obtuseness.

The triumph of Tammany in 1892 was followed by such ill-disguised
corruption that the citizens of New York were again roused from
their apathy. The investigations of the Fassett Committee of the
State Senate two years previously had shown how deep the
tentacles of Tammany were thrust into the administrative
departments of the city. The Senate now appointed another
investigating committee, of which Clarence Lexow was the chairman
and John W. Goff the counsel. The Police Department came under
its special scrutiny. The disclosures revealed the connivance of
the police in stupendous election frauds. The President of the
Police Board himself had distributed at the polls the policemen
who committed these frauds. It was further revealed that vice and
crime under police protection had been capitalized on a great
scale. It was worth money to be a policeman. One police captain
testified he had paid $15,000 for his promotions; another paid
$12,000. It cost $300 to be appointed patrolman. Over six hundred
policy-shops were open, each paying $1500 a month for protection;
pool rooms paid $300 a month; bawdy-houses, from $25 to $50 per
month per inmate. And their patrons paid whatever they could be
blackmailed out of; streetwalkers, whatever they could be
wheedled out of; saloons, $20 per month; pawnbrokers, thieves,
and thugs shared with the police their profits, as did
corporations and others seeking not only favors but their rights.
The committee in its statement to the Grand Jury (March, 1892)
estimated that the annual plunder from these sources was over
$7,000,000.

During the committee's sessions Croker was in Europe on important