That was beginnin' business in a small way, wasn't it? But that is
the only way to become a real lastin' statesman. I soon branched
out. Two young men in the flat next to mine were school friends-I
went to them, just as I went to Tommy, and they agreed to stand by
me. Then I had a followin' of three voters and I began to get a bit
chesty. Whenever I dropped into district head-quarters, everybody
shook hands with me, and the leader one day honored me by
lightin' a match for my cigar. And so it went on like a snowball
rollin' down a hill I worked the flat-house that I lived in from the
basement to the top floor, and I got about a dozen young men to
follow me. Then I tackled the next house and so on down the block
and around the corner. Before long I had sixty men back of me,
and formed the George Washington Plunkitt Association.

What did the district leader say then when I called at headquarters?
I didn't have to call at headquarters. He came after me and said:
"George, what do you want? If you don't see what you want, ask
for it. Wouldn't you like to have a job or two in the departments for
your friends?" I said: "I'll think it over; I haven't yet decided what
the George Washington Plunkitt Association will do in the next
campaign." You ought to have seen how I was courted and petted
then by the leaders of the rival organizations I had marketable
goods and there was bids for them from all sides, and I was a risin'
man in politics. As time went on, and my association grew, I
thought I would like to go to the Assembly. 1 just had to hint at
what I wanted, and three different organizations offered me the
nomination. Afterwards, I went to the Board of Aldermen, then to
the State Senate, then became leader of the district, and so on up
and up till I became a statesman.