloon-keeper in the district, and
discussed the change in the liquor law which was likely to be a
prominent issue in the campaign, telling them what he had been able to
draw from both candidates about the subject.

"Catlin seems to promise you the most," he told them, "and I don't want
to say he isn't trying to help you. But if you get the law passed which
he promises to sign, you won't be much better off. In the first place,
it will cost you a lot of money, as you know, to pass it; and then it
will tempt people to go into the business, so that it will cut your
profits that way. Then, you may stir up a big public sentiment against
you in the next election, and so lay yourselves open to unfriendly
legislation. It is success, or trying to get too much, which has beaten
every party, sooner or later, in this country. Look at slavery. If the
Southerners had left things as they were under the Missouri Compromise,
they never would have stirred up the popular outbreak that destroyed
slavery. Now, Porter is said to be unfriendly to you, because he wants a
bill to limit the number of licenses, and to increase the fee to new
saloons. Don't you see that is all in your favor, though apparently
against you? In the first place, you are established, and the law will
be drawn so as to give the old dealer precedence over a new one in
granting fresh licenses. This limit will really give the established
saloon more trade in the future, by reducing comp