New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-05

engine company nOw-that was but stepping
stone to the Offices and the opportunities. whose
dligent Improvement had brought him here.
No. he was not either Of these. What then
Gentleman All! that was too common
Aeer at snobbery and pretentious uselessness.
Half the thieves on the Island" have per-
petrated that joke on society. No1h'ng
so common as that would do for this uncom-
mon felon. He might have touched his fofe-
head and soliloquized, "A thief among thieves;
among them but not of them; how shai'
discriminate myself | did not steal from
"pocket or person. am no pickpockct did
not rob banks or pluuder men In the hign-
vav. am neither burglar nor highwaymah
az am not here for any such offense az the
Z" moor devils who preceded me. My crime, II
crime it is, has the responsibility OF seven
" figures in it, and the dignity of having been
committed against government. 1t isn't
treason: it must be craftsmanship" And 80
because his ,plunder was millions and his VIC
tim the public, he, the first seven-fgure thief
ever uniformed at "the Island" was at liberty
to name the crime and designate the profes-
sion. And he called it craftsmanship
1t may be that the NewZealander who, IN
some distant age, shall SIT on broken pier of
the Brooklyn Bridge, contemplating the unfn-
ished Courthouse and admiring the simple
and beautiful operation of Mr. Rich
ardson's process of specie resumption,
will have his attention drawn to the ruins of
the Blackwelrs Island Penitentiary as the
prison in which Government offenders were
punished In proof whereof the blurred and
faded pages of the records with the
name of the convict, " William nj.
"Tweed, Statesman" may be adduced. And
if the inauisitive New-Zealander shall pursue
his researches into the history of Twced's
time and country, the quality of its statesman
ship the character of its prominent and sue
cessful men, the great enterprises carried on
and the means by which they were forwarded,
the methods of legislation, and the objects
aimed at. the relations of the holders of public
trusts to the public who trusted them, the at
mosphere of government and the tone OF
those who administered it, it is pretty certain
that Mr. Tweed's sarcasm, if so 1t was In
tended, will have lost its force. For the won
der will be not that one statesman" wore the
uniform and answered to the roll-call of the
Penitentiary but that the prison was not tull
of them.
But if the New-Zealander, spurred by this
descriptive list of our great felon to search
through the records of Tweeds time for cotem-
poraneous statesmen" shall marvel at their
average hight and weight, and at the classified
tons and definitions of the age that produced
them, what wonder will await him when he
pursues his inquiry further to the records OF
the lives and public services of those who,
like Tweed before his keeper, named them
selves the christian statesmen of the
period. Well, Tweed spared us the bitterness
of that sarcasm. He did not call himself
Christian statesman" He might, with
equal proprety and truth, but he did
not. Indeed he expressly took himself
out of that category by his answer to the
succeeding question. "Relgion9" asked the
keeper, and he answered, "None.r Statesman
he confessed himself but nothing more. And
we thank him.
AS to this man, now at hard labor in
uniform and under keepers on the Island, who
does not wear diamonds and dispense patron
age and hold great city under his fat thumb
any more, and who is not likely to turn upon
his overseer with a grinning "What are you
going to do about it ~ or upon his keeper
with a jocose "You know how it is yourself"
as to him--well, what did he meant Was
it his last cynical jeer flung at the head of
society that was about to shut him up? Or
was he so misguided by his political associa-
tons and training as to believe himself
statesman There s color for either theory.
And whichever is true, it is quite worth con-
sidering as commentary upon our politics
and our morals. Statesman indeed! Well,
look the country over and fix the standard
why not9