The inquirer stared after him and saw a six-foot citizen, of otherwise medium proportions, whose long, youthful face and mild gray eyes, with just a suggestion of washed-out blue in them, were hardly what was to be expected of a notorious and otherwise astounding political figure.

“He is too young,” was the earliest comments, when the public once became aware of his personality.

“Why, he is nothing but a grocery clerk,” was another, the skeptical and condemnatory possibilities of which need not be dilated upon here.

And he was, in his way—­nothing much of a genius, as such things go in politics, but an interesting figure.  Without much taste (or its cultivated shadow) or great vision of any kind, he was still a man who sensed the evils of great and often unnecessary social inequalities and the need of reorganizing influences, which would tend to narrow the vast gulf between the unorganized and ignorant poor, and the huge beneficiaries of unearned (yes, and not even understood) increment.  For what does the economic wisdom of the average capitalist amount to, after all:  the narrow, gourmandizing hunger of the average multi-millionaire?

At any rate, people watched him as he went to and fro between his office and his home, and reached the general conclusion after the first excitement had died down that he did not amount to much.

When introduced into his office in the small but pleasant city hall, he came into contact with a “ring,” and a fixed condition, which nobody imagined a lone young mayor could change.  Old-time politicians sat there giving out contracts for street-cleaning, lighting, improvements and supplies of all kinds, and a bond of mutual profit bound them closely together.

“I don’t think he can do much to hurt us,” these individuals said one to another.  “He don’t amount to much.”

The mayor was not of a talkative or confiding turn.  Neither was he cold or wanting in good and natural manners.  He was, however, of a preoccupied turn of mind, “up in the air,” some called it, and smoked a good many cigars.

“I think we ought to get together and have some sort of a conference about the letting of contracts,” said the president of the city council to him one morning shortly after he had been installed.  “You will find these gentlemen ready to meet you half-way in these matters.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” he replied.  “I’ve something to say in my message to the council, which I’ll send over in the morning.”

The old-time politician eyed him curiously, and he eyed the old-time politician in turn, not aggressively, but as if they might come to a very pleasant understanding if they wanted to, and then went back to his office.

The next day his message was made public, and this was its key-note: 

“All contract work for the city should be let with a proviso, that the workmen employed receive not less than two dollars a day.”