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Reformers Only Mornin' Glories.
COLLEGE professors and philosophers who go up in a balloon to think are always discussin' the question: "Why Reform Administrations Never Succeed Themselves!" The reason is plain to anybody who has learned the a, b, c of politics.
I can't tell just how many of these movements I've seen started in New York during my forty years in politics, but I can tell you how many have lasted more than a few years--none.

There have been reform committees of fifty, of sixty, of seventy, of one hundred and all sorts of numbers that started Out to do up the regular political Organizations.

They were mornin' glories--looked lovely in the mornin' and withered up in a short time, while the regular machines went on flourishin' forever, like fine old oaks.

Say, that's the first poetry I ever worked off.