The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-08

renee has been about as awkwardly assumed
as that of the pickpocket who should stolidly
thrust his hands into bis own pockets when
the bulls eye of the policeman had just made
manifest their extraction from the pockets
of somebody else. BY way of dissipating the
sDeaking consciousness of what very un-
worthy personages they are, our local rulers
have lately shown a quite unprecedented
fondness for each others society and that Of
their retainers In such company obstrusive
public opinion finds no entrance. The lords
OF the feast can smile compacently on the
recipients of their bounty, and the lesser
rogues can find unalloyed pleasure in con-
templating the great masters of the profess
sion, and in discussing the gradual steps that
led them to that proud eminence
The festive gatherings of Tammany that
began very early in the season, and of
which Monday nights levee by the ''Boss" at
the Metropolitan is but one of an apparently
interminable series, have been pleasantly
varied by perfect eruption of testimonial
schemes The more reflective and discern
ing public condemned, the more the sup
porters of the ''Ring" felt called on to ap-
prove, and in proportion to the violence of
the attack which the leaders have sustained,
so great must be the testimony afforded by
a servile crowd of followers, that, in their
eyes at least, their reputation is
exactly what it ought to be. The big
the pickings, is a first principle among
the Tammany braves, great and small,
and the master minds that concoct gigantic
schemes of plunder are eminently deserving
of the highest honors of the Pantheon. From
Tweeds statue to the deliberately engrossed
resolutions" presented to Sheriff Brennan
when he emerged from the chrysalis stage of
Police Commissioner, there is an immense
interval both in comparative and actual esti-
0f nj IN nata aluf for ha
lice, however, the new Sheriff had soul
above parchment. Testimonials of q more
substantial character had suddenly
become the rage, and he, as
one of the leading magnates, found
it somewhat beneath his dignity to
be so lamely recognized. His late subordi-
mates had evidently been corrupted by the
public sentiment which supposes that when
man is paid for doing his duty he is not
entitled, in virtue of that fact, to any special
reward. For common policeman, that may
be good enough rule; but for commits
sioner and sheriff elect, the case is entirely
different. Thus it came that the beautiful
engrossed resolutions were found to be SO
much waste paper, and the ''Hnbounded
stomach" of Sheriff Brennan could only be
satisfied by the police showing chow much"
they appreciated him.
Had this been left entirely to the private
opinion of the force, it is probable that the
result would have been rather unsatisfactory.
But as the men are there rather as the ap-
pointees of Tammany than the servants of
the public, it was fit that they should be left
no choice in the matter. Pay day came, and
with it a request to subscribe something in
recognition of the shining virtues of Judge
Brennan. A ''Patrolman," who has mean
| while given his five dollars-much-
needed as it was to buy his wife a
new dress withal-writes us with view
to know why he or any other officer should
have been mulcted for this testimonial. We
confess our utter inability to satisfy him on
that point. Had he or any of his fellow
sufferers interrogated the clerk who pre-
sented the paper, and whose face so unmis-
takably limited the penalty of refusal, we do
not suppose that he would have been made
much wiser. Tammany willed it, and that is
about the only explanation that the plundered
police will ever get, just as it is the only ex-
PLANTATION that plundered public has hitherto
| got of much greater outrages.