But a school in a park! The thing had never been heard of. It would
lead to conflict between two departments! And to this day there
is no playground in the Mulberry Bend, though the school is right
opposite.
[Illustration: Bottle Alley Mulberry Bend Headquarters of the Whyo
Gang.]
It was, nevertheless, that sort of thing that lent the inspiration
which in the end made the old Bend go. It was when, in the midst
of the discussion, they showed me a check for three cents, hung up
and framed in the Comptroller's office as a kind of red-tape joss
for the clerks to kow-tow to, I suppose. They were part of the
system it glorified. The three cents had miscarried in the purchase
of a school site, and, when the error was found, were checked out
with all the fuss and flourish of a transaction in millions and at
a cost, I was told, of fifty dollars' worth of time and trouble.
Therefore it was hung up to be forever admired as the ripe fruit of
an infallible system. No doubt it will be there when another Tweed
has cleaned out the city's treasury to the last cent.
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