The only difference was that there was a larger proportion of these men among the Republicans than among the Democrats, and that it was easier for me at the outset to scrape acquaintance, among the men who felt as I did, with the Republicans.

They were for the most part from the country districts.
My closest friend for the three years I was there was Billy O'Neill, from the Adirondacks.

He kept a small crossroads store.

He was a young man, although a few years older than I was, and, like myself, had won his position without regard to the machine.

He had thought he would like to be Assemblyman, so he had taken his buggy and had driven around Franklin County visiting everybody, had upset the local ring, and came to the Legislature as his own master.