ity. Presently, however, these
city fathers started a migration to Canada, Mexico, Spain, and other
countries where the processes of extradition did not work smoothly.
Sharp's enemies had succeeded in precipitating a legislative
investigation under the very capable leadership of Roscoe Conkling, who
had little difficulty in showing that Sharp had purchased his aldermen
for $500,000 cash. In a short time, such of the aldermen as were
accessible to the police were languishing in prison, and Sharp had been
arrested on twenty-one indictments for bribery and sentenced to four
years' hard labor--a sentence which he was saved from serving by his
lonely and miserable death in Ludlow Street Jail. In the delirium
preceding his dissolution Sharp raved constantly about his Broadway
railroad and his enemies; it was apparently his belief that the
investigation which had uncovered his rascality and the subsequent
"persecutions" had been engineered by certain of his rivals, either
to compel Sharp to disgorge his franchise or to produce the facts that
would justify the legislature in annulling it on the ground of fraud.

Though the complete history of this transaction can never be written, we
do possess certain facts that lend some color to this diagnosis. Up to
the time that Sharp had captured this franchise, Ryan, Whitney, and the
Philadelphians--not as partners, but as rivals--had competed with him
for this prize. At the trial of Arthur J. McQuade in 1886, a fellow
conspirator, who bore the somewhat suggestive name of Fullgraff, related
certain details which, if true, would indicate that Sharp's methods
differed from those of his rivals only in that they had proved more
successful. Thirteen members of the Board of Aldermen, said Fullgraff,
had formed a close corporation, elected a chairman, and adopted a policy
of "business unity in all important matters," which meant that they
proposed to keep together in order to secure the highest price for the
Broadway franchise. The cable railroad, which was the one with which Mr.
Ryan was identified, offered $750,000, half in bonds and half in cash.
Mr. Sharp, however, offered $500,000 all in cash. The aldermen voted in
favor of Sharp because cash was not only a more valuable commodity
than the bonds but, to use Alderman Fullgraff's own words--"less easily
traced." That Whitney financed lawsuits against the validity of Sharp's
franchise appears upon the record, and that Ryan was actively promoti