There couldn't be a wronger idea. The district leader makes a business
of politics, gets his livin' out of it, and, in order to succeed, he's
got to keep sober just like in any other business.

Just take as examples "Big Tim" and "Little Tim" Sullivan. They're known
all over the country as the Bowery leaders and, as there's nothin' but
saloons on the Bowery, people might think that they are hard drinkers.
The fact is that neither of them has ever touched a drop of liquor in
his life of even smoked a cigar. Still they don't make no pretenses
of being better than anybody else, and don't go around deliverin'
temperance lectures. Big Tim made money out of liquor--sellin' it to
other people. That's the only way to get good out of liquor.

Look at all the Tammany heads of city departments? There's not a real
drinkin' man in the lot. Oh, yes, there are some prominent men in the
organization who drink sometimes, but they are not the men who have
power. They're ornaments, fancy speakers and all that, who make a fine
show behind the footlights, but am I in it when it comes to directin'
the city government and the Tammany organization. The men who sit in the
executive committee room at Tammany Hall and direct things are men
who celebrate on apollinaris or vichy. Let me tell you what I saw on
election night in 1897, when the Tammany ticket swept the city: Up to 10
P.M. Croker, John F. Carroll, Tim Sullivan, Charlie Murphy, and myself
sat in the committee room receivin' returns. When nearly all the city
was heard from and we saw that Van Wyck was elected by a big majority,
I invited the crowd to go across the street for a little celebration.
A lot of small politicians followed us, expectin' to see magnums of
champagne opened. The waiters in the restaurant expected it, too, and
you never saw a more disgusted lot of waiters when they got our orders.
Here's the orders: Croker, vichy and bicarbonate of soda; Carroll,
seltzer lemonade; Sullivan, apollinaris; Murphy, vichy; Plunkitt, ditto.
Before midnight we were all in bed, and next mornin' we were up bright
and early attendin' to business, while other men were nursin' swelled
heads. Is there anything the matter with temperance as a pure business
proposition?

Chapter 20. Bosses Preserve the Nation

WHEN I retired from the Senate, I thought I would take a good, long
rest, such a rest as a man needs who has held office for about forty
years, and has held four different offices in