could get $500,000 to make that trip?"

"You can; you can get $500,000 in gold to drop this Ring business
and get out of the country."

"Well, I don't think I'll do it," laughed the artist. "I made up
my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind the
bars, and I am going to put them there."

"Only be careful, Mr. Nast, that you do not first put yourself in
a coffin," said the banker as he left.

A public meeting in Cooper Institute, April 6, 1871, was
addressed by William E. Dodge, Henry Ward Beecher, William M.
Evarts, and William F. Havemeyer. They vehemently denounced Tweed
and his gang. Tweed smiled and asked, "Well, what are you going
to do about it?" On the 4th of September, the same year, a second
mass meeting held in the same place answered the question by
appointing a committee of seventy. Tweed, Sweeny, and Hall, now
alarmed by the disclosures in the Times, decided to make Connolly
the scapegoat, and asked the aldermen and supervisors to appoint
a committee to examine his accounts. By the time the committee
appeared for the examination--its purpose had been well
announced--the vouchers for 1869 and 1870 had disappeared. Mayor
Hall then asked for Connolly's resignation. But instead, Connolly
consulted Samuel J. Tilden, who advised him to appoint Andrew H.
Green, a well-known and respected citizen, as his deputy. This
turned the tables on the three other members of the Ring, whose
efforts to oust both Connolly and Green were unavailing. In this
manner the citizens got control of the treasury books, and the