eristically. The
power of the press must be invoked. It was our chief if not our only
weapon. Seated at the same table each of us indited a leading editorial
for his paper, to be wired to its destination and printed next morning,
striking D. Davis at a prearranged and varying angle. Copies of these
were made for Halstead, who having with the rest of us read and compared
the different scrolls indited one of his own in general commentation
and review for Cincinnati consumption. In next day's Commercial, blazing
under vivid headlines, these leading editorials, dated "Chicago" and
"New York," "Springfield, Mass.," and "Louisville, Ky.," appeared with
the explaining line "The Tribune of to-morrow morning will say--" "The
Courier-Journal--and the Republican--will say to-morrow morning--"

Wondrous consensus of public opinion! The Davis boom went down before
it. The Davis boomers were paralyzed. The earth seemed to have risen and
hit them midships. The incoming delegates were arrested and forewarned.
Six months of adroit scheming was set at naught, and little more was
heard of "D. Davis."

We were, like the Mousquetaires, equally in for fighting and
foot-racing, the point with us being to get there, no matter how; the
end--the defeat of the rascally machine politicians and the reform of
the public service--justifying the means. I am writing this nearly fifty
years after the event and must be forgiven the fling of my wisdom at my
own expense and that of my associates in harmless crime.

Some ten years ago I wrote: "Reid and White and I the sole survivors;
Reid a great Ambassador, White and I the virtuous ones, still able to
sit up and take notice, with three meals a day for which we are
thankful and able to pay; no one of us recalcitrant. We were wholly
serious--maybe a trifle visionary, but as upright and patriotic in our
intentions and as loyal to our engagements as it was possible for older
and maybe better men to be. For my part I must say that if I have never
anything on my conscience worse than the massacre of that not very
edifying yet promising combine I shall be troubled by no remorse, but to
the end shall sleep soundly and well."

Alas, I am not the sole survivor. In this connection an amusing incident
throwing some light upon the period thrusts itself upon my memory. The
Quadrilateral, including Reid, had just finished its consolidation
of public opinion before related, when the cards of Judge Craddock,
chairman