That was a piece
of unthinking ignorance, for an old schoolhouse without rats in it
would be a rare thing anywhere; but it was impertinence, too, of a
kind of which I had had so much from the City Hall that I decided
the time had come for a demonstration. I got me a rat trap,
and prepared to catch one and have it sent in to the Board, duly
authenticated by affidavit as hailing from Allen Street; but before
I could carry out my purpose the bottom fell out of the Tammany
conspiracy of ignorance and fraud and left us the way clear for
three years, So I saved my rat for another time.
This "fact," which was naturally my own weapon, the contribution
I was able to make from my own profession and training, was in
reality a tremendously effective club before which nothing could or
can stand in the long run. If I can leave that conviction as a legacy
to my brother reporters, I shall feel that I have really performed
a service. I believe they do not half understand it, or they would
waste no printer's ink idly. The school war was an illustration
of it, all through.
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