by the simple process of striking out everything after the enacting clause and unobtrusively substituting the proposal to remit the elevated railway taxes!  The authors of the change wished to avoid unseemly publicity; their hope was to slip the measure through the Legislature and have it instantly signed by the Governor, before any public attention was excited.  In the Senate their plan worked to perfection.  There was in the Senate no fighting leadership of the forces of decency; and for such leadership of the non-fighting type the representatives of corruption cared absolutely nothing.  By bold and adroit management the substitution in the Senate was effected without opposition or comment.  The bill (in reality, of course, an absolutely new and undebated bill) then came back to the House nominally as a merely amended measure, which, under the rules, was not open to debate unless the amendment was first by vote rejected.  This was the great bill of the session for the lobby; and the lobby was keenly alive to the need of quick, wise action.  No public attention whatever had so far been excited.  Every measure was taken to secure immediate and silent action.  A powerful leader, whom the beneficiaries of the bill trusted, a fearless and unscrupulous man, of much force and great knowledge of parliamentary law, was put in the chair.  Costello and I were watched; and when for a moment we were out of the House, the bill was brought over from the Senate, and the clerk began to read it, all the black horse cavalry, in expectant mood, being in their seats.  But Mike Costello, who was in the clerk’s room, happened to catch a few words of what was being read.  In he rushed, despatched a messenger for me, and began a single-handed filibuster.  The Speaker pro tem called him to order.  Mike continued to speak and protest; the Speaker hammered him down; Mike continued his protests; the sergeant-at-arms was sent to arrest and remove him; and then I bounced in, and continued the protest, and refused to sit down or be silent.  Amid wild confusion the amendment was declared adopted, and the bill was ordered engrossed and sent to the Governor.  But we had carried our point.  The next morning the whole press rang with what had happened; every detail of the bill, and every detail of the way it had been slipped through the Legislature, were made public.  All the slow and cautious men in the House, who had been afraid of taking sides, now came forward in support of us.  Another debate was held on the proposal to rescind the vote; the city authorities waked up to protest; the Governor refused to sign the bill.  Two or three years later, after much litigation, the taxes were paid; in the newspapers it was stated that the amount was over $1,500,000.  It was Mike Costello to whom primarily was due the fact that this sum was saved the public, and that the forces of corruption received a stinging rebuff.  He did not expect recognition or reward for his services; and he got none.  The public, if it knew of what he had done, promptly forgot it.  The machine did not forget it, and turned him down at the next election.