New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-01-08
FISK.

| lie was passed. entlrely III INC puDllC Nlc"'
The whole world rang with the reports of his
prepOsterous transgressioDs No name OF any
American was better known at home or
abroad. He rose at one bound to the summit
| Of apparent success. lie seemed for time
! impregnable to the combined attack OF honest
| creditors and dishonest foes. 1t appeared as
! if he were likely to defy and evade retribu-
| ton, closing O youth of audacious fraud
with an age of Opulence and impunity-
still further demoralizing and poisoning the
public conscience by the spectacle of a hollow
doCOrum assumed when the objects of villainy
were accomplished. 1t is true there were
strong hopes INDUCED in these last few days
| that the law was to prove stronger than the
| cunning of the conspiTatoTs who had so long
! defed it. But we were not to sec so common
| place close to so marvellous a history. The
| crime and disorder he had thriven by, were to
| betray him. The fabric reared by fraud and
| violence was to crumble by the touch of muir
| der. The short and vivid life was to end in
a tragedy which should form fitting close to
| it, and point its meaning forever as a memory
! and a warning
| 1t is the irony of destiny that the objects
which no genius, no industry, no devotion can
accomplish are sometimes cOu,Dassed in Il mo-
ment by freak of circumstance. For several
years the bar of two continents have been labor
ing to loosen the grasp of this persistent adven
turer upon the life of the Erie Road, and all to
no apparent effect. But by means which are
cOntemptibly trivial the work is almost done.
The provoking fascnations of light woman,
the anger and jealousy of two dissolute men,
give rise to q deadly feud and to endless
wranglngs, until at last, by the very necessity
| of their natures and the imperiOus demands of
| their brutal instincts, the two enemies are
brought into position where there is no turn
| ing or retreating. There was never an ignO-
| bier quarrel over more worthless stake but
that unreasOning infatuation which even be-
| fore Helen was the most prolific source of
wars, was enough to fill for months the courts
of Justice with unseemly noise, and at
last to call i'll assassination TO close the scene
and carry off both disputants, the one to the
grave and the other to Jail. The pistol shot
of a cyprian's champion will have its echo in
every Exchange Of the world
1t is doubtful whether even in this age, so
fruitful in phenomenal men and i'll sudden trans
itions, any more picturesque life than Fisk's
can be recorded His purposes were as insane
as those of Train or ClOotz, yet he accom-
plished them all. His morals were as loose as
those of Casanova OF Lauzun, yet in Thu
reticent age he had no reserve or conceal
ments. He was an advanturer as fantastic "a
| Cagliostro, but never pretended to be anything
more than what he was. off ] were not
ALEXANDER said the Macedonian, 81 would
"be Diogenes" This Yankee peddler
was both-cynic and conquerOr. Even
fiction furnishes few persOnagcs more
absurd in qualities and in fortune. Fal-
staff was not drOller, more sensual, and
more prudent. The list which LeporellO
made of his masters victims was scarcely
more varied in race and name than that of
this travesty of Don Juan. Even the story of
Aladdin ceases to seem so impossible when we
think of this illiterate Verm0ntcr stepping
almost without an interval from his cart of
notions to take the reins of great corpora
ton, to purchase to-day a fleet and tomorrow
theater, to make to-day a panic and to-
morrow q statute, to buy Legislatures and
prima donnas, to dazzle Wall-st. with the
brilliancy of his thefts and Central Park with
the splendor of his eQuipages; to complement
| Sardanapalus with Robert Macaire.
1t is not creditablc to our society and orr
| civilization that such careers are possible But
! the public conscience, if not vigorous enough
to prevent them, has still enough vitality to
mark and to resist them. In the hight of his
power Tweed knew no men but politicians
When Fisk was the most dreaded man in the
business world, he had no social relations. His
fOur-in-hand usually conveyed more spotted
regulations than his own. His box in his own
Opera House was Stunned as if infected, by
all who had any character to lose. The enor-
nous diamonds he so delighted to wear only
shed stronger light upon the isolation in
| which he lived
His eccentricties marked him out for pun
ishment. He lived so much in the public eye,
his vanity and desire for admiration made him
SO grotesquely picturesque, that he became q
sort of type of that spirit Of lawless fraud
and plumber which created him and by which
he fourished. 1t was strong and vigorous in
Wall st. long before him. He was plucked
and stripped by it when he first arrived here.
He grappled with it, and at last forced it TO
serve him. There were worse men in the street
than he could learn to be. When he is laid
away in asgrave where only few will regret
him, meaner and cooler rOgues, who now
Join in cOndemning him, will go on
cheating their friends and neghbOrs the same
as before. But the public notice and reproba-
ton was attracted by the magnitude, the au-
daeity, and the marvellous luck of this mans
ventures. His carriages, his gems, and his
| uniforms continually advertised him TO the