The San Francisco call., 1905-08-27
CHAPTER III.
sayler Draw. the Line,

In February the railways traversing
our State sent to the capitol bill that
had been drawn by our abiest lawyers
and reviewed by the crartiest of the
great corporation lawyers of New York
City. Its purpose, most shrewdly and
slyly concealed, was to exempt the rail-
ways from practically all taxation. 1t
was so subtly worded that this would be
disclosed only when the companies should
be brought into court for refusing to pay
their usual share Of the taxes. Such
measures are usually 'straddled' through
a Legislature-that is, neither party takes
the responsibility, but the boss of each
machine assigns to vote for them all the
men whose seats are secure beyond any
ordinary assault Of public indignation. In
this case, of the ninety-one members OF
the lower house, thirty-two were assigned
by Dunkirk and seventeen by Silliman TO
make up a majority with three ito spare.
My boss, Dominick, got wind that Dun
kirk and Silliman were cutting an extra
melon of uncommon size. He descended
upon the capitol and served notice on
Dunkirk that the eleven Dominick men
assigned to vote for the bill would vote
against il unless he got $1,000 apiece for
them-ST7, 900. Dunkirk needed every one If
Dominiek's men to make up his portion
of the majority; he yielded after trying in
vain TO reduce the price. All Dominick
would say to him on that point, so
heard afterward, was:
Every day you put me off / go up $1,000
a head
We who were to be voted so profitably
for Dunkirk, Sillman,- Domfnick and the
railroads learned what was going on
Silliman went on a "tear.s and talked
too much. Nine of us, not including my
self, got together and sent Cassidy mem
Der from the Second Jackson County dis
trict, to Dominick to plead for snare.
1 happened TO be with him in the Capital
City Hotel bar when Cassidy came up,
and hemming and having explained how
he and his fellow insurgents felt.
Dominick's veins seemed cords strain
ing to bind down a demon struggling to
escape. Its back to the bench you go,
Pat Cassidy; back TO the bench where
found you,' he snarled, with volley OF
profanity and sewage I don't know
nothing about this here bill except that
it's for the good of the party. Go back
to that gang of damned wharf rats and
tell 'em il / hear anotheF squeak, III
put 'em where L got en-
Cassidy shrank away with q furtive
glance of envy and hate at ME, whom
Dominick treated with peculiar consid-
eration-I think it was because l was
the only man of education and of any
pretensions to family in official posi-
ton in his machine. He used to like to
class himself and me together as us
gentlemen in contrast to them muck
ers," meaning my colleagues.
Next day, just before the voting be-
gan. Dominick seated himself at the
front of the Governors gallery-the
only person in it,. see him now as he
looked that day, black and heayy-Jawed
and scowling, leaning forward with
both forearn1s on the railing, and his
big, fiat chin resting on his upturned,
stubby thumbs. He was there to see
that each of us. his creatures, depend
ent absolutely upon him for our polit-
ical, lives, should vote as he. had sold us
in block There was no chance to shirk
or even to squirm. AS the roll-call pro-
ceeded one after another, seven OF us,
obeyed that frowning from the gallery,
jumped through the hoop of fire under
the quivering lash. : l was eighth on
the roll.
"Sayler" How my name echoed
through that horrible silence.
/ could not answer. Gradually every
face turned toward me. l could see
them. could feel them, and, to make
bad enough worse, 1 yielded to an i'm
perlOuS 1aSclnatlOn, the ldSclHdt1on OF
that incarnation of brute power-power
of muscle and power of will. l turned
my eyes upon the amazed. furious eyes
of my master. 1t seemed to me that his
lips must give passage to the oaths and
filth swelling beneath his chest and
seething behind his eyes.
"Sayler! repeated the clerk in a voice
that exploded within me.
mol" shouted--not in answer to the
clerk, but in denial of that insolent
master to-dog command from the beast
in the gallery.
The look In his eyes changed to relief
and contemptuous approval. There
was murmur of derision from my fell
low members. Then 1 remembered that
negative was, at that stage of the
bill, vote for it had done just the
reverse of what I intended. The roll
>call went on and 1 sat debating with
myself. Prudence. inclination. the
natural timidity of youth, the utter fu-
tility of opposition. fear. above all else,
fear-these joined in bidding me let my
vote stand as cast. On the other side
stood my notion of self-respect. I felt
/ must then and there and forever
decide whether 1 was a thing or man.