revealed to him?....  It was through Matthew I began to apprehend certain elements in Maude I had both failed to note and appreciate; her little mannerisms that jarred, her habits of thought that exasperated, were forgotten, and I was forced to confess that there was something fine in the achievement of this attitude of hers that was without ill will or resentment, that tacitly acknowledged my continued rights and interest in the children.  It puzzled and troubled me.

The Citizens Union began its campaign early that autumn, long before the Hons.  Jonathan Parks and Timothy MacGuire—­Republican and Democratic candidates for Mayor—­thought of going on the stump.  For several weeks the meetings were held in the small halls and club rooms of various societies and orders in obscure portions of the city.

The forces of “privilege and corruption” were not much alarmed.  Perry Blackwood accused the newspapers of having agreed to a “conspiracy of silence”; but, as Judah B. Tallant remarked, it was the business of the press to give the public what it wanted, and the public as yet hadn’t shown much interest in the struggle being waged in its behalf.  When the meetings began to fill up it would be time to report them in the columns of the Era.  Meanwhile, however, the city had been quietly visited by an enterprising representative of a New York periodical of the new type that developed with the opening years of the century—­one making a specialty of passionate “muck-raking.”  And since the people of America love nothing better than being startled, Yardley’s Weekly had acquired a circulation truly fabulous.  The emissary of the paper had attended several of the Citizens meetings; interviewed, it seemed, many persons:  the result was a revelation to make the blood of politicians, capitalists and corporation lawyers run cold.  I remember very well the day it appeared on our news stands, and the heated denunciations it evoked at the Boyne Club.  Ralph Hambleton was the only one who took it calmly, who seemed to derive a certain enjoyment from the affair.  Had he been a less privileged person, they would have put him in chancery.  Leonard Dickinson asserted that Yardley’s should be sued for libel.

“There’s just one objection to that,” said Ralph.

“What?” asked the banker.

“It isn’t libel.”

“I defy them to prove it,” Dickinson snapped.  “It’s a d—­d outrage!  There isn’t a city or village in the country that hasn’t exactly the same conditions.  There isn’t any other way to run a city—­”

“That’s what Mr. Krebs says,” Ralph replied, “that the people ought to put Judd Jason officially in charge.  He tells ’em that Jason is probably a more efficient man than Democracy will be able to evolve in a coon’s age, that we ought to take him over, instead of letting the capitalists have him.”

“Did Krebs say that?” Dickinson demanded.

“You can’t have read the article very thoroughly, Leonard,” Ralph commented.  “I’m afraid you only picked out the part of it that compliments you.  This fellow seems to have been struck by Krebs, says he’s a coming man, that he’s making original contributions to the people’s cause.  Quite a tribute.  You ought to read it.”