Under the ordinary rules of politics, Boston's Mayor James Michael Curley would have no more chance of re-election in November than of playing halfback for Harvard. At 74, after 50 years in politics (four terms as mayor, four as a U.S. Representative, one as governor), he had suffered at one time or another from diabetes, arteriosclerosis, hypertension and ingrown eyelashes. He had served two penal sentences (the last, in 1947 for mail fraud) and during his stewardship Boston's debt and high taxes have increased, and its reputation for corruption has not declined....
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