Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-07-23

o6o VI His i6HoIduCc OL tuc COufcu' tionalities which restrained them, had taken the short, straight cut to me and peace. And, as veterans in the no-quarter warfare of ambition, they knew I had granted him peace on no less terms than their heads.
 They had all, even Roebuck, been drinking freely in the effort to coun- teract the depression. But the cham. pagne seemed only to aggravate their gloom except in the case of young Jamieson. He had just succeeded through the death of his father, to the privilege of levying upon the peo- pie of II counties by means of trolley franchises which the legislature had granted to his father in perpetuity in return for financial services to the party" It is, by the way, an inter- esting illustration of the human be- ing's lack of thinking power that legislature could not give away a small gold mine belonging to the pub. lie to any man for even brief term of years without causing a revolu- ton, but could and does give away far more valuable privileges to plum der and to tax, and give them away forever, without causing any real stir However y young Jamieson's liquor, acting upon a mind that had not had enough experience to appreciate the meaning of the situation, drove him on to insolent taunts and boasts, ad. dressed to his neighbors but intend. ed for me-. ignored him, and, when the coffee was served, rose to de part.
 Roebuck urged me to stay, followed me to the cloak-room, took my coat away from the servant and helped me with 1t. 'I want to see you the first thing in the morning, Harvey, said he.
 "I'll call you up if have time," said I.
 We came out of the cloak-room, his arm linked in mine, and crossed the corner of the dining-room toward the outer door Jamieson threw up his arm and futtered his hand in an i'm. pertinent gesture of farewell. 50 long, Senator Swollenhead," he cried in a thick voice. Well teach you lesson in how to treat gentlemen"
 The last word-gentlemen- just clearing his mouth when Dominick's teapot, flung with all the force of the ex-prize-f1ghter's big muscles and his big body, landed in the midst of his broad white shirt-bosom. And with the teapot Dominick hurled his favorite epithet from his garbage barrel of language. With yell Jamieson csashed over backward; his flying legs, caught by the table, tilted 1t; his convulsive kicks sent 1t over. and half the diners, including Dom. mick, were f1oored under 1t.
 All this in a snap of the finger. And with the disappearance of the phys. ical semblance of a company of civ. l ilized men engaged in dining in civ. ilized fashion, the last thin veneer over hate and fury was scraped away. Curses and growling roars made a repulsive mess of sound over that repulsive mess of unmasked, half. ! drunken, wholly infuriated brutes. There is shrewd, sly wisdom snugly tucked away under the fable of the cat changed into queen and how she sprang from her throne at sight of a mouse to pursue 1t on all fours. The best of us are, after all, animals changed into men by the spell of req. son; and in some circumstances, it doesn't take much of a blow to dis solve that spell. For those men in those circum- stances, that blow proved sufficient. Partridge extricated himself, ran round the table and kicked Jamieson in the head-partly in punishment, perhaps, and because he needed just that vent for his rage, but chiefly to get credit with me- for he glanced toward me as he did it. Men. sprawl. ing and squirming side by side On the floor lashed out with feet and fists, striking each other and adding to the wild dishevelment. The can. dles set fire to the tablecloth, and be- fore the blaze was extinguished burned several in the hair and mus taches.
 Dominick. roaring with laughter, came to Roebuck and me standing at the door, both dazed at this magic shift of a "gentleman's" dinner into a bear-pit. "Granby's ghost is raisin' he'll" said he.
 But I had no impulse to laugh or gloat. Good night" said to Roe ! buck, and hastened away.
 It was the end of the attempt to mine the foundations of my power. But did not neglect its plain warn- ing. As soon as the legislature as- sembled. I publicly and strongly ad- vocated the appointment of a joint committee impartially to investigate all the cities of the state, those ruled by my own party no less than those of the opposition. The committee was appointed and did it's work so thor. oughly that there was a popular clamor for the taking away of the charters of the cities and for ruling them from the state capital. It is ] hardly necessary to say that my leg. islature and governor yielded to this clamor. And so the semiindepend- ent petty princes. the urban bosses. lost their independence and passed under my control: and the "collec.