shaking his fist at the gallery). "You dare not come down here and say
that, you coward!"

A Chorus of Fifty Voices. "Rats!" (also) "Billy, you ought to have
wings."

Alderman Tiernan (rising). "I say now, Mr. Mayor, don't you think
we've had enough of this?"

A Voice. "Well, look who's here. If it ain't Smiling Mike."

Another Voice. "How much do you expect to get, Mike?"

Alderman Tiernan (turning to gallery). "I want to say I can lick any
man that wants to come down here and talk to me to my face. I'm not
afraid of no ropes and no guns. These corporations have done
everything for the city--"

A Voice. "Aw!"

Alderman Tiernan. "If it wasn't for the street-car companies we
wouldn't have any city."

Ten Voices. "Aw!"

Alderman Tiernan (bravely). "My mind ain't the mind of some people."

A Voice. "I should say not."

Alderman Tiernan. "I'm talking for compensation for the privileges we
expect to give."

A Voice. "You're talking for your pocket-book."

Alderman Tiernan. "I don't give a damn for these cheap skates and
cowards in the gallery. I say treat these corporations right. They
have helped make the city."

A Chorus of Fifty Voices. "Aw! You want to treat yourself right,
that's what you want. You vote right to-night or you'll be sorry."

By now the various aldermen outside of the most hardened characters
were more or less terrified by the grilling contest. It could do no
good to battle with this gallery or the crowd outside. Above them sat
the mayor, before them reporters, ticking in shorthand every phrase and
word. "I don't see what we can do," said Alderman Pinski to Alderman
Hvranek, his neighbor. "It looks to me as if we might just as well not
try."

At this point arose Alderman Gilleran, small, pale, intelligent,
anti-Cowperwood. By prearrangement he had been scheduled to bring the
second, and as it proved, the final test of strength to the issue. "If
the chair pleases," he said, "I move that the vote by which the
Ballenberg fifty-year ordinance was referred to the joint committee of
streets and alleys be reconsidered, and that instead it be referred to
the committee on city hall."

This was a committee that hitherto had always been considered by
members of council as of the least importance. Its principal duties
consisted in devising new names for streets and regulating the hours of
city-hall servants. There were no perquisites, no graft. In a spirit
of ribald