go in for literary business much downtown, but these men are all
real gents, and that's what the people want-even the poorest
tenement dwellers. As you go farther uptown you find a rather
different kind of district leader. There's Victor Dowling who was
until lately the leader of the Twenty-fourth. He's a lulu. He knows
the Latin grammar backward. What's strange, he's a sensible young
fellow, too. About once in a century we come across a fellow like
that in Tammany politics. James J. Martin, leader of the
Twenty-seventh, is also something of a hightoner. and publishes a
law paper, while Thomas E. Rush, of the Twenty-ninth, is a
lawyer, and Isaac Hopper, of the Thirty-first, is a big contractor.
The downtown leaders wouldn't do uptown, and vice versa. So,
you see, these fool critics don't know what they're talkin' about
when they criticize Tammany Hall, the most perfect political
machine on earth.

Chapter 12. Dangers of the Dress Suit in Politics

PUTIN' on style don't pay in politics. The people won't stand for it.
If you've got an achin' for style, sit down on it till you have made
your pile and landed a Supreme Court Justiceship with a
fourteen-year term at $l7,OOO a year, or some job of that kind.
Then you've got about all you can get out of politics, and you can
afford to wear a dress suit all day and sleep in it all night if you
have a mind to. But, before you have caught onto your life meal
ticket, be simple. Live like your neighbors even if you have the
means to live better. Make 'the poorest man in your district feel
that he is your equal, or even a bit superior to you.

Above all things, avoid a dress suit. You have no idea of the harm