New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-04-27
"BOss'' Tweed.
some Of the Inside History of Tammany-
The Political Rise OF Biil Twesa-uis Pres
ent Wealth.
Gath" to the Chicago Tribup,

ent Wealth.
t'dath" to the Chicago Tribune
have lately been talking to several gentle
men about the inside history of Tammanv Hall
and some of this gossip may prove readable II
! Chicago
William NJ. Tweed is now believed TO he the
third man IN point of wealth in the United
! States, he having boosted to several person.
that he was worth nearer 500 900 900 than
Sl5,000,000. In 1861 he was in the city al
Washington, and, on inquiry by some friend
here, be stated that, by good deal OF work
and thrift, he had got together $4,000 aud
he added, that he meant to keepit; for as you
may not know, Tweed and his brother. who
were in business failed few years before the
! late war, and Tweed took the benefit of the
bankrupt act. About 1862, Elijah Purdy. a
| respectable Tammany Democrat of the former
day, who was an officer of a savings bank on
Astor Place, remarked TO a group of gentlemen
/ ''Old Tammany Hall is losing all its charae.
ter. There is Bill Tweed who has never had
any standing in Tammany, and he has abso-
lutely got $4,000 now. | know" said Mr..
Purdy, that he has got SAC, 600, but how
could he have come by il ?'
W hat would the old "whee-horse of the De.
mocracy' say if he were now alive, at the fact
that Tweed stands next to Astor and Stewart
In worldly possessions, and that nearly the
whole of this he has made since 1863, and the
hulk of it between 1866 and 1871 Some time
ago his eldest son wanted to be nominated for
Congress, but Tweed refused to let him have
the nomination, saying contemptuously
''He shall not throw away his time on an in
significant place like that ~
What office would you let me haye?" said
the interrogation
Why, he ought to aspire to be an Alderman
OF New York city, or an Assistant Alderman
anyway"
SOME TAMNANY JOBS.
One of the most efficient adiuncts to Tweed
great fortune is the city printing of New
York, which concentrates in an unknown paper
called the New York Daily Transcript. and in
the New York Printing Company, which is
concern supplied with machinery, type, and all
the appurtenances of a vast printing house.
Tweed frequently draws checks for 500, 900 to
100000, and even more, against the Treasury
of New York, on account of the Transcripi.
During the years 1860 and 1871 he has obtained
immense receipts from bank accounts on street
extensions, the courthouse construction. and
other things. The two great jobs now in hand
by this ring are the widening of Broadway far
up town, and the consolidation of all the mar
ket'house interests of New York in q market
house structure which the ring has erected on
the North river in the region of Thirtietb
OF widening the street through some of the
most valuable blocks in the world upon the
broad area of the city, and satisfy the immedi.
ately affected property holders by setting the
estimates high
Many of these very lots have been bought
beforehand by the ring, and they paid for them
In their entirety by widening the street If
you can estimate in your minds eve the i'm.
mense market-stall interest of New York, and
/ thanc a. q.
all the market folks into one new establishment
by breaking up the other market-houses by
enactment, and by fOrbiddiDg private markets,
through the alleged necessities of the LEGAL
system OF market-inspectorship, you can un-
derstand whata hyena of avarce in this utterly
shameless form of man. One might think that
elatlon at his success would drive Tweed to
dissipation, and so happily rid mankind of his
presence; and | am told by some who know
him that his family have to keep watch over
him lest he should kill himself with much
eating. He has always restrained himself some
what in the matter of drink, and he has out
lived another one of his vices but bis stomach
appears to take example from his hand, and
wants all that 1t can masticate without collapse.
TwEED's cOMPLACEYCY.
Some gentleman were giving nae an instance
OF Tweed's selEgratulation over his wealth in
the case of an old man whose name, as | re.
member IT, was NanderpOol. Nanderpoo was
one OF Tweeds creditors when he failed some
years ago, and there were $4,000 in that one
account. Expecting never to get it, Wander
pool let the matter rest for years, but on one
occasion, finding himself annoyed in some mat
ter of municipal law he thought he would 90
to so powerful a man as Tweed to ret relief
He found Tweed in the best Of humor, and was
reproached for not having come oftener Tweed
instantly wrote a note, reforming the matter Of
complaint, and said to him:
" Abram ~ Il am not sure that | have any
OF the names correctly "why don't you send
IN that account which has been standing so
long? l need not pay you, of course, because
| have taken the benefit of the act, but it is
small matter and we have been generally
good friends. You go home and look over
your papers and get the memoranda together
and send them to Inc, and will fix the thing
for you"
Tweed" said the other, "they you are
worth $4,000, 900. Is that so 2"
" Abram,' said Tweed, "yOu can multiply
that five million by three, and you won't go
far out of the way if you multiply it by four"
The Emperor Tberius then chuckled and went
on goOd-humoredly with his mode of life
OLD TAMMANY TINES.
The history of Tammay Hall, when written
by some future Eugene Sue or George Rev
nolds, will be an almost incredible story
Tammany Hall has seen the time when it was
no worse than some of the better Republican
clubs which have existed and do exist within
our memory. When Albany was the seat of
State power in New York, and long headed
national politicians played for administrations
as men sit down to a game of poker, the in
tellectuality OF the performance gave it some
OF the zest which belongs to large diplomacy.
About 1856 the demi-respectable element of
Iammany felt itself slowly sliding from power.
and behed a barbarOus crowd of new Corners,
who had done its repeating, and been always
servlle coming forward with new methods of
wckedness and seriously seeking to grasp the
whole city, for now the rascals had learned how
to do it !; the executive crowd was aspiring to
push the manipulators from their seats and rule
from the underneath. A gentleman was tell
ing me, a month or two ago, about the cele-
brated fight between Ike Fowler and Fernando
Wood-Dan Sickles at first supporting Wood
for the Mayoralty, with the promise of being
cooperation counsel under him. Sickles and
Wood trumphed, chiefly by reason of Sickles
holding the chair in the Tafnmany Council and
doing the parliamentary ruling. Wood, who
seldom keeps bargains, wheeled upon Sickles,
and broke his pledge, and Sickles thereupon
declared war against him and put up Tieman
for Mayor, whereby Wood was beaten
asked this gentleman where Tweed and Swee-
ney were at this meeting. why" said he,
servitor then for Matt. Brennan, and, although
| well remember his dark, lowering face, none
of US suspected that his day would also come"
l..