courage in fighting for the cause of better government, at a time
when courage was badly needed, to have failed to rise to the
highest office. Back in the days when he was Civil Service
Commissioner two visitors in the White House, saw him, also a
visitor, looking about the rooms.

"There is a young man," said one of them, who knew him, "who is
going to move into this house himself, before long."

After Cuba, the next step was the Governorship of New York State.
Before he was out of uniform, the politicians began talking about
him for the place. The Republican party in New York was in a bad
way. They had quarreled among themselves; the Democrats had just
beaten them in an election. They knew they must have a strong
candidate for Governor, or the Democrats, (that is, Tammany Hall)
would get control at Albany.

This was the great day of the political Bosses. Perhaps at no time
since have they been quite as powerful as they were then. A man
named Croker was the Boss of the Democratic Party; a man named
Platt, the Boss of the Republicans. Men called the Boss of their
own party the "Leader," but they referred to the "Leader" of the
other party as the Boss, without wasting any politeness. Most men
do not pay much attention to politics; a Boss is a man who pays
too much attention to them. He exists because the average citizen
thinks he has done his whole duty if he votes on election day. A
Boss works at his business, which is politics, night and day, all
the year round. He might be very useful if he could be kept
honest. He manages to get a great deal of power, in ways that are
shady, if not actually criminal. Then, if he is one kind of a