This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...Hennessy was purple with rage, but perceptibly alarmed. He was "dead up against it." Here was a quality of courage new to him, and it was a facer for the bully. He was used to men who weakened and cringed before the wrath of the mighty Boss--men who bowed the knee to his every whim. He knew how to handle such ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...Hennessy was purple with rage, but perceptibly alarmed. He was "dead up against it." Here was a quality of courage new to him, and it was a facer for the bully. He was used to men who weakened and cringed before the wrath of the mighty Boss--men who bowed the knee to his every whim. He knew how to handle such men. But here was a man in prison, a jail-bird in his cage, who was not afraid of him--of him, the redoubtable Bull Hennessy, with a famous record of glove fights, battles with "bare knucks," rough-and-tumble scraps and gun-plays galore! Yes, this was different, quite! Who ever heard of a jail-bird with a moral kick in him? Yet here was one who, though handicapped by every possible disadvantage, faced him with high and indomitable spirit and quailed not before his mighty frown nor trembled at his throaty bluster! What was more, and this really was incredible, this convict actually threatened him; threatened the unchallenged king of the most desperate elements of the underworld of the great metropolis; threatened the great Boss Hennessy, who was feared, not only by the social dregs of the underworld, but by the social scum--the aristocratic crooks and grafters of the upperworld--and by the "men higher up" in the world of politics and municipal administration. Bull Hennessy was "buffaloed for fair!" Deep down in his coarse brutal heart, he had the tinge of ochre common to most of his kind. He always had been a living bluff--he himself always knew it. Nobody ever recognized the "yellow streak" in a man quicker than did Hennessy himself. And this man in the garb of infamy, immured within walls from which, if he committed any overt act of violence against the Boss, he could not escape, had called...
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