the firecrackers in my district to salute this glorious country. I
couldn't wait for the Fourth of July 1 got the boys on the block to
fire them off for me, and I felt proud of bein' an American. For a
long time after that I use to wake up nights singin' "The
Star-Spangled Banner."

Chapter 14. Tammany the Only Lastin' Democracy

I've seen more than one hundred "Democracies" rise and fall in
New York City in the last quarter of a century. At least a
half-dozen new so-called Democratic organizations are formed
every year. All of them go in to down Tammany and take its place,
but they seldom last more than a year or two, while Tammany's
like the everlastin' rocks, the eternal hills and the blockades on the
"L" road-it goes on forever.

I recall offhand the County Democracy, which was the only real
opponent Tammany has had in my time, the Irving Hall
Democracy, the New York State Democracy, the
German-American Democracy, the Protection Democracy, the
Independent County Democracy, the Greater New York
Democracy, the Jimmy O'Brien Democracy, the Delicatessen
Dealers' Democracy, the Silver Democracy, and the Italian
Democracy. Not one of them is livin' today, although I hear
somethin' about the ghost of the Greater New York Democracy
bein' seen on Broadway once or twice a year.

In the old days of the County Democracy, a new Democratic
organization meant some trouble for Tammany-for a time anyhow.
Nowadays a new Democracy means nothin' at all except that about