Astute citizens, spectators of the fray—­if indeed there were any—­might have remarked an unique and significant feature of that campaign:  that the usual recriminations between the two great parties were lacking.  Mr. Parks, the Republican candidate, did not denounce Mr. MacGuire, the Democratic candidate.  Republican and Democratic speakers alike expended their breath in lashing Mr. Krebs and the Citizens Union.

It is difficult to record the fluctuations of my spirit.  When I was in the halls, speaking or waiting to speak, I reacted to that phenomenon known as mob psychology, I became self-confident, even exhilarated; and in those earlier speeches I managed, I think, to strike the note for which I strove—­the judicial note, suitable to a lawyer of weight and prominence, of deprecation rather than denunciation.  I sought to embody and voice a fine and calm sanity at a time when everyone else seemed in danger of losing their heads, and to a large extent achieved it.  I had known Mr. Krebs for more than twenty years, and while I did not care to criticise a fellow-member of the bar, I would go so far as to say that he was visionary, that the changes he proposed in government would, if adopted, have grave and far-reaching results:  we could not, for instance, support in idleness those who refused to do their share of the work of the world.  Mr. Krebs was well-meaning.  I refrained from dwelling too long upon him, passing to Mr. Greenhalge, also well-meaning, but a man of mediocre ability who would make a mess of the government of a city which would one day rival New York and Chicago. (Loud cheers.) And I pointed out that Mr. Perry Blackwood had been unable to manage the affairs of the Boyne Street road.  Such men, well-intentioned though they might be, were hindrances to progress.  This led me naturally to a discussion of the Riverside Franchise and the Traction Consolidation.  I was one of those whose honesty and good faith had been arraigned, but I would not stoop to refute the accusations.  I dwelt upon the benefits to the city, uniform service, electricity and large comfortable cars instead of rattletrap conveyances, and the development of a large and growing population in the Riverside neighbourhood:  the continual extension of lines to suburban districts that enabled hard-worked men to live out of the smoke:  I called attention to the system of transfers, the distance a passenger might be conveyed, and conveyed quickly, for the sum of five cents.  I spoke of our capitalists as men more sinned against than sinning.  Their money was always at the service of enterprises tending to the development of our metropolis.