He was big and rather doleful to look upon, with sandy brown hair and brown eyes, but fairly intelligent, and absolutely willing to approve anything which was not too broad in its crookedness and which would afford him sufficient protection to keep him out of the clutches of the law.

He was really not so cunning as dull and anxious to get along.
Thomas Wycroft, the last of this useful but minor triumvirate, was a tall, lean man, candle-waxy, hollow-eyed, gaunt of face, pathetic to look at physically, but shrewd.

He was an iron-molder by trade and had gotten into politics much as Stener had--because he was useful; and he had managed to make some money--via this triumvirate of which Strobik was the ringleader, and which was engaged in various peculiar businesses which will now be indicated.
The companies which these several henchmen had organized under previous administrations, and for Mollenhauer, dealt in meat, building material, lamp-posts, highway supplies, anything you will, which the city departments or its institutions needed.

A city contract once awarded was irrevocable, but certain councilmen had to be fixed in advance and it took money to do that.

The company so organized need not actually slaughter any cattle or mold lamp-posts.