Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-29

they felt that they needed good fight.
That went very well. by the way, till one
black Sunday when the Short Tails killed
a policeman instead OF merely beat ting him
up; and before We could do any business
the police broke away from politics and
waded through the gang In style that
really and truly made old Mangin street
just north of where the East river bridge
is now run with blood. That's no figure of
speech. l stood by gutter and saw blood
run down past my feet.
Pretty nearly every Short Tail landed in
the old Union Market station house that
day, and If there was a single one that
could have been recognized by his own
mother l didn't see hin-and l saw most
Of them because l was there trying to fix
things up, TIL they brought the dead cons
body in. When the other cops saw it they
gave tongue like wolves and we politicians
that used to make EN- tremble by merely
nodding actually had to skin out or we'd
have been dubbed to death ourselves
1T ended the Short Tails and was the
beginning of the end of the gang business
any way. However, 1t was time. for the
tide was setting another way, and, besides
the gangs were beginning to get bitten by
the terrible poison-toOth of graft.
That's something the real old gangs
never were-grafters. If We kept them
pretty freely supplied with bum liquor
through the year and extra well supplied
a few weeks before election, the most they
would expect beyond that might be cou-
pie of dollars or so on election day itself
You never had them coming to you with
demands for bundle so that they could
keep their crowd solid or buy votes No
sir. They rounded up their votes and drove
them in on the hoof.
X
Many and many a time I've seen them
carrying bloody objector in between them
to vote right. They were useful in all
kinds of ways. They not only terrified all
the buns along the river front into voting
= III Vli hut hnxy =
example themselves by voting every time
they saw polling booth. In districts where
the reformers had poisoned the minds of
too many thinking citizens, they crowded
around the booths and allowed no one to
get in till he had been cross-examined and
found true.
Il looked at those district CAPTAINS in
their evening clothes the other night and
wondered what they would have done on
one of our old-time election days when
I've seen doubtful districts so well pa
| trolled by drunken. shouting Short Tails
or Whyos that hundreds of timid voters
who knew that we knew which way they
were going to vote didn't dare venture out
They had the nerve not to vote our way,
but you bet they didn't have the nerve to
cast the vote against US.
Yes, 1t was really an adventure in some
of our districts for man to go out 10 the
polling place If people knew that he was
going to vote the wrong way l remember
that just before came of age my father
who was most Objectionable and red hot
reformer all the time, started to vote one
day when there was particularly saw
age campaign, and my mother hung around
his neck crying and begging him not to go
out.
Dad was an old fire-eater. and he went
, forth snorting and glaring. He came back
triumphant. Nobody had interfered with
him. Not much, But the truth was that
the old ward leader, who liked him, had
passed the word around that the old gen.
tleman should be permitted to vote and talk
| as he pleased.
THAT night he was taken down bit in
| his pride. for the swords having mag
| unanimously permitted him to vote, thought
! that they ought to do something to him.
So they dropped around after the polls
closed and tore down our whole wooden
front stoop and the fence, made great
pile in front of the house and had bon
| IRE. They danced around IL. hootinG
shooting. drinking out OF bottles and fight
| ing till the small hours. when the fire had
burned itself out. know that was read
ing Dickens Tale of Two Cities then. ana