LORDS OF THE LEVEE: The Story of Bathouse John & Hinky Dink

The First Ward of Chicago and its two gaudy and wily powers--John J. Coughlin and Michael -- whose rule was always newsworthy, open to criticism, mudslinging and publicity. From humble origins, to cogs in the political machinery, on to ward feudalism, they made their way individually, eventually joined up and, as alderman, had a following to whom they could do no wrong. It is a picture of the turn of the century high civic jinks, of Chicago's coming of age in rowdy fashion, of graft, early rackets and unsavory deals. A decidedly different side of the picture from Ernest Poole's Grants Gone (Whittlessy, page 14), it is nevertheless part of the portrait of the portrait of the city, and, as such, of difinite local appeal and particularly interesting to a masculine audiance.