CHAPTER VIII.
SILK STOCKINGS AND BLUE OVERALLS One night in this same June, Harwood was directed by the city editor of the "Courier" to find Mr.Edward G.Thatcher.Two reporters had failed at it, and it was desirable to verify reports as to certain transactions by which Thatcher, in conjunction with Morton Bassett, was believed to be effecting a merger of various glass-manufacturing interests.

Thatcher had begun life as a brewer, but this would long since have been obscured by the broadening currents of fortune if it had not been for his persistent dabbling in politics.

Whenever the Republican press was at a loss for something to attack, Thatcher's breweries--which he had concealed in a corporation that did not bear his name were an inviting and unfailing target.

For years, though never seeking office, he had been a silent factor in politics, and he and Bassett, it was said, controlled their party.

Mrs.Thatcher had built an expensive house, but fearing that the money her husband generously supplied was tainted by the remote beer vats, she and her two daughters spent most of their time in Europe, giving, however, as their reason the ill-health of Thatcher's son.