New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-13

The case of John II. Keyser, of whose bank
ruptcy we published the particulars yesterday,
differs from that of every other member of the
Ring. The characters of most of the leaders
III the Tammany conspiracy were common place
enough, and their careers Were vulgar and con-
sistcnt TO the last. John II. Kcyscr seems TO
have been a puzzle and a contradiction.
Unfortunately there is no doubt about his com
picity in the frauds He cheated the city by
false bills. paid percentages to the Boss, put up
money for the purchase of the Legislature, did
work FOR his associates in the Ring with the
understanding that he should get his pay out
of the public Treasury. 1t was the same
old story that we have heard so often in con
ncction with the operations of Garyey,
Ingersoll. Davidson, and the other thrifty
tradcsmcn who made sudden fortunes in that
carnival of theft. The details differed in each
ease, but the general method never changed
Yet while Kcyser was thus pockcting suTepti-
tious gains at the City Hall he seems to have
been carrying on an honest business in another
part of the city, and putting the savings
of his industry to very go, d uses He was so
much respected that when the news of his de-
lection in the Ring frauds was iilst bruted, many
III.
been thirty years in business on the East
side of the town, and had made u
name, not only for integrity, but for lavish
benefcence. Many of the worst Tammany
politicians used to give to the poor with the
expectation of getting their return in votes.
Keyser's charities were apparently genuine and
uncalculating for he was not i'll politics. He
supported two or three hospitals and other
benevolent institutions at his private cost f; his
hand was always open to the distressed, and
the managers of relief organizations found in
him a Jealous and practical ally.
The curious problem of Il double life is ia
miliar in the pages of romance, and not I'M
known in actual existence. We have men who
pas, for good citizens who are loved by their
friends and respected by their neighbors, who
are kind to the poor, whom You may safely
trust in the ordinary affairs of trade. You can
hardly call them hypocrites, for their honesty
is sincere as far is it goes, and their charity
is not a matter of calculation, but of generous
impulse. There is, nevertheless, the fatal hour
out of the twenty-fOur when the mysterious
transformation takes place-an hour when they
hide themselves from the knowledge of
the associates of their better lives, and are
changed creatures. The honest tradesman, the
kind friend, becomes for fraction of every
day an appropriation of the public money; the
philanthropist leaves his unselish employments
at the hospital, and for awhile is the comrade
of Tweed's stablegang and the registering
thieves III the safe-maber'S back office. One
might almost believe in the old fable of two
souls nhabting IA single body.
1t is not surprising that Keyser's money did
not last There was too much that is good in
his character for "A successful Ring operator
and we can imagine that his accomplices, hay
ing a contempt for a man who was fool enough
to give away thousands of dollars when he was
not running for Office treated HIM with scant
honor in the settlement of their joint accounts.
At ali events, none of his specuaIons with
them seem to have prospered; and to-day
after a career full of benefactons, old age
finds him ruined in purse and bankrupt in char