Litchfield enquirer., 1871-05-04

k A PORTRAIT OF MR, TwEED. 4eaEge Al. fred Townsend gives graphiOy picture of MT. Tweed ina letter toa thS eChiOAR6 TFi- 5uae:I have, lately beanftalking to2overal gentlemen about. :, the inside, fhiah0Ey of 'Tammany Hall, and some of this. .a0asip may prove readable in Chicago William M. Tweed is now believed Co be the third man, in point of wealth, in the United States, he having boasted to several persons that he was worth nearer $2O, ,0OO. .OOOO than S15,OOO,O0O.s In 1861 he was in Che city of Washington, and. on inquiry of some friend here, he stated that by good deal of work and thrift he had got toQother $2O, ,OOO, and, he added, that he meant to keep it; for, as you know, Tweed and his brother, who were in business, failed . few years before the war, and Tweed took the benefit of the bankrupt act. About 1862, Democrat of the former day, who was an officer of savings bank on Astor place, remarked to group of gentlemen
 "Old Tammany Hail is losing all its character. There is Bill Tweed, who never had any standing in Tammany, and he has absolutely got $40, 900 now. know" said MT. Purdy. "that hs has got $4O, 900. but how could he have come by it2" 2Sf
 What would the old [: wheel horse of the democracy" say if he were now alive, at the fact that Tweed stands next to Astor and Stewart in worldly possessionsP and that nearly the whole of this he has made since 1863, and the bulk 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 nomi- nation, saying contemptuously:i ;85g5
 "He shall not throw away his time on an insignificant place like that"
 "What office would you let him have9' asked the interrogator. ae-z -- Eo.8
 s' Why, he ought to aspire to be an AL derman of New York city, or an assistant Alderman, anyway"
 One of the most efficient adjuncts to Tweed's great fortune is the city printing of New York, which concentrates in an ua- known paper called the New York Daily Transcript, and in the New York Printing Company, which is concern supplied with machiney, type. and all the appurtsn- ances of 2 vast printing house. Tweed frequently draws checks for $1OO.O 900 to $2OO, ,0OO, and even more5 against the treas ury of New York. on account of the Trans- cript. During the years 1870 and 1871 he has obtained immense receipts of back ac. counts on street extensions, the court house construction, and other things. The two great jobs now in hand by his ring are the widening of Broadway far up town, and the consolidation of all the mafkot- house interests of New York in new mar kethouse structure which the ring, has erected on the North River in the region of Thirtieth street. In the former case they assess the cost of widening the street through some of the most valuable blocks in the world upon the broad area of this city and satisfy the immediately affected high. Many of these very lots have been bought beforehand by the ring. and they paid for them in their entirely by widen ing the street. If you can estimate in your minds eye the immense market stall interest of New York, and then conceive that it is Tweeds object to drive all, the market folks into one new establishment by breaking up the other market houses by enactment, and by forbidding private markets, through the alleged necessities of the legal system of market inspectOrahip, you can understand what 8 hyena of ava- rice is this utterly shameless form of man. One might think that elation at his success would drive Tweed to dissipation, ard 90 happily rid mankind of his presence, and l 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 somewhat in the matter of drink, and he has outlived another one of his vices; but his stomach appears to take example from his hand, and wants all that it can mastieat6 without collapse. .rfsA al zfal