he was told that it was the other way around.
They walked in upon Mark — the Colonel who
“made” him; the editor of the paper that “elected” him; and General Wanser who was ready to
help “unmake” him,— these and the other big
Republican bosses who expected, as a matter
of course, to give Jersey City a “good business
government,” called on the Mayor-elect. Mark,
who has no humour, tried to tell me how he felt
when they came and took charge of him and
his office. Putting one fist to his forehead, and
pressing the other hand on the back of his head
(a characteristic gesture), he said that he looked
up to those men; he felt his own deficiencies of
education and experience; he had a heavy sense
of his tremendous responsibility; and he wanted
help and advice, for he wished to do right. But,
you see, he was Mayor. The people looked
to him. He might make mistakes; but since he
must answer for them to those people, man to
man, you understand, and man by man, when
he knocked again at their doors, why, Mark
Fagan thought he ought to listen to “his party,”
yes, and be “true to it,” yes; but after all, the
whole people would expect him to decide all
questions — all.
Mayor Fagan didn’t realize, at that time, that our constitutional governments were changed,
