The Political Retirement of M. E. O'Connor

Shortly after 6 o'clock last evening, an ordinarily observant habitué of Pacific Avenue might have noticed Mr. M. E. O'Connor, dressed in a fairly fitting outfit of store clothes, his well-known sweeping and business-like swing being only slightly restrained thereby as he passed hurriedly up the western side of the thoroughfare. Being hailed by the Post-Intelligencer man with the question as to the truth of the current rumor that he was about to leave Tacoma to enter the employ of Mr. O'Toole and the Seattle Ice Company, he stopped and answered that it was true. When asked what he thought of the statement made on the street regarding the number of Chinamen in the city, Mr. O'Connor turned squarely around: 'I have for the past several years done all I could here for the workingman. I have spent time and money and worked for their benefit in every way. I have never received any credit for it. I am lost in every way. I have been kept in hot water all the time with the radical element on one side, while I have been backed up, of course, by the other element. I have found that there is nothing in it. All straightforward work in that direction is lost, for I find that they will lift up the tricksters who will play them false. I am done with it. I will engage in no more politics. I will hereafter work simply for O'Connor.' When asked if he would help drive out the 'Mongolian' if he found them catching hold here again, Mr. O'Connor struck the wooden sidewalk emphatically with his cane. 'No sir,' he said. 'I tell you I am done with all that sort of thing. The only kind of workingman's movement I will interest myself in hereafter will be in organizations of benevolent societies.' And so saying, Mr. O'Connor turned toward the base of the hill.