the Governor as the most important personage in the building. They
would walk up and down the corridors, hoping for a glimpse of some
of the leading officials, when all the while Freckles McGrath, the
real character of the Capitol, and by all odds the most illustrious
person in it, was at once accessible and affable.

Freckles McGrath was the elevator boy. In the official register his
name had gone down as William, but that was a mere concession to the
constituents to whom the official register was sent out. In the
newspapers--and he appeared with frequency in the newspapers--he was
always "Freckles," and every one from the Governor down gave him
that title, the appropriateness of which was stamped a hundred fold
upon his shrewd, jolly Irish face.

Like every one else on the State pay-roll, Freckles was keyed high
during this first week of the new session. It was a reform
Legislature, and so imbued was it with the idea of reforming that
there was grave danger of its forcing reformation upon everything in
sight. It happened that the Governor was of the same faction of the
party as that dominant in the Legislature; reform breathed through
every nook and crevice of the great building.

But high above all else in importance towered the Kelley Bill. From
the very opening of the session there was scarcely a day when some
of Freckles' passengers did not in hushed whispers mention the
Kelley Bill. From what he could pick up about the building, and what
he read in the newspapers, Freckles put together a few ideas as to
what the Kelley Bill really was. It was a great reform measure, and
it was going to show the railroads that they did not own the State.
The railroads were going to have to pay more taxes, and they were