"Two dollars and fifty cents!" screamed the auctioneer. "Oh, that's
a joke! Give me a real bid."

He found the bid was real enough. My rivals stood silent. I got the
lot for $2.50 and gave them their share. That's how the attempt to
do Plunkitt ended, and that's how all such attempts end.

I've told you how I got rich by honest graft. Now, let me tell you
that most politicians who are accused of robbin' the city get rich
the same way.

They didn't steal a dollar from the city treasury. They just seen
their opportunities and took them. That is why, when a reform
administration comes in and spends a half million dollars in tryin'
to find the public robberies they talked about in the campaign, they
don't find them.

The books are always all right. The money in the city treasury is
all right. Everything is all right. All they can show is that the
Tammany heads of departments looked after their friends, within
the law, and gave them what opportunities they could to make
honest graft. Now, let me tell you that's never goin' to hurt
Tammany with the people. Every good man looks after his friends,
and any man who doesn't isn't likely to be popular. If I have a good
thing to hand out in private life, I give it to a friend-Why shouldn't
I do the same in public life?

Another kind of honest graft. Tammany has raised a good many
salaries. There was an awful howl by the reformers, but don't you
know that Tammany gains ten votes for every one it lost by salary