World, and the Boston Transcript. They were reproduced in
newspapers throughout the country and several of them, notably
the talks on "The Curse of Civil Service Reform" and "Honest
Graft and Dishonest Graft," became subjects of discussion in the
United States Senate and in college lectures. There seemed to be a
general recognition of Plunkitt as a striking type of the
practical politician, a politician, moreover, who dared to say
publicly what others in his class whisper among them-selves in the
City Hall corridors and the hotel lobbies.

I thought it a pity to let Plunkitt's revelations of himself-as frank in
their way as Rousseau's Confessions-perish in the files of the
newspapers; so I collected the talks I had published, added several
new ones, and now give to the world in this volume a system of
political philosophy which is as unique as it is refreshing.

No New Yorker needs to he informed who George Washington
Plunkitt is. For the information of others, the following sketch of
his career is given. He was born, as he proudly tells, in Central
Park-that is, in the territory now included in the park. He began
life as a driver of a cart, then became a butcher's boy, and later
went into the butcher business for himself. How he entered politics
he explains in one of his discourses. His advancement was rapid.
He was in the Assembly soon after he cast his first vote and has
held office most of the time for forty years.

In 1870, through a strange combination of circumstances, he held
the places of Assemblyman, Alderman, Police Magistrate and
County Supervisor and drew three salaries at once-a record
unexampled in New York politics.