A few days after this report was spread abroad, people were startled to learn that the aldermen had reached a decision, and that the franchise was to be given to the Third Avenue road, for a sum that was nothing like its real value.
There was a great outcry at once.
The memory of the "Broadway Steal" in 1886 was too fresh in people's minds for them to be willing that it should be repeated.
The newspapers started the cry, the law was invoked, and the aldermen were forbidden to pass the franchise for the Kingsbridge Road until the matter had been looked into.
The aldermen were a good deal startled when these papers were served on them. They remembered the Broadway trouble, and how three of a former board of aldermen had been sent to prison, six had had to leave the country, and four had only saved themselves from punishment by telling the story of their crimes, and helping the authorities to punish their fellow-sinners.
The recollection of this worried the aldermen, but they determined to meet the accusations against them, and asked their lawyer, Mr. Scott, to go to court, and ask the judge to allow them to grant the franchise.
Mr. Scott, however, refused. He told them that in his opinion they had not the slightest right to pass that franchise, and he would not go into court and plead for a thing which he knew to be wrong.
The aldermen, much disturbed at this, decided to let the matter of the franchise alone, and though there is some talk of looking more closely into the matter, and finding if any bribery has been attempted by the railroads, the chances are that now the danger is past the matter will be allowed to rest.