esent
his case and justify his cause. But the effect of his suave
speechifyings in these quarters was largely neutralized by newspaper
denunciation. "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" was the regular
inquiry. That section of the press formerly beholden to Hand and
Schryhart stood out as bitterly as ever; and most of the other
newspapers, being under no obligation to Eastern capital, felt it the
part of wisdom to support the rank and file. The most searching and
elaborate mathematical examinations were conducted with a view to
showing the fabulous profits of the streetcar trust in future years.
The fine hand of Eastern banking-houses was detected and their sinister
motives noised abroad. "Millions for everybody in the trust, but not
one cent for Chicago," was the Inquirer's way of putting it. Certain
altruists of the community were by now so aroused that in the
destruction of Cowperwood they saw their duty to God, to humanity, and
to democracy straight and clear. The heavens had once more opened, and
they saw a great light. On the other hand the politicians--those in
office outside the mayor--constituted a petty band of guerrillas or
free-booters who, like hungry swine shut in a pen, were ready to fall
upon any and all propositions brought to their attention with but one
end in view: that they might eat, and eat heartily. In times of great
opportunity and contest for privilege life always sinks to its lowest
depths of materialism and rises at the same time to its highest reaches
of the ideal. When the waves of the sea are most towering its hollows
are most awesome.

Finally the summer passed, the council assembled, and with the first
breath of autumn chill the very air of the city was touched by a
premonition of contest. Cowperwood, disappointed by the outcome of his
various ingratiatory efforts, decided to fall back on his old reliable
method of bribery. He fixed on his price--twenty thousand dollars for
each favorable vote, to begin with. Later, if necessary, he would raise
it to twenty-five thousand, or even thirty thousand, making the total
cost in the neighborhood of a million and a half. Yet it was a small
price indeed when the ultimate return was considered. He planned to
have his ordinance introduced by an alderman named Ballenberg, a
trusted lieutenant, and handed thereafter to the clerk, who would read
it, whereupon another henchman would rise to move that it be referred
to the joint committee