future. One day he came to me, said he intended to buy an option
on a house, and asked me to help him out. I like to see a young
man acquirin' property and I had so much confidence in Zeke that I
put up for him on the house,

A month or so afterwards I heard strange rumors. People told me
that Zeke was beginnin' to put on style. They said he had a billiard
table in his house and had hired Jap servants. I couldn't believe it.
The idea of a Democrat, a follower of George Washington Plunkitt
in the Fifteenth Assembly District havin' a billiard table and Jap
servants! One mornin' I called at the house to give Zeke a chance
to clear himself. A Jap opened the door for me. I saw the billiard
table- Zeke was guilty! When I got over the shock, I said to Zeke:
"You are caught with the goods on. No excuses will go. The
Democrats of this district ain't used to dukes and princes and we
wouldn't feel comfortable in your company. You'd overpower us.
You had better move up to the Nineteenth or Twenty-seventh
District, and hang a silk stocking on your door." He went up to the
Nineteenth, turned Republican, and was lookin' for an Albany job
the last I heard of him.

Now, nobody ever saw me puttin' on any style. I'm the same
Plunkitt I was when I entered politics forty years ago. That is why
the people of the district have confidence in me. If I went into the
stylish business, even I, Plunkitt, might be thrown down in the
district. That was shown pretty clearly in the senatorial fight last
year. A day before the election, my enemies circulated a report that
I had ordered a $10,000 automobile and a $l25 dress suit. I sent
Out contradictions as fast as I could, but I wasn't able to stamp out
the infamous slander before the votin' was over, and I suffered