made no mistake in the selection of their chief municipal servant. In
his first message to the Common Council, which was replete with sound,
practical suggestions, he said:--

It seems to me that a successful and faithful administration of the
government of our city may be accomplished by constantly bearing in
mind that we are the trustees and agents of our fellow-citizens,
holding their funds in sacred trust to be expended for their
benefit; that we should at all times be prepared to render an
honest account to them touching the matter of its expenditure; and
that the affairs of the city should be conducted as far as possible
upon the same principles as a good businessman manages his private
concerns.

It suffices to say that, so far as the mayor himself was concerned, and
so far as his power and influence extended, he lived up fully to the
letter and spirit of this suggestion. Although hampered by an adverse
political majority in the Common Council, still measurably under the
influence of the old rings, and more intent upon preventing the mayor
from winning public favor which might, perchance, inure to the benefit
of his party (though standing himself entirely beyond party in his
relations to the public welfare), than upon the faithful discharge of
their own duties, he succeeded, by the force of his own earnest
personality, by searching investigation into the workings of all the
departments of city affairs, by the ruthless exposure and denunciation
of various corrupt schemes of jobbery and plunder, and by the persistent
recommendation of measures and methods which commended themselves to his
judgment, in accomplishing much in the way of the reform for which his
election had been sought. He used the veto power with a vigor and a
significance which had characterized the action of no predecessor in the