than the
croakers had done--Ben Butler was nominated for Governor of
Massachusetts. That was when politics touched bottom. There was no lower
depths of infamy for them to reach. Ben Butler was the chief demagogue
of the land. The Republican party was to be congratulated that it got
rid of him. His election was a cross put upon the State of Massachusetts
for something it had done we knew not of. Fortunately there were men
like Roscoe Conkling in politics to counterbalance other kinds.

Backed up by unscrupulous politicians, the equally irresponsible
railroad promoter began his invasion of city streets with his noisy
scheme. I opposed him, but the problem of transportation then was not as
it is now. Just as the year 1879 had begun, a gigantic political
promoting scheme for an elevated railroad in Brooklyn was attempted.
From Boston came the promoters with a proposition to build the road,
without paying a cent of indemnity to property holders. I suggested
that an appeal be made to Brooklynites to subscribe to a company for the
agricultural improvements of Boston Common. It was a parallel absurdity.
Mayor Howell, of Brooklyn, courageously opposed an elevated road
franchise, unless property holders were paid according to the damage to
the property. This was one of many inspired grafts of political
Brooklyn, years ago.

A great event in the world was the announcement in November, 1878, that
Professor Thomas Edison had applied for a patent for the discovery of
the incandescent electric light. He harnessed the flame of a thunderbolt
to fit in a candlestick. I hope he made millions of dollars out of it.
In direct contradiction to this progress in daily life there came, at
the same time, from the Philadelphia clergy a protest against printing
their sermons in the secular press. It was an injustice to them, they
declared, because the sermons were not always fully reported. I did not
share these opinions. If a minister's gospel is not fit for fifty
thousand people, then it is not fit for the few hundred members of his
congregation. My own sermons were being published in the secular press
then, as they had been when I was in Philadelphia.

Almost at the close of the year 1878 the loss of the S.S. "Pomerania,"
in collision in the English Channel, was a disaster of the sea that I
denounced as nothing short of murder. It was shown at the trial that
there was no fog at the time, that the two vessels saw each other for
ten minutes bef