The Tupelo journal., 1908-02-21
An American in Politics
TO OFFICE.
BY ERNEST M'GAFFEY.

The curtain had been rnng down On
my race for the aldermanic nomina.
ton. the other man had been nom
mated and duly elected, and my en-
emies in the ward were iubilant. And
quite properly. A defeat in politics
is a defeat, and the word if has
no place in the casket of a politicians
memory. The fact remains, when
you are beaten and all the why's and
wherefores in the dictionary will not
change it, and still | was not in the
least discouraged at the shipwreck oil
my initial venture on the turbulent
sea of political candidacy. Financial
ly, no one had my money; as to coat
dence, no one had betrayed my con.
fidence, for | had confided in no one
AS an experience. it had very hu-
morous angles. and the antics Of the
leader who directed my a~nte-conven-
ton campaign (meaning ante" IL
the nature OF before, had not of Civ
ing up" anything prior to the con-
vention) were really side-splitting.
He was not so chagrined at the buy
ing of the delegates by the opposition
from a point of morals, but he hated
to have the opposition checkmate him
at the eleventh hour by such an OBJ
viously easy move on the political
chess board. Like. most trainers of
a loser. he also looked aSsance at my
political future. At that time. to Dor
row from Artemus Ward. this seemed
to him to be at a considerable dis
lance behind me. But brighter days
were to come. In all of my talks with
the ward leaders" | had not begged
for the aldermanic nomination. had
been simply in the receptive mood,
and at the convention, when l knew
the game vas up, had smilingly as
serted that l IA perfectly satisfied,
as had a better thing than that.
This was partly in the way of a
retrospective glance at my profess
sion, and other means of livelihood,
which would net me at least the sal
airy of an alderman, say, $500 a
year. 1t was also partly in the ma
ture of "four-iushing."
However, the front" | put up about
the matter was destined to give me
the reputation later, of the subtlety
of a serpent. 1t was o only to make
good my proud boast, but it was to
lead some of the ward boys to al
most believe that l had bribed my
own delegates to vote for my oppo-
nent, SO as to be in a situation to &C
cept the very fattering official posi-
ton to which | wa very shortly aft
er appointed. No one would believe
that l did not know all about this
impending appointment. 1t seemed
absolutely incredible that | should be
ignorant of such a cataclysm to be.
My enemies therefore figured it out
that | had been laughing in my sleeve
all the time at them, and that | had
given them the double-cross" with a
vengeance. AS a matter of fact, | was
as innocent of guile about it all as
the babe unborn, but it was joyous to
insist that | had not known the ap-
pointment was coming, which was
strictly true, and at the same time
give the lie to this statement by a
smile, or a wink, thus causing my
1OcS GAqu1SIlc dSOuJ u lIluu.
My appointment came about this
way. An act providing for a board,
known as the board of local improve
ments, had been recently passed by
the state legislature. 1t gave the ap-
pointive power to the mayor to select
four members of the board, and the
fifth member of the board was an
affable and entirely able gentlemen,
who was under civil service, and al
ready in the employ of the city; and
who helped get up the bill, not over
looking any bets about his own con
nection with the board. If he had
been careless as to this, he would
simply have been a lobster, and he
did not belong to the order of crus-
tacae. The salary of a member of
this board was $4,000 a year.
The duties were to look after the
engineering projects of the city in the
way of recommending improvements
such as sewers, water pipes, street
paving, the building of sidewalks, etc,
together with the letting of the con-
tracts relating thereto. We were to
look after work being done in all
these branches, hold meetings relative
to such work, and inspect material,
hear complaints from the public, and
in general do a great deal of impor-
tant work.
Shortly after this act had been in
cluded in the session avs l received
a letter from the mayor informing me
that with my consent he would APP
point me to a position on this board.
| was strictly under the impression
at the time of receiving this commu-
nication that the appointment was
solely in the nature of a n~on-salaried
position, like the school board or Ii
brary board. AS an honor of that kind,
or of any kind, at the hands of the
mayor, l appreciated it, end resolved
to accept it. The letter came late
one Saturday afternoon, and | saw
my brother. a city hall man, next day
and told him of the offer, languidly
inquiring If there was any salary
whatever attached to the office. He
gazed at me in childlike wonder and
then murmured b%rokenly: Only
four thousand a year"
Talk about the Greeks when they