or not Lackman would appoint those men if he were elected. When I had read that paper I leaned across my desk and looked at him.

"That's a felony!" I said. "Isn't it? You're a lawyer, Mr. McNab. Isn't that a felony?" McNab hesitated. Then he said, "Yes, Older is right. It is a felony. A pre-election bargain is a felony."

Wheelan was momentarily staggered by the situation. He said that perhaps we had better wait a while, and discuss the matter later.

They left my office, and went to see Lackman. They told him that I had suggested him as coalition candidate for the nomination. Then, pulling out this list of offices, they asked him if he would appoint the men whose names they had chosen.

He said, "I certainly will not. The railroad people haven't asked anything of me but a square deal, and I'm going to give it them, and to you, and to all the others. I promise that, and that's all I promise. This thing you're talking about is against the law."

They came back to me that afternoon and refused to accept him as their candidate.

The Republican League was to meet next morning, and by this time I had learned definitely that McNab, in league with Wheelan, had decided to nominate Harry Baer, breaking their agreement with the railroad people. I spent the night thinking it over.

Early next morning I sent for John S. Partridge, a young and promising lawyer, fairly well known in politics, and a member of the Republican League. He was an upright, upstanding young fellow, known to have lived a clean life and to be thoroughly reliable. I invited him into my office and said to him, "John, it's you for mayor. Don't say a word about it to any one."

He was stunned.

He said, "You don't mean it. You are joking. Why-how could it be done?" "Never mind how it can be done. You go up to the meeting and sit in there. Don't say a word, just watch it work out."

When he had gone I got in touch with the railroad people again and asked them if they were satisfied with Partridge. They immediately said that Partridge was all right. Then I sat down and wrote an editorial.

In it I revealed every detail of the attempted felony of Wheelan and McNab, denounced them for it, washed my hands of the entire crowd, and cast them to the wolves. With this editorial in proof, I sent for Ed Bowes, my man in the Republican League, and one other member of the league.

"I want Partridge nominated by 2 o'clock today. If he is not endorsed at 2 o'clock, this editorial will be published. Read it."

They read it. They were very much excited, and rushed out of the office with hardly a word. At 1 o'clock Bowes came back, perspiring, and asked me if I would make it 2:30. "No. Two o'clock, or the editorial goes. That is our press time."

At 2 o'clock Bowes rang me up and told me that Partridge had been selected by the Republican League.

McNab had felt that some embarrassing situation might arise during the day, so he had told his friends that he was going to Sacramento to try a case in the Supreme Court. Then he remained all day buried in his office here, thinking that the Harry Baer scheme was going through as programmed, without a hitch. Early in the day Hugh Burke, a reporter for The Call, called at his office and McNab saw him, knowing that Burke was not in on the fact that he was supposed to be in Sacramento.

Burke asked, "Who's the man for mayor, Mac?"
"Baer," said McNab.

Burke said, "What about Older?"

"Oh, to hell with Older!"

At 3 o'clock, after Partridge had been nominated, Burke dropped into McNab's office again, and, supposing that McNab knew what had happened, remarked, "Well, I see it's Partridge."

McNab, startled, said, "Partridge? Oh, yes-you mean for chairman of the Republican convention."

"No! mayor," said Burke. "He's been endorsed by the Republican League."

McNab, wholly unprepared, leaped from his chair and exploded.

When I came into his office at 5 o'clock the "old guard" was all lined up against the wall in a row. McNab was purple in the face. He said to me:

"So it's that foul bird, Partridge, is it?"

"Yes, it's Partridge," I said.

"Well, let's see you nominate him. Let's see you get him through the conventions."

"But," I said, "he's my man and you agreed to nominate the man that I brought you."

"Just let's see you put that bird in!"

That frightened me. The Republican convention met that evening and I feared McNab might have sufficient influence in the convention to defeat Partridge. I went out and hunted up Partridge and told him that he must nominate

himself as soon as the convention opened. He must give McNab not a moment to start anything.

The convention met in old Pioneer Hall. When it assembled I was walking up and down in a dark alley beside the building. Through the window I saw hats going up in the air and heard a roar of cheers, and I knew that Partridge was in.

I walked out on to Market street, and found McNab standing there with Fay and Braunhart. "Partridge is nominated," I said.

"You aren't going to get him through the Democratic convention," McNab said. "If you put him over on us it will be over my dead body."

I said good night, and walked away.

Note-John Lackman, in a letter, objects to my saying that I knew him to be a railroad man, and adds that "there is not a single vote or action of mine on record, or destroyed, upon which any one could put the construction that I was a railroad man." He also denies that McNab was one of the men who wanted to pledge him on patronage.

When I said I knew Lackman was a railroad man I based my statement upon the fact that Arthur Fisk, George Hatton and Jerry Burke, all representing Herrin, told me that Lackman was all right and would be acceptable to Herrin.

I did not say that McNab called on Lackman in the matter of patronage. My recollection is that Rich and Wheelan called on him. McNab did not.

PLAYING MY LAST CARD

WAS considerably disturbed by McNab's threat concerning the Democratic nomination. With Partridge nominated by the Republicans, it needed only the nomination of another man by the Democrats to kill absolutely our hopes of defeating Schmitz. Another three-cornered fight would inevitably put him back in office.

Now, McNab and Wheelan were not a whit less sincere than I in a desire to thrust Schmitz out of the mayor's chair. Whatever motives actuated them-and we were all impelled by desire for power, prestige, success-they were earnest and sincere reformers in politics. They wanted to clean the grafters out of San Francisco.

But when they went into politics they went into a dirty game, and they found it must be played in a dirty way. They did not trust a railroad man to play fair with them, so they did not play fair with the railroad. They did not know that nowhere in the world is honesty more necessary than among thieves.

The railroad did know this, and never, in my whole relations with them, did the Southern Pacific politicians break a promise. The reformers did. Wheelan and McNab had broken their agreement with me; they had broken their agreement with the railroad. And the only hope of defeating Schmitz lay in standing shoulder to shoulder with the railroad in this fight.

I was in despair. If McNab, furious at my putting Partridge over on the Republican convention, nominated another man for the Democrats, the fight was lost before it began. And I did not believe that there was any possible way in which I could nominate Partridge in the Democratic convention.

In this mood, I received a subpena from the Superior Court in Sacramento citing me to appear the following day as a witness in the Emmons case. Emmons was on trial for accepting bribe money from Grange in that affair of the building and loan committee.

The subpena reached me late in the afternoon, and that night the Democratic caucus met to nominate its candidate for mayor.

That evening my wife and I were at the Palace Hotel.

I asked Dr. Washington Dodge to come up to my room. He came. I said: "Doctor, I hate to ask you to do this, but I'm desperate. It's the last shot in my locker. The Democratic caucus meets tonight at 8 o'clock. I want you to go over and see McNab. I want you to tell him that unless Partridge is nominated at 8 o'clock tonight I will go to Grove L. Johnson, attorney for Emmons, and I will tell him to ask me, when I am on the stand as a witness, whether or not Grange intended to bribe the Senate committee.

"My God! That's an awful thing to ask me to do," Dodge replied.

"I know it. But you must do it, doctor. I'm desperate. I must have Partridge nominated. I tell you we've got to beat Schmitz."

"All right," he said. "I'll do it."

He went away, and shortly afterward Mrs. Older and I went down to dinner. We were sitting at our table, in the old Palm Court of the Palace, when I happened to look up. Through the glass that surrounded the court I saw the white face of Dr. Dodge. I rose and went out to him.

He was much agitated. He said: "I gave the Scotchman your message." I waited, and he went on. "His reply was: 'Tell that long-legged blank blank blank that if I am alive at 8 o'clock tonight Partridge will be nominated."

At 8 o'clock, with wild enthusiasm, Partridge was endorsed by the Democrats as the reform candidate for mayor.

That was a jubilant night for me. The Bulletin next day was full of rejoicing in the prospective victory of right over all the powers of graft and corruption. And this was sincere on my part, for I honestly believed that Ruef and Schmitz were the bad forces in San Francisco, and that when they were eliminated we could have a clean city.

I plunged immediately into a most malignant campaign against Schmitz. The Bulletin was filled with cartoons showing Schmitz and Ruef in stripes. Our editorials declared that these men should be in the penitentiary and would be put there eventually. I spared no effort in running down and printing news stories to their discredit.

At this time I used to dine frequently at Marchand's, a famous restaurant here, controlled by Pierre. One evening when I entered Pierre met me with a face of despair and said: "Mr. Older, I'm a ruined man. They're going to put me out on the sidewalk after all these years building up this business."

"Why, Pierre, what is the trouble?"

He told me that the French restaurants were threatened with loss of their licenses. I said, laughingly: "Why don't you see Ruef?"