The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-13

outside the bedroom of the ex-assembly-
man, and came down early in order to
sweep the place out for his morning cock
tail. But now he was sleeping at the
Progress Hotel, and hanging out" at the
saloon of Florence McManus. who was
known to covet the captaincy of the district
and whose fealty to the organization had
been seriously questioned.
In fact, for the first time in all the TWEEN
~ years that he had lived and voted in the
district and at the very beginning of what
promised to be one of the fercest political
struggles I'm the history of the country Hot
Corn Pete had kicked over the traces. Jim
my Martins tin extension roof knew him
no more and the early morning bartender
swept out the saloon himself to an ac
compartment of blasphemous mutterings.
The whole district knew of mis- detection,
and many there were who declared his
cause just one. Meanwhile the McManus
saloon prospered through rush of sym
pathetic custom.
The Irish leader of the district. ever on
the alert to scent possible disruption in the
party ranks, sent for the ex-assemblyman
and told him that the trouble must be
squared without delay; but Pete, whom he
found cheerfully crying his wares further
up the block, refused point blank to return
to the fold. affirming that the party had
done him dirt and threatening to look TO
some other leader for the reward that
twenty years of patriotism fairly entitled
him TO- The captain conveyed this ulti-
matum to his chief. the latter looked grave
and angry, and Pete's sympathetic follow
ing began to assume alarming proportions.
Discussion of the matter soon overstepped
the limits of the district and was heard in
Fourteenth street. in the City Hall, at the
Albany Capitol and finally at the seat of
the national government Like port wine
that is sent round the cape. it lost nothing
in Importance through its journeyings.
That the moving of hot corn pc. from
its Bowery corner half way up the block
should become subject for serious con-
sideration at Washington may seem laugh
able to those who regard the man who
sweeps out the saloon for his cocktail as
che of the least of the many unconsidered
human trifes that make up the lotsam
and jetsam of the East Side population.
1t is much easier to realize the impOr-
lance Of the matter when we consider that
Hot Corn Pete was the master of two
trades-not only hot corn. but politics as
well-and that all these things happened
on the eve of an election that promised TO
be as closely contested as that memorable
one in which $50 votes taken from one side
and given to the other in this very State
would have made Blaine President of the
United States.
Moreover. Petes dislike for hard work
was great that he never asked for or de-
eagerly coveted by the toilers of the neigh
borhood. and now Jimmy Martin himself
was forced to admit that no henchman OF
his had ever done more effective work o.
been content with smaller rewards than
this one who had suddenly bolted for no
reason on earth save that his demand for
place in which he should have good pay
and nothing TO do had not only been ig-
nOred, but treated as huge joke. Worst
of all, the ex-assemblyman had had the