I don't win out here today?' an' he bites his way to th' top iv th' pile
an' breaks open th' ballot box f'r home and fireside. That's th' thruth
iv it, Hinnissy. Ye'll find all th' big jobs held be marrid men an' all
th' timpry clerkships be bachelors."

"Th' reason th' New York jood thinks marrid men oughtn't to be in
pollytics is because he thinks pollytics is spoort. An' so it is. But it
ain't amachoor spoort, Hinnissy. They don't give ye a pewter mug with
ye'er name on it f'r takin' a chanst on bein' kilt. 'Tis a profissional
spoort, like playin' base-ball f'r a livin' or wheelin' a thruck. Ye
niver see an amachoor at annything that was as good as a profissional.
Th' best amachoor ball team is beat be a bad profissional team; a
profissional boxer that thrains on bock beer an' Swiss cheese can lam
the head off a goold medal amachoor champeen that's been atin' moldy
bread an' dhrinkin' wather f'r six months, an' th' Dago that blows th'
cornet on th' sthreet f'r what annywan 'll throw him can cut the figure
eight around Dinnis Finn, that's been takin' lessons f'r twinty year.
No, sir, pollytics ain't dhroppin' into tea, an' it ain't wurrukin' a
scroll saw, or makin' a garden in a back yard. 'Tis gettin' up at six
o'clock in th' mornin' an' r-rushin' off to wurruk, an' comin' home at
night tired an' dusty. Double wages f'r overtime an' Sundahs."

"So a man's got to be marrid to do it well. He's got to have a wife at
home to make him oncomfortable if he comes in dhrunk, he's got to have
little prattlin' childher that he can't sind to th' Young Ladies'
academy onless he stuffs a ballotbox properly, an' he's got to have a
sthrong desire f'r to live in th' av'noo an' be seen dhrivin' downtown
in an open carredge with his wife settin' beside him undher a r-red
parasol. If he hasn't these things he won't succeed in pollytics--or
packin' pork. Ye niver see a big man in pollytics that dhrank hard, did