New-York tribune., 1878-04-13

noture But most OF the others Were "ole0
than Tweed. Connolly was weak, cum
ming. unsympathetic rogue, whose iur-
five eve stunned even his accOmplices IN
crime. Others were nothing but common bar
room rowdies, bulles of the polls ana
the engine-house, rascally shop-keepers'
corner loungers, ignorant fellows WIN
inAomed faces and breath laden WIN
brandy and blasphemy, who pulled their rank
cigars in the lobbies of the Common Council
and filed the City Hall with an indefnaole
aroma of blackguardism. The Amerlcus CinD
House. where Tweed and all these lesser cap
tains congreeated, was nothing but palatlai
pig-sty.
And this was the Ring which ruled ana
robbed the first city of the Western "Ofiu'
The whole community knew that these men
were scamps that they were stealing rishe
and left that they bought judges, bnDed leg
islators, corrupted voters, manufactured Dai-
lots, made farce of elections that their sys-
fem of ODrratIons was nothing but wholesale
neriury and peculati0n supported by forgery.
Yet until they quarrelled among them
selves and one of the criminals gave away
the others, there never was any serious re-
sistance to the pI'lage; there was hardly even
n serious complaint about 1t. Their power
was not the slow growth of years. The Rlhg
was formed quickly, and spraDg at once lii'o
fuU activity and strength. Three or four men
sot around a whiskey bottle and said, " Let MS
"steal and divide :" and the stealing began the
NEXT morning. In n few weeks the conspiracy
was complete; the crime had already reached
grotesoue proportions the public money iilched
IL. trraa
those dirty hands in an uninterrupted stream
there was rot and dcbauchery III all tne
public departments the debt began to swell
the taxes became appalling; the ten thousand
rctaners offthc Ring grew drunk ana lnsoleht
and the patient, careless citizens OF New fork
only shrugged their shoulders and went on
buying and selling and casting votes when
Nr. Tweed and his friends threw away When
they came to the counting.
One might have thought, ten years ago, that
it WAS the manifest destiny Of an American
metroDois to be ruled and ruined by Its
criminals. But what, after all, has been the
fate of the gang that was once so rich and
novcrrul? 81 have had bad luck" said the
miserable old man, yesterday, rs he fell back
dead IN iail. Have the others Jared so much
bottcrl Garycy, living on the price OF
trrachory; Woodward, exposing check oi
brass TO the scom of a community IN when
br burns 20 be thought respectable; Sweeny,
leaping the odium Of his thcits on the grave OF
hls blolhcr-thesc are the only ones OF the Dand
whom the stern logic of rctrIbution has spared
from complctc ruin. Yet who would change
places with them! They drag about the
world IA chain that grows heavier
at every step. They are cursed with pun
ishmcnt that every year becomes more shame
ful and more CALLING. Connolly, poor broken
hound. wanders in remote foreign places, hug
uIg, ms stolen purse and hiding both from
honest men whom he has wrongcd and dis
honest men whom he has betrayed. More for
tunatc pcrhap, than any of the rest will
the world account the man who died
of broken skull before the expo
sur, came, and around whose bedside
the gang kept watclI lest he should repent and
confess in his list moments; or the worthless
fool who drank himself to death In Paris
v.tl. the cordial appreciation of his shrewder
coDlrdcratcs. There are many Of the less i'm
portlnt thieves about New-YOrk, but not
one can show himself in public or
clrouse in the resorts that he loves.
When the fraud broke down, the r0gues
themselves must have been astopished to find
how uusub,tantal were their fortunes, bow
sudden and absolute was their ruin. If we look
for The fragments OF the Tammauy Ring to-
doy we find few shabby fellows, with broken
boots and sGdden checks, skuking about third
rate saloons,-and nothing more. except that
lifrlrss burden which will now be carried from
, urisnn bed to a dishonorcd tomb After all,
did it pay