“You seem to forget that senators are now elected by the people, Mr. Ames.”
“I forget nothing, sir. The people are New York City, Buffalo, and Albany. Tammany is New York. And Tammany at present is in my pocket. Buffalo and Albany can be swept by the Catholic vote. And I have that in the upper right hand drawer of my private file. The ‘people’ will therefore elect to the Senate the man I choose. In fact, I prefer direct election of senators over the former method, for the people are greater fools en masse than any State Legislature that ever assembled.”
He took up another letter from the pile on his desk and glanced through it. “From Borwell,” he commented. “Protests against the way you nullified the Glaze-Bassett red-light injunction bill. Pretty clever, that, Hood. I really didn’t think it was in you.”
“Invoking the referendum, you mean?” said Hood, puffing a little with pride.
“Yes. But for that, the passage of the bill would have wiped out the whole red-light district, and quartered the rents I now get from my shacks down there. Now next year we will be better prepared to fight the bill. The press will be with us then––a little cheaper and a trifle more degraded than it is to-day.”
A private messenger entered with a cablegram. Ames read it and handed it to his lawyer. “The Proteus has reached the African Gold Coast at last,” he said. Then he threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Do you know, Hood, the Proteus carried two missionaries, sent to the frizzle-topped Zulus by Borwell and his outfit. Deutsch and Company cable that they have arrived.”
“But,” said Hood in some perplexity, “the cargo of the Proteus was rum!”
“Just so,” roared Ames; “that’s where the joke comes in. I make it a point that every ship of mine that carries a missionary to a foreign field shall also carry a cargo of rum. The combination is one that the Zulu finds simply irresistible!”
“So,” commented Hood, “the Church goes down to Egypt for help!”
“Why not?” returned Ames. “I carry the missionaries 108 free on my rum boats. Great saving to the Board of Foreign Missions, you know.”