Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~\LAPPER ‘DUNN = borne his mon- iker so long that he scarcely remem- “ bered that he had been christened ~ James; but he was so registered as a voter, belonged to an organization which believes = in voting early and -often, regardless of _ Weather, thus offsetting those effete citi- zens. ‘who, if election day chances to be in- ~ clement, ‘conclude that the result is not in -- any doubt, and that one e ballot can’t affect _-_ it anyhow. — ~_ Every big town seems to have its East ZS Side, where flourishes a primitive form of —— paternalism. It is highly efficient, over- _ looking” no- ‘individual within its precincts. It is intensely ‘practical, reaching down to | _ provide milk and shoes for the destitute _ children, block dances and chowder parties for those of riper years, coal and potatoes registered three times, to be exact, since he for the = 28 a Bae graded = | By JOHN D. SWAIN ——— : =F ss | Author of ‘*The Owl-Man,”’ etc. ee A NOVELETTE—COMPLETE IN THIS ISSUE of henchmen, heelers, gang leaders, shyster , lawyers, bail brokers, deputy bosses, each receiving verbal reports from the man lower down, and imparting them to the one high- er up, the big boss is in as close touch with every living-soul within his domain as the Arab chieftain of a nomad tribe. : Itinerant peddlers, pawnbrokers, patrol- men, bootleggers, lodging-house keepers, and plain American citizens, each and all have their pedigrees, qualifications, records, and ambitions filed and cross-indexed, al- though not a scrap of paper may exist upon which non-partisan league, vice- -squad, or any of the irritating gumshoe- and-keyhole reformers might seize. In such a benevolent despotism Slapper: Dunn had been born, and had always lived. - He knew of no other system, and if he ever gave thought to it at all conceived of the State and Federal Constitutions and = in-