The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-01-19
UNITY, OHIO. FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 10, 1872.


J eat tragedy. But it is known thi
?. part OF The arrangement covered ii
II Issue NJ fraudulent naturalization p
pers, to be furnished by Tweed an
a distributed by Fisk along the line {
b the road. The appearance of th
e railway magnate on the platform {
the Democratic Convention in Tan
e many Hall, and the indignation wit
d which Mr.. Belmont left the chail
p when Fisk was called upon to speaE
8 will long he remembered
: We shall not undertake to trac
the complicated suits which Fisk an
, , his eonfederates have since promo
ted in the Supreme Court, the battl
With the Albany and Susquehann
road, the scandalous proceeding
against Ramsey, or the long warfar'
with the Eugiish stockholders whicl
y is still raging. Probably it would
be Unfair to hold him principally re,
sponsible for the judicial scandals il
which he was the most conspicuca i:
figure. His was not the cunning
brain which devised the shameful
: chicanery, and planned out long
legal campaigns, full of ambuscades
and surprises, and treacheries, anG
dishoro-s He was ra her the daring
and reckless executor of the designs
of more crafty associates; but it was
the nature OF the most conspicuou.
figure of any company into which he
might be thrown. In that band OF
"briggans' Ito use his own orthog.
raphy) which has held possession oil
the Erie road for the last four years,
he has always been The ioudest and
biggest; but we doubt whether he
has been the captain. He has glitter
ed ribbons and gay breeches. His
arms have been the brightest. His
swagger has been the grandest. But
there has been a more astute masker
behind him. 1t was the peddler's
taste for varnish which placed the
Erie offices in a theatrical palace and
filled them with magnificence of carv-
ed wood and gliding and Furnished
morocco and monstrous mirrors. 1t
was in q spirit of barbaric magnifi-
cence rather. perhaps, than of specu-
lation, that he brought the Eighth
Avenue Opera House and leased
part of it to the railroad; bought
the Fifth Avenue Theater; bought
Summer garden up town, for the pur-
pose OF running restaurant; bought
two lines Of steamboats, and put him.
self into naval uniform bought
everything that would keep the name
OF Jsmes Fisk, jr., perpetually in the
public ear, the porily figure OF the
James FIX, jr, perpetuallY in the
public eye. But in managing the
business details of the railway cor
pOration, shrewd as he was, he need
ed the help OF different class ofmen
The famous gold conspiracy of Black
Friday in which he played so prom
inent part was probably not of his
devising. 1t was his duty to conduct
the President to Boston and enter
tain him on his steamboat while the
keener cOnfederates employed the
social hours in working upon the
mind of the unsuspicious chief mag
istrate. When Fisk, in his laced
uniform, marched into the Boston
Coliseum in the suite of Gen. Grant,
he doubtless felt that he had played
his share of the game, and was as
near happiness as he ever could be-
Blu. when Black Friday came, it
needed just such a man of nerve and
headlong moral courage to carry on
the desperate bidding of the corner,
Ind to repudiate their contracts
when the President at last overthrow
them. Even the Erie lawsuits are
full of incidents characteristic of
Fisk's recklessness of which We
need only instance the outrageous
arrest of Mr.. Bowles in December,
1868, and the employment OF a gang
ofrailroad hands at the Albany and
Railroad election, dur !
ing the course Of the Ramsey quar-
rel. 1t is TO the vagaries of his pri-
vale lie, however--if Fisk can be
said to have had any private life
that the eyes Of the vulgar have been
turned with the greatest interest. |
The trcupes of the dancing girls and
opera -5ouffe singers whom he suppor-
ted at his theaters, exhibited in his
box, and paraded in pu bile places on |
on his arm; the splendor OF his
the glorie, of his toilet;
the rumored luxuries of his banquet
ing rooms and his buffet; his lavish |
generosity in giving, and his ingenu-
ity in never paying; his insolence
and wit; hiI vindic.ivenass and his
good-nature ; his thirst 70. notorie-
ty and his unparalleled contempt for
public opinion his boldness in de-
flying laws and courts, coupled with
a comical sort OF cowardice in the
face OF physical dsnger,--th
things have been the talk of New
York for four years and have made
The name of James Fisk, jr, noto-
rious FROM London to San Francisco.
And no doubt they have been admired
Bad, gross, sensual, vulger as he was,
he had not only troops of associates,
but hundreds OF admirers. Young
men saw in the career of this poor
roue the road to wealth and pleas
ure. He was chosen colonel of reg
iment of militia, marched it to Bos-
ton in defiance of the unwillingness
Of the people Of that city, encamped
with it at Long Branch, was cheered
sometimes in the streets, snd when
he seren2ded the Grand Duke Alexis
was admitted to an introduction with
'hatImperial young man. He ran away
disgracefully during the Orange riots
in July, but did not seem to diminish
bis popularity even in his own regi-
ment. The domestic relations but
he bore his head as high as ever
1t is the worst of his offenses that
by this brillisncy of his rapid career
and the rude 6onhoDaie of his manner
be did so much to fascinate the weak
and blunt the moral sense of the
young. He and his associates did
more than any other men except
Tweed to corrupt the bench and the
even than Tweed himself
10 delile the judicial ermine In the
public sight, and degrade in general
estim alton names once honOred in
the roll of advocates. He did his
best to destroy what honor there was
eft in the market. He found spec
nlation a sort of gambling. and he
made it nothing better than free
oootipg. He defled stage that
was bad enough already. He popu- ;
arized sins that common decency
used to conceal. But worse than all
his wss the insidious influence by
which he relsxed business morality,
md taught young men just starting !
n the race of life that any uneduca-
ed boor could get off a peddler's cart
md steal a railroad without going to
all or being kicked out of so-called
respectable houses. The only way
20 get on, in the Fisk philosophy,
vas TO cheat friends and enemies ,
like, bribe. lie, cheat, steal, and have
/ good time. Perhsps it is mercy ,,
,f G ID that the end of his career has
.,rn;ekoft e,.b q ctartlinn on1 1ro