third-story room. They took her clothing away from her, but she broke
down her door at night and fled to the street in her wrapper and flung
herself into Miss Patterson's arms. Two men were pursuing her . . .
they tried to carry her off. Miss Patterson called a policeman . . .
but he said the girl was insane. Only by making a disturbance and
drawing a crowd was my friend able to save her. And now, we have been
the rounds . . . from the sergeant at the station, and the police
captain, to the Chief of Police and the Mayor himself; we have been to
the Tammany leader of the district . . . the real boss of the
neighborhood . . . and there is no justice to be had anywhere for
Annie Rogers!

HEGAN. Impossible!

JACK. You have my word for it, sir. And the reason for it is that this
hideous traffic is one of the main cogs in our political machine. The
pimps and the panders, the cadets and maquereaux . . . they vote the
ticket of the organization; they contribute to the campaign funds;
they serve as colonizers and repeaters at the polls. The tribute that
they pay amounts to millions; and it is shared from the lowest to the
highest in the organization . . . from the ward man on the street and
the police captain, up to the inner circle of the chiefs of Tammany
Hall . . . yes, even to your friend, Mr. Robert Grimes, himself! A
thousand times, sir, has the truth about this monstrous infamy been
put before the people of your city; and that they have not long ago
risen in their wrath and driven its agents from their midst is due to
but one single fact . . . that this infamous organization of crime and
graft is backed at each election time by the millions of the great
public service corporations. It is they . . .