There were reformers in plenty, but their inordinate love of publicity ruined the effectiveness of their work.

A brass band will not move the criminal half so quickly as a sudden pull at the scruff of his neck.
So the evil-doer lay low, or borrowed the most convenient halo and posed as a deeply-wronged man.

Warrington, as he read, smiled in contempt.

They had only one real man in town, scoundrel though he was.
There are certain phases of villainy that compel our admiration, and the villainy of McQuade was of this order.

The newspapers were evidently subsidized, for their clamor was half-hearted and hypocritical.