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Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968

"Sylvia's Marriage"

"
"So we bribe everyone!"
"Not necessarily. You may simply wait until campaign-time, and then
make your contribution to the machine. That is the basis of the
'System.'."
"The 'System '?"
"A semi-criminal police-force, and everything that pays tribute to
it; the saloon and the dive, the gambling hell the white-slave
market, and the Arson trust."
I saw a wild look in her eyes. "Tell me, do you _know_ that all
these things are true? Or are you only guessing about them?"
"My dear Sylvia," I answered, "you said it was time you grew up. For
the present I will tell you this: Several months before I met you, I
made a speech in which I named some of the organised forces of evil
in the city. One was Tammany Hall, and another was the Traction
Trust, and another was the Trinity Church Corporation, and yet
another was the van Tuiver estates."
27. The following Sunday there appeared a "magazine story" of an
interview with the infinitely beautiful young wife of the infinitely
rich Mr. Douglas van Tuiver, in which the views of the wife on the
subject of child-labour were liberally interlarded with descriptions
of her reception-room and her morning-gown.


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