sentenced to four years' hard labor--a sentence which he was
saved from serving by his lonely and miserable death in Ludlow
Street Jail. In the delirium preceding his dissolution Sharp
raved constantly about his Broadway railroad and his enemies; it
was apparently his belief that the investigation which had
uncovered his rascality and the subsequent "persecutions" had
been engineered by certain of his rivals, either to compel Sharp
to disgorge his franchise or to produce the facts that would
justify the legislature in annulling it on the ground of fraud.

Though the complete history of this transaction can never be
written, we do possess certain facts that lend some color to this
diagnosis. Up to the time that Sharp had captured this franchise,
Ryan, Whitney, and the Philadelphians--not as partners, but as
rivals--had competed with him for this prize. At the trial of
Arthur J. McQuade in 1886, a fellow conspirator, who bore the
somewhat suggestive name of Fullgraff, related certain details
which, if true, would indicate that Sharp's methods differed from
those of his rivals only in that they had proved more successful.
Thirteen members of the Board of Aldermen, said Fullgraff, had
formed a close corporation, elected a chairman, and adopted a
policy of "business unity in all important matters," which meant
that they proposed to keep together in order to secure the
highest price for the Broadway franchise. The cable railroad,
which was the one with which Mr. Ryan was identified, offered
$750,000, half in bonds and half in cash. Mr. Sharp, however,
offered $500,000 all in cash. The aldermen voted in favor of
Sharp because cash was not only a more valuable commodity than
the bonds but, to use Alderman Fullgraff's own words--"less
easily traced." That Whitney financed lawsuits against the