Those politicians wanted me to run again; said I was the most popular coroner the county ever had; said that everybody liked my way of handling a dead person, it was so full of feeling and sympathy, and a lot more like that.

But what did I do?
I wasn't going to run any such risk again.

So I went up to the city, and the day before the convention met I sent word down that I was dead.

Circulated a report that I'd been killed by falling off a ferry-boat.

Then they hung the convention-hall in black and passed resolutions of respect, and then they nominated Barney Maginn.
"On the day after election I turned up, and you never saw men look so miserable, so cut to the heart, as those politicians.