Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-08-23

/ Lay aside the misty garments that enfold
your forms immortal,
And look upon the earth with eyes divine.
THE TAMMANY PLAN OF ESCAPE.
The Tammany thieves, driven like
foxes to covert, are trying to escape by
strategy. Our distant readers may
not understand the case. Let US
! therefore re-stste it.
For years past knot of democratic
politicians called the Tammany Ring
Z have been ruling, and at the same
time running this city. They have
| fraudulently carried elections, they
have shsmelessly purchased courts,
they have villianOusly robbed the
Z treasury. Honest citizens have all
along felt in their bones, or by the
pricking of their thumbs, that this
gigantic roguery was daily going on,
but did not know exactly how to
prove it, or drag it to light.
At last the Times burst upon the
knaves with proof of their knavery-
/ taking the city by surprise, and fill
ing the land with wonder. That
journal got hold of the figures of one
great job-namely, the County Court
House. This Is new and unfinished
| building in the City Hal Park, which
has cost for its erection nobody knows
I how much, but which, though not
vet finishedf has cost alone for its re-
pairs (heaven save the mark !! includ-
ing plastering, plumbing, gas fixt-
ures, carpenter work, and carpets, a
sum footing up TO the Persian mag
nificence of six millions of dollars
There is no lodging these figures.
The Times copied them from the Off
eial records of the Controllers office,
and stands ready to go into court to
make oath to their accuracy. The
footings show at a glance that the city
has been horribly swindled. The ras-
cality has no parallel for magnitude
or shamelessness, save in the fction5
Of the Arabian Nights.
Qusiling under the unexpected ex-
posure of their yillainy, the Mayor
and the Controller, who are jointly
responsible for the thefts, made q sud-
den, rash, fatal promise to lay all the
rest of the figures before the people.
This promise, made weeks ago, has
not yet been fulfilled-and this too,
notwithstanding the law makes imper-
ative publication Of the accounts.
Meanwhile, to gain time and draw
off the lightning, the Mayor and the
Controller unite in card submitting
their case to an association of private
individuals, known as the New York
Chamber Of Commerce, asking this
body to appoint a committee to exam
inc the books and to report what they
fad.
This proposition is exquisitely
''child-like and bland" Would the
public like to know what it means? ?
It means, in the first place, that the
Mayor, being on trial for his good
name, has the audacity to select his
own jury-which is in itself suspi-
eion equal to confession. It means,
in the second place, that the Cham
ber of Commerce, even if it accepts
the invitation to examine the books,
will have no oowerto compel answers
or to punish perjury, and cannot pos
sibly bring to light what the Mayor
wants to conceal. 1t means, in the
third place, and this is its chief fmean-
ing, that the Chamber of Commerce
is full of members whom the Tam
many Ring can control, and whom it
can procure to varnish the Control
ler's accounts.
We make this Cdarge unqualified
ly, unequivocally.
The Chamber of Commerce is a
barrel of meal with cat in it. 1t is
an automaton with manipulation be-
hind the wires. 1t is a tribunal
which, unbeknown to itself, is conf
IDENTIFY relied upon to. render snap
Judgment in behalf of the rogues.
The trickster of this new trick is
Mr.. Nathaniel SandsI q Nathaniel
not without a guile.
A few years ago, this parsonage
served the city aeeeptably as Presi-
dent of the Citizens Associations
body which had q reformatoFy mis-
sion, and which was maintained as a
legalized vigilance committee over
the city finances. Mr.. Sands, being
shpewd, indefatigable, and ambitious,
contrived to put the Tammany Ring
treat him as the first Napoleon did
each new aspiring rival namely, to
give him a marshall's baton in 9TH
er words, to make Mr.. Sands Tax
Commissioner at ten thousand a year.
From that time onward, Mr.. Sands
has acted and now acts the consistent
part of an outward critic and inward
friend Of Tammany Hall.
Nowthis same gentleman also plays
a conspicuous role in the meetings of
the Chamber of Commerce. He is a
power behind the throne. He is
suggester Of committees. preparer of
resolutions, q deviser of schemes. In
doing all this, he is man so eminent
lysplaus.ble that unsuspecting people
think him cast in natures mould of
an honest man. But Tammany Hall
never mistakes its tools.
1t happens that there are many
men in the Chamber OF Commerce
whose taxes Mr.. Sands has reduced,
and whom he has under obligations to
him by this kind of personal service for
return to him IN kind. ISL" ;" he can
say to one and another, "you know I
took OFF a heavy figure from your
assessment. That was favor to you.
Let me ask you to respond by ia
''vor to me. Serve on a committee to
"examine the Controllers accounts,
"lOok through the books, find them
correct; and give Mr.. Hall and Mr..
"Connolly. the endorsement ofyour
names. This illustration we do not
give at random. We have been asked
TO make it, and from source which.
if Mr.. Sands shonld know it, would
make him feel very uncomfortable.
Moreover, this same Mr.. Sands went
open handed to the Times, and (speak-
ing for the Tammany Ring made a
princely offer, in cash, for control
ling interest in the stock Of that jour
nal, in order to silence its ISLANDERS
against Tammany Hall.
Now the Mayor and the Controller,
with brave and virtuOus air, appeal
to the Chamber of Commerce. But
what is the Chamber of Commerce? ?
It is only another name for Mr.. Ma
thaniel Sands. The Mayor and Con-
troller, therefore, are craftily choosing
for their umpire the chief of the tools.
This is simply new villany added
to the old.
Now, let the Chamber of Commerce
beware how il intrudes itself between
the public indignation and the guilty
culprits whom Mr.. Sands is trying to
iron-plate against the thunderbolt.
The people who have been plundered
~. IN No s,aood 40 ba uOury frif1ad NTH