mr. cornelius. with a view like this i'm surprised the dead can rest in peace.
yes. a favor.
excellent. lend me something.
i believe in form and appearance, you see. just like yourself, sir. and i believe in law, and the power of example. our city is a lawless wilderness, sir. i'm asking you to help chasten it.
and civic pride. i want you to help me set an example. i only need to borrow one of your clients.
i don't know.
you're a lunatic to come here like.
anyone inside?
waiting on reinforcements.
that's not them. it's only the black jokes. seems your fire interrupted their festivities.
certainly. and may i then remind you, pocahontas, that this entire area is the province of the americus company, and you will kindly keep your distance. impasse. the rival fire companies size each other up and start toward each other. the building continues to burn. tweed remains regal and unperturbed atop the fire plug. as the two companies are about to close with each other, a second bell sounds. tweed's "reinforcements" have arrived: the native americans, led by bill the butcher. they pile off the wagons before the horses halt. now the black joke co. is outnumbered, and it falls back. as the crowd cheers, tweed takes the bucket off the fire plug.
alright, boys! to work!
next building over, boys! mustn't let it spread!
just tell them.  .  to take enough to share. and not to steal so in the open.
jesus! boss says to tell you to fight the fire from the front and loot out the back.
black joke had no business here, madam.
tammany's your business. when we're here to call upon there's no need of other. we understand loss, madam, and take care of our own.
i dread city stimmers. they bring illness and beget vermin.
but the season is vicious, and i must take thought of our constituents. mr. gleason, i'd like you to shake hands with mr. barnett baff.
a friend and owner of an estimable carting service. work out an arrangement whereby the citizenry can receive the benefit of mr. gleason's wondrous elixir outside this excellent box. at a cost, mr. gleason, of how much the barrel .
and how much, mr. baff, for haulage and distribution.
at least. that's a price of fifty dollars. and greedy, low piracy at that but a price that tammany, in its generosity, will meet. merely submit a bill for a hundred. we'll each have half. and i'll retain this box for further experiment. hello, bill.
bolt the door.
scotchy lavelle's gone wrong in his accounts.
not good enough to rake thirty percent of our share from sparrow's and use it for his own. you got to give him over, bill.
alright then. what about charles mcgloin? he's running a panel game off to one side. did you know that? i can't get a day's work done for all the good citizens pouring in here complaining about crime and corruption all over the points. they accuse tammany of carelesoness. some even suspect .  a few practically suggest. .  our complicity with this rampant criminality. we must show them tammany stands behind the letter of the law. we need to set an example.
i'll set the trial for friday.
a grand victory gift from the men of tammany. now, tell 'em what it means, mayor wood.