ans joined
in that--the Republicans, the State Democrats, the Stecklerites and the
O'Brienites, and they gave us a lickin', but the real reform part of the
affair, the Committee of Seventy that started the thing goin', what's
become of those reformers? What's become of Charles Stewart Smith?
Where's Bangs? Do you ever hear of Cornell, the iron man, in politics
now? Could a search party find R. W. G. Welling? Have you seen the name
of Fulton McMahon or McMahon Fulton--I ain't sure which--in the papers
lately? Or Preble Tucker? Or--but it's no use to go through the list
of the reformers who said they sounded in the death knell of Tammany in
1894. They're gone for good, and Tammany's pretty well, thank you. They
did the talkin' and posin', and the politicians in the movement got all
the plums. It's always the case.

The Citizens' Union has lasted a little bit longer than the reform crowd
that went before them, but that's because they learned a thing or two
from us. They learned how to put up a pretty good bluff--and bluff
Counts a lot in politics. With only a few thousand members, they had the
nerve to run the whole Fusion movement, make the Republicans and other
organizations come to their headquarters to select a ticket and dictate
what every candidate must do or not do. I love nerve, and I've had a
sort of respect for the Citizens Union lately, but the Union can't last.
Its people haven't been trained to politics, and whenever Tammany calls
their bluff they lay right down. You'll never hear of the Union again
after a year or two.

And, by the way, what's become of the good government clubs, the
political nurseries of a few years ago?

Do you ever hear of Good Government Club D and P and Q and Z any more?
What's become of the infants who were to grow up and show us how to
govern the city? I know what's become of the nursery that was started
in my district. You can find pretty much the whole outfit over in my
headquarters, Washington Hall.

The fact is that a reformer can't last in politics. He can make a show
for a while, but he always comes down like a rocket. Politics is as much
a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or the drug business.
You've got to be trained up to it or you're sure to fail. Suppose a man
who knew nothing about the grocery trade suddenly went into the business
and tried to conduct it according to his own ideas. Wouldn't he make a
mess of it? He might make a splurge for a while, as l