Croker, the famous Tammany "Boss," gives, in somewhat rough- hewn
language, an extremely vivid picture of municipal politics in New York at a time which from descriptions of incidents in the book and by the illustrations we should judge stretches from 1860 up to some ten years ago. The book is written in the form of a novel, but the actual story, which is somewhat thin and forced, is only the peg on which is hung the real interest of the work. The plot is concerned for the first half of the book with the rise of the hero's friend, the ward captain, "Big John Kennedy," to the position of Tammany "Bogs." In the second part the hero, who is all through concerned in many and curious political adventures, himself becomes, by the death of his friend, the "Boss." The real interest of the novel thus consists in pictures of the inner workings of the Tammany "machine." There is one sentence which is well worth quoting for the sake of the lurid light that it throws on the workings of the New York Police Force. It is a remark mado by the Chief of Police to the " Boss " : "I'm bothered to a standstill with my captains. Dunn' the last four or five years the force has become honeycombed with honesty ; an', may I be struck ! if some of them square guys ain't got to be captains." He goes on to say : "I'll tell you what: make the price of a captaincy twenty thousand dollars. That'll be a hurdle no honest man can take. Whoever pays it we can bet was a member of our tribe. One honest captain queers a whole force ; it's like a horse goin' lame." The book is very readable in spite of its sordid and brutal atmosphere.
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