But it seemed to me strange that it should depend on a foreign-born
American to supply an eager public with what should have been supplied
through the agency of the political parties or through some educational
source.
I now tried to find out what a vote actually meant. It must be
recalled that I was only twenty-one years old, with scant education,
and with no civic agency offering me the information I was seeking. I
went to the headquarters of each of the political parties and put my
query. I was regarded with puzzled looks.
"What does it mean to vote?" asked one chairman. "Why, on Election Day
you go up to the ballot-box and put your ballot in, and that's all
there is to it."
But I knew very well that that was not all there was to it, and was
determined to find out the significance of the franchise. I met with
dense ignorance on every hand. I went to the Brooklyn Library, and was
frankly told by the librarian that he did not know of a book that would
tell me what I wanted to know. This was in 1884.
As the campaign increased in intensity, I found myself a desired person
in the eyes of the local campaign managers, but not one of them could
tell me the significance and meaning of the privilege I was for the
first time to exercise.
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