her McManuses.
For several years he was a political bushwhacker. In campaigns he
was sometimes on the fence, sometimes on both sides of the fence,
and sometimes under the fence. Nobody knew where to find him at any
particular time, and nobody trusted him--that is, nobody but me. I
thought there was some good in him after all and that, if I took him in
hand, I could make a man of him yet.

I did take him in hand, a few years ago. My friends told me it would be
the Brutus Leary business all over again, but I didn't believe them.
I put my trust in "The." I nominated him for the Assembly, and he
was elected. A year afterwards, when I was runnin' for re-election as
Senator, I nominated him for the Assembly again on the ticket with
me. What do you think happened? We both carried the Fifteenth Assembly
District, but he ran away ahead of me. Just think! Ahead of me in my
own district! I was just dazed. When I began to recover, my election
district captains came to me and said that McManus had sold me out
with the idea of knockin' me out of the Senatorship, and then tryin'
to capture the leadership of the district. I couldn't believe it. My
trustin' nature couldn't imagine such treachery.

I sent for McManus and said, with my voice tremblin' with emotions:
"They say you have done me dirt, 'The.' It can't be true. Tell me it
ain't true."

"The" almost wept as he said he was innocent.

"Never have I done you dirt, George," he declared. "Wicked traitors have
tried to do you. I don't know just who they are yet, but I'm on their
trail, and I'll find them or abjure the name of 'The' McManus. I'm goin'
out right now to find them."

Well, "The" kept his word as far as goin' out and findin' the traitors
was concerned. He found them all right--and put himself at their
head. Oh, no! He didn't have to go far to look for them. He's got them
gathered in his clubrooms now, and he's doin' his best to take the
leadership from the man that made him. So you see that Caesar and Leary
and me's in the same boat, only I'll come out on top while Caesar and
Leary went under.

Now let me tell you that the ingrate in politics never flourishes long.
I can give you lots of examples. Look at the men who done up Roscoe
Conkling when he resigned from the United States Senate and went to
Albany to ask for re-election! What's become of them? Passed from view
like a movin' picture. Who took Conkling's place in the Senate? Twenty
dollars even that you can'