The Mahoney Million
Charles Townsend
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, March 6, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ...and wonder. A few called to offer congratulations, but they were overborne by the flood-tide of humanity that poured in from all directions. Crooks, cranks, schemers, "guns," promoters, beggars, cheap politicians and female harpies! The Under World opened its portals and the powers that prey issued forth in search of plunder. Shifty-eyed, keen, cruel, fawning, impudent, ready to whine or bully, to cajole or kill. Such a motley, unhung crew had never been seen in the Alley since the days of the great Draft Riot, when Michael Mahoney's father stood on his own doorstep and saved the life of a wretched negro, at the risk of his own. Moved by a common impulse--the belief that Mahoney would be a "mark"--these night-hawks headed for the Alley. Fat and greasy beggars touched elbows with "typewriters" from the Tenderloin. Racing "touts" jostled against "guns," to whom the island below Fulton street was a sealed book. Beery ward workers offered political CJe JEaJonep JEtllton advancement, and "ground floor" men suggested no end of good things. It was a noisy, ill-smelling, worse-looking, thoroughly disreputable mob, a crowd which could be upheaved only from the noisome under world of a great city. Mahoney endured the onslaught goodnaturedly for half an hour. Then he lost his temper-"I've hod enough o' this," he said, at last. "Out o'th'house now, wan an' all, or there'll be some brucken heads among ye." He drove them into the street. "Look ye now," he cried impatiently, "I cut me eyeteeth more than siven days ago, an' both me legs are av aquil length. So get out o' th' Alley, an' be dom'd t' ye! Moreover, there comes Casey th' cop, who may be wantin' th' whole push!" I...