When a vacancy occurred in the council, by death or old age
of any member, one of the two already designated took the place, while the
other remained ignorant of the fact that any change had occurred, unless
the vacancy was caused by the withdrawal of the member he had known, in
which case he was put in communication with that member with whom he was
most intimately acquainted. By this system of management no one man knew
more than one of the actual leaders until he was himself one of the three.
At the present time Z had been in the council nearly thirty years, and X
for upwards of twenty, while Y, who was in reality fifty years old, had
received his seat fifteen years before, at the age of thirty-five. A year
ago one of the men selected to fill a possible vacancy had died, and John
Harrington was chosen in his place.
It has been seen that the three kept a sort of political ledger, which was
always in the hands of the president for the time being, whose duty it was
to make the insertions necessary from time to time.
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