rge barn-like room over a saloon," with furniture "of the canonical
kind; dingy benches, spittoons, a dais at one end with a table and
chair, and a stout pitcher for iced water, and on the walls pictures
of General Grant, and of Levi P. Morton," Joe Murray was engaged in
a conflict with "the boss" and wanted a candidate of his own for the
Assembly. He picked out Roosevelt, because he thought that with him he
would be most likely to win. Win they did; the nomination was snatched
away from the boss's man, and election followed. The defeated boss
good-humoredly turned in to help elect the young silk-stocking who had
been the instrument of his discomfiture.

CHAPTER II. IN THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY

Roosevelt was twice reelected to the Assembly, the second time in 1883,
a year when a Republican success was an outstanding exception to the
general course of events in the State. His career at Albany was marked
by a series of fights for decency and honesty. Each new contest showed
him a fearless antagonist, a hard hitter, and a man of practical common
sense and growing political wisdom. Those were the days of the famous
"black horse cavalry" in the New York Legislature--a group of men whose
votes could always be counted on by the special interests and those
corporations whose managers proceeded on the theory that the way to get
the legislation they wanted, or to block the legislation they did not
want, was to buy the necessary votes. Perhaps one-third of the members
of the Legislature, according to Roosevelt's estimate, were purchasable.
Others were timid. Others again were either stupid or honestly so
convinced of the importance of "business" to the general welfare that
they were blind to corporate faults. But Theodore Roosevelt was neither
purchasable, nor timid, nor unable to distinguish between the legitimate
requirements of business and its unjustifiable demands. He developed as
a natural leader of the honest opposition to the "black horse cavalry."

The situation was complicated by what were known as "strike bills."
These were bills which, if passed, might or might not have been in the
public interest, but would certainly have been highly embarrassing to
the private interests involved. The purpose of their introduction was,
of course, to compel the corporations to pay bribes to ensure their
defeat. Roosevelt had one interesting and illuminating experience with
the "black horse cavalry." He was Chairman of the Committee o