und like a man who is in the tenth story of a burnin'
building' seekin' a way to escape. I believe that Fourth-of-July silk
hat shortened the life of one of our Grand Sachems, the late Supreme
Court Justice Smyth, and I know that one of our Sachems refused the
office of Grand Sachem because he couldn't get up sufficient patriotism
to perform this four-hour hat act. You see, there's degrees of
patriotism just as there's degrees in everything else.

You don't hear of the Citizens' Union people holdin' Fourth-of-July
celebrations under a five-pound silk hat, or any other way, do you? The
Cits take the Fourth like a dog I had when I was a boy. That dog knew
as much as some Cits and he acted just like them about the glorious day.
Exactly forty-eight hours before each Fourth of July, the dog left our
house on a run and hid himself in the Bronx woods. The day after the
Fourth he turned up at home as regular as clockwork. He must have known
what a dog is up against on the Fourth. Anyhow, he kept out of the way.
The name-parted-in-the-middle aristocrats act in just the same way.
They don't want to be annoyed with firecrackers and the Declaration of
Independence, and when they see the Fourth comm' they hustle off to the
woods like my dog.

Tammany don't only show its patriotism at Fourth-of-July celebrations.
It's always on deck when the country needs its services. After the
Spanish-American War broke Out, John J. Scannell, the Tammany leader of
the Twenty-fifth District, wrote to Governor Black offerin' to raise a
Tammany regiment to go to the front. If you want proof, go to Tammany
Hall and see the beautiful set of engrossed resolutions about this
regiment. It's true that the Governor didn't accept the offer, but it
showed Tammany's patriotism. Some enemies of the organization have said
that the offer to raise the regiment was made after the Governor let
it be known that no more volunteers were wanted, but that's the talk of
envious slanderers.

Now, a word about Tammany's love for the American flag. Did you ever
see Tammany Hall decorated for a celebration? It's just a mass of flags.
They even take down the window shades and put flags in place of them.
There's flags everywhere except on the floors. We don't care for expense
where the American flag is concerned, especially after we have won an
election. In 1904 we originated the custom of givin' a small flag to
each man as he entered Tammany Hall for the Fourth-of-July celebr