“That was the ideal they taught you,” I said. “Never heard of getting everybody on and making a success of society; of the city and State?”
But this line of questioning was beyond him. I changed my tack....
“In that first interview we had,” I said, “you insisted that, while the business boss was the real boss, the sovereign, you had some power of your own. And you described it today as the backing of your own ward, which, you said, you had in your pocket. When you became boss, you got the backing, the personal support, of other wards, didn’t you?”
“Seven of ’em,” he counted. “Made th’ leaders myself.”
“And you developed a big personal following in other wards, too?”
“Sure,” he said; “in every one of them. I was a popular leader; not only a boss, but a friend with friends, lots of ’em. The people liked me.”
“That’s the point,” I said. “The people liked you.”
He nodded warmly.
“The common people,” I went on, and he was about to nod, but he didn’t. And his fingers became still. “Your own people—the great helpless mass of the friendless mob—liked you.” His eyes were fixed on mine. “They followed you; they trusted you.”
I paused a moment, then I asked: “Didn’t they, Boss?”