" One
hundred and twenty-two voters, according to the register, lived
at another house, including nine agents, nine machinists, nine
gentlemen, nine waiters, nine salesmen, four barbers, four
bakers, fourteen clerks, three laborers, two bartenders, a
milkman, an optician, a piano-mover, a window-cleaner, a nurse,
and so on.
On the day before the election the Municipal League sent
registered letters to all the registered voters of certain
precincts. Sixty-three per cent were returned, marked by the
postman, "not at," "deceased," "removed," "not known." Of
forty-four letters addressed to names registered from one
four-story house, eighteen were returned. From another house,
supposed to be sheltering forty-eight voters, forty-one were
returned; from another, to which sixty-two were sent, sixty-one
came back. The league reported that "two hundred and fifty-two
votes were returned in a division that had less than one hundred
legal voters within its boundaries." Repeating and ballot-box
stuffing were common. Election officers would place fifty or more
ballots in the box before the polls opened or would hand out a
handful of ballots to the recognized repeaters. The high-water
mark of boss rule was reached under Mayor Ashbridge,
"Stars-and-Stripes Sam," who had been elected in 1899. The
moderation of Martin, who had succeeded McManes as boss, was cast
aside; the mayor was himself a member of the Ring. When Ashbridge
retired, the Municipal League reported: "The four years of the
Ashbridge administration have passed into history leaving behind
them a scar on the fame and reputation of our city which will be
a long time healing.
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