himself ever knew of any individual transaction! A sum of money was
handed by the leading counsel to his next in command and charged off as
"expense." This fund emerged considerably diminished in the sheriff's
office as "perquisites."

Such were the conditions in the realm of criminal law, the realm where
the processes became so standardized that between 1849 and 1856 over one
thousand murders had been committed and only one legal conviction had
been secured! Dueling was a recognized institution, and a skillful shot
could always "get" his enemy in this formal manner; but if time or skill
lacked, it was still perfectly safe to shoot him down in a street
brawl--provided one had money enough to employ talent for defense.

But, once in politics, the law could not stop at the sheriff's office.
It rubbed shoulders with big contracts and big financial operations of
all sorts. The city was being built within a few years out of nothing by
a busy, careless, and shifting population. Money was still easy, people
could and did pay high taxes without a thought, for they would rather
pay well to be let alone than be bothered with public affairs. Like
hyenas to a kill, the public contractors gathered. Immense public works
were undertaken at enormous prices. To get their deals through legally
it was, of course, necessary that officials, councilmen, engineers, and
others should be sympathetic. So, naturally, the big operators as well
as the big lawyers had to go into politics. Legal efficiency coupled
with the inefficiency of the bench, legal corruption, and the arrogance
of personal favor, dissolved naturally into political corruption.

The elections of those days would have been a joke had they been not so
tragically significant. They came to be a sheer farce. The polls were
guarded by bullies who did not hesitate at command to manhandle any