Graft

“ Like so," he said, pointing his awl at the colonel; "money is graft, and houses and lots is graft, and horses is graft, and buggies. But"—and he paused impressively—"apples isn't, and potatoes isn't, and celery isn't, and peas isn't, and chickens isn't. Nothing to eat is grafts. Man can't eat grafts. If it is to eat it is not grafts. So says Attorney Toole. Things to eat is no more grafts, says Attorney Toole, than lung-testers is fire-extinguishables." ”

“ To a man that's dealt a brace game, done the 'spectacle' gag, handled walnut shells and a matrimonial agency, anything new in the graft line feels sweet and refreshing, so I laid back and looked appetizing.
“Lewis had copper mines in California, irrigations in Uruguay, a non-dropable collar button, and a rat poison the baby could eat with impunity. Nothing doing: I wouldn't invest. ”

“ It is small wonder that with so much avarice in low places that we have been shocked by graft in high places. The tipping custom is educating the grafting spirit much faster than the prosecuting arm of the government can destroy it. ”

“ It is evident that at least eighty per cent of the police, at some time or other, are grafters. The system of tribute and graft burrows into every legitimate pursuit and finds some undreamed of channel of graft. ”

“ The grafter is an ubiquitous personality fostered upon the moribund carcas of social order by the incubater of special privilege. Graft is a combination of gall and greed. The grafter is a gentleman of accommodating principles, whose chief aim in life is to annex himself to a good thing and the public be damned. His is the gentle art of jarring loose the unsuspecting jays from their tin, and his most self-assertive characteristic is a yearning to finger other people's cash. ”

“ A wise manipulation of the financial end of a difficulty will more often save you than not. There is no graft in paying for a night's lodging."
"Under the present circumstances, paying for a night's lodging is graft," declared the general.
"It's graft, then, or prison," snapped Bartlett.
"Prison," said the general heroically.
"Prison is foolish," said Billy, "when one has a motor-car and can get away."
"Besides," said Bartlett, "graft is not dishonest for the man who gives the bribe." ”

“ The trail of graft has been followed from the ballot box to the dive, from the dive to the house of prostitution, from the house of prostitution to the gambling hole and on up to the houses of those debased public men and people-appointed guardians of the law, who are today weighted down with the gold, created by the melting of vice, sin and crime in the melting pot of the underworld. ”

“ Helm’s expression was admission that the boss was right.
[67] “And,” proceeded Branagan, “if you decided to make money by going into business—that’s slow, and anyhow you’ll have to graft or you won’t make nothin’. I tell you, George—— They call us politicians grafters. But the truth is we’re a damn sight honester than the business men or the lawyers—or any other class except them that ain’t got no chance to graft. The worst of us ain’t no worse than the best of them swell, big-figger grafters like Hollister and Powers. And the best of us is a hell of a sight honester. ”

“ Graft. The stewards don’t get any wages. They are supposed to graft. Business principles again. You pay. Of course you pay. How are the fight permits obtained? Graft. And now let me ask you: if the men who build the seats graft, if the stewards graft, if the authorities graft, why shouldn’t those higher up in the fight game graft? They do. And you pay.
“And let me tell you it is not the fault of the fighters. They don’t run the game. The promoters and managers run it; they’re the business men. The fighters are only fighters. ”

“ When it comes to grafting in connection with therapeutics, the layman’s educational armor, which affords him protection against most forms of graft in business, seems utterly useless. True, it affords protection against the more vulgar nostrum grafting that claims its millions of victims among the masses; but when the educated man meets the “new discovery,” “new method” grafter he bares his bosom and welcomes him as a friend and fellow-scientist. It is the educated man’s creed to-day to accept everything that comes to him in the name of science. ”

“ In the lines of graft we’ve worked we took money from the people the Lord made to be buncoed—sports and rounders and smart Alecks and street crowds, that always have a few dollars to throw away, and farmers that wouldn’t ever be happy if the grafters didn’t come around and play with ’em when they sold their crops. ”

“ MONTAGUE. The vice graft serves for the police and the district leaders and the little men; what really pays nowadays is what has come to be called "honest graft."
LAURA. What is that?
MONTAGUE. The business deals that are trade with the public service corporations.
LAURA. Ah! That is what I wish to know about!
MONTAGUE. For instance, I am running a street railway...
LAURA. [Quickly.] My father is running them all!
MONTAGUE. Very well. Your father is in alliance with the organization; he is given franchises and public privileges for practically nothing ”

“ Under a heavy weight of fruit and in two heavy sleets the union of the graft, to the contrary, has proven to be as strong as any part of the tree, and it has transpired that this top-grafting is not so difficult and mysterious a handicraft as is generally supposed. Any careful, painstaking man can, in a few hours, learn to set a graft ”

“ But nothing is so difficult to prove or so easy to conceal as graft; all the ingenuity and resources of the grafters are primarily and undeviatingly devoted to covering their tracks. So much is allowed for maintenance, subsistence, construction ”

“ I'd like, myself, to hedge a bet or two in the graft game if I could do it without actually banging the cymbalines in the Salvation Army or teaching a bible class by the Bertillon system.
"'What'll we do?' says Andy. 'Give free grub to the poor or send a couple of thousand to George Cortelyou?'
"'Neither,' says I. 'We've got too much money to be implicated in plain charity; and we haven't got enough to make restitution. ”

“ He was paid "by the piece," "three-halfpence a graft and cider," quantity not specified, but an important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts "unwetted" would not thrive! Some of these large trees would have ten or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work. ”

“ A 'grafter' is one who makes his living (and sometimes his fortune) by 'grafting.' He may be a political boss, a mayor, a chief of police, a warden of a penitentiary, a municipal contractor, a member of a town council, a representative in the legislature, a judge in the courts, and the upper world may know him only in his political capacity; but if the under world has had occasion to approach him for purposes of 'graft' and found him corrupt, he is immediately classified as an 'unmugged grafter'—one whose photograph is not in the rogues' gallery, but ought to be. ”

“ The war against graft is led by the president of the United States, who stands as the foremost foe of grafting—political, financial or social—in the world, and behind him is a phalanx led by Folk, Jerome, Riis, Lawson, Hadley, Miss Tarbell, Deneen, Monnett and others of their type, fighting the nation's most crucial battle. ”

“ The professional thief is the 'mugged grafter'; his photograph and Bertillon measurements are known and recorded.
The world of graft is whereever known and unknown thieves or bribetakers congregate. In the United States it is found mainly in the large cities, but its boundaries take in small county seats and even villages. ”

“ But—when I get mine, the guys that back me get theirs, too. My God, Doc, let's talk business! What's a little graft between friends?"
"Duck," I said, "you own the 50th Ward. You are no fool. Why is it not possible for you to understand that some men don't graft?"
"Aw, can it!" he retorted fiercely. "What else is there to chase except graft? What else is there, I ask you? Graft! Ain't there graft into everything God ever made? An' don't the smart guy get it an' take his an' divide the rest same as you an' me?"
"You can't comprehend that I don't graft, can you, Duck?" ”

“ Then, just under the lowest bud we whittle the end of the graft into the shape of a knife-blade, letting the bud stand just above the back or dull edge of the blade. For greater stability when the graft is put in place, a narrow inverted ledge is cut at the top of the blade on both sides. A glance at the picture will show you all these little details. Finally, the graft is slipped into the cleft of the stock, bark exactly meeting bark, wood meeting wood. The whole is brought tightly together by binding, and the wounds are covered with grafting mastic, which may be bought already prepared. ”

“ The great body of the public is heart and soul back of this prosecution, because we believe it is an honest attempt, not merely to convict certain criminals, but to elevate the standard of public morality, and whatever may be the outcome and even though, through successive miscarriages of justice, every guilty man escape his legal punishment, the graft prosecution has, nevertheless, succeeded beyond our fondest hopes ”

“ Grafting is prevalent in many lines of business, especially where one man is entrusted with the letting of contracts, or with the purchase of supplies for a city, corporation, factory or individual. The following will illustrate just how prevalent petty grafting has become and which came to my notice through a case I had occasion to investigate for a certain well-to-do gentleman. This man owned two automobiles and entrusted to his colored chauffeur the purchase of gasoline and supplies for the machines. ”

“ IMP (O. Eng. impa, a graft, shoot; the verb impian is cognate with Ger. impfen, to graft, inoculate, and the Fr. enter; the ultimate origin is probably the Gr. ἐμφύειν, to implant, cf. ἔμφυτος, engrafted) , originally a slip or shoot of a plant or tree used for grafting. This use is seen in Chaucer (Prologue to the Monk’s Tale, 68) “Of fieble trees ther comen wrecched ympes.” The verb “to imp” in the sense of “to graft” was especially used of the grafting of feathers on to the wing of a falcon or hawk to replace broken or damaged plumage, and is frequently used metaphorically. ”

“ The success of grafting, or inoculating, consists in so placing the bud or graft, that the sap vessels of the inner bark shall exactly join those of the plant into which they are grafted, so that the sap may pass from one into the other. ”

“ I never skin a sucker without admiring the prismatic beauty of his scales. I never sell a little auriferous beauty to the man with the hoe without noticing the beautiful harmony there is between gold and green. And that's why I liked this scheme; it was so full of outdoor air and landscapes and easy money.
We had to have a young lady assistant to help us work this graft; and I asked Buck if he knew of one to fill the bill. ”

“ The graft, however, must not be pointed while the wind is blowing, and care must be taken that the bark is not rubbed off from either graft or stock. The graft must be thrust into the stock up to the point where the bark begins; care, too, must be taken not to wrench off the bark during the process of insertion, nor must it be thrust back so as to form any folds or wrinkles. It is for this reason that a graft should not be used that is too full of sap, no, by Hercules! no more than one that is dry and parched ”

“ Graft was a normal collateral result of current practise and is to be distinguished from embezzlement or larceny. The officers were like men passing through a dripping orchard. To pluck and eat was to follow a natural impulse, easily yielded to when everybody was receiving according to their needs. ”

“ However, the etymology of the term is not of special moment. The addition of graft to our current vocabulary is of infinitesimal importance compared to the eruptive epidemic of the detestable thing for which it stands. ”

“ Why, some of those fellows are getting rich on the graft. It seems to me that laws of that kind are always enacted for just one purpose. And that is that certain politicians, or preferably their friends, may enrich themselves at the expense of the general public. The rich today can get all the liquor they want, but part of the price they pay goes into the pockets of some grafter. ”

“ Graft near the ground all those which are sending suckers from below the graft. Suckers from above grafting point can be trained into trees by selecting the best, tying to stakes to straighten up and removing all other suckers but the one selected. ”

“ It is an excellent plan to dust the trees twice or three times a week, as it will effectually prevent the lodgment of caterpillars.
774. A neat method of Grafting.—Prepare the stock and the graft in the same way as for grafting with clay in the common [196] way. Then take a long slip of India-rubber, three-quarters of an inch broad, and about the thickness of a shilling. Tie one end of this elastic riband with a thread, well prepared by rubbing with shoemakers' wax, to the stock, a little below where it is cut for being joined to the graft ”