came to understand all the ins and outs of the game, and to
hear of a number of ways in which he could make himself
useful about election time. "Buck" Halloran was a
"Democrat," and so Jurgis became a Democrat also; but
he was not a bitter one -- the Republicans were good fellows,
too, and were to have a pile of money in this next campaign.
At the last election the Republicans had paid four dollars
a vote to the Democrats' three; and "Buck" Halloran sat
one night playing cards with Jurgis and another man, who
told how Halloran had been charged with the job of voting
a "bunch" of thirty-seven newly landed Italians, and how
he, the narrator, had met the Republican worker who was
after the very same gang, and how the three had effected
a bargain, whereby the Italians were to vote half and
half, for a glass of beer apiece, while the balance of the
fund went to the conspirators!

Not long after this, Jurgis, wearying of the risks and
vicissitudes of miscellaneous crime, was moved to give up
the career for that of a politician. Just at this time there
was a tremendous uproar being raised concerning the
alliance between the criminals and the police. For the
criminal graft was one in which the businessmen had no
direct part -- it was what is called a "side-line," carried
by the police. "Wide-open" gambling and debauchery
made the city pleasing to "trade," but burglaries and hold-
ups did not. One night it chanced that while Jack Duane
was drilling a safe in a clothing store he was caught red-
handed by the night-watchman, and turned over to a
policeman, who chanced to know him well, and who took
the responsibility of letting him make his escape. Such a
howl from the newspapers followed this that Duane was
slated for a sacrifice, and barely got out of town in time.

And just at that juncture it happened that Jurgis was
introduced to a man named Harper whom he recognized as
the night-watchman at Brown's, who had been instrumental
in making him an American citizen, the first year of his
arrival at the yards. The other was interested in the
coincidence, but did not remember Jurgis -- he had han~
dled too many "green ones" in his time, he said. He sat in

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v?