Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-04-24
Lessons for Young and Old.


Lessons for Youup and Old.
So "Bip Six us dead. The Old Boss &"
is dead. The gross and constituencies conn
tenance with which Mast made the world ia.
miliar has sunk into an eternal calm. How
the artist set forth in its outlines the moral
code of the robber chief. apain the gorged
yulture. again the plutton filled to stupefac
ton with the blood of the taxed poor, again
the leer of the confessed unbeliever in God
or man who saws "thev all do it," and laughs
at the fool who wouldn't raise figures and
forge bills and take toll of the revenues when
he got the chance
If there he no God. and no divine Justice,
the unknowable force. and the chances of
laws made bv nobody. work some marvel
Gus presentations of poetic Justice. Take
the case of that man Fisk, giggling and
ROSY liar. roaring with laughter over his
successful stealing of a whole railroad, pre-
siding over a harem, rlarinp through the
streets in rich equipage, iocularly smiled
upon by the press as Jim Fisk and mighty
smart fellow, too becoming every popular"
admiral" of a fleet of splendid steamers.
colonel of crack regiment, and getting to
be envied by all scamps and half envied by
youths of pulpy manhood who didn't look
through the shine to the rottenness within.
Well, something shot him dead one day be-
cause they auarreled about a prostitute; the
gourd vine wthered, and the balloon col
lapsed. When it was dead the life looked
horrible, and Young men concluded that such
a life didn't pay, after all, God or no God.
The wretched woman called Madame
Restell heaped up money till her den be-
came what they call "palatial residence"
10 do the lowest grades of mankind Justice,
probably nobody envied her, the woman,
mother too, whose dollars represented muir
dered babies. The law hoyered about her
for forty years and got patry satisfaction
in two wears IMPRISONMENT but her palace
hourished, till the other day slow Justice
having almost reached her she Law down in
her bath-tub and cut her throat with "a cary
ing knife. If earth always finished the
work thus. future punishment would seem
to be unnecessary.
And the old man Tweed is gone. Right
in the face of the great METROPOLITAN city.
of the Empire state, and the business center
of "the greatest nation on earth, he
laughed at all the able and broad and en-
terprising and courageous and far-seeing
and highest integrity men of affairs, and
Governed them. and took millions upon mil
lions out of their pockets in broad daylight,
and kept a horde of assistant thieves like
robber baron of ALL Some METROPOLITAN
journals proposed monument to the great
man while living. and provincial journals
smoke of him as a gentleman. lie was the
chief of Tammany. which is to be Warwick.
the xirp-maker. in a great national party
Nothing succeeds like success. and was he
NOT successful "After ALL" they said, :" after
ALL" and 8. when all is said and done. there
il a GOOD deal that is good about old Tweed:"
hes a pretty pood-hearted old fellow and
cives A good deal to the DOOR" And they
sent him by big maiorities to the state SEN
ate. though he dared not take his seat the
last time.
But the Unknowable Force hit him. The
business end of the law sent him to Black
wells Island for twelve years The scholarly
and technical end LET him ont after wear,
and he got away from the sheriff and the
country. What brought him back is not
vet understood. OF course il was not a
Divine Providence minplinp in the affairs of
men. Something hunted him out of Cuba,
penetrated his disguises in Spain, and
brought him back. though there was no ex-
tradition treaty with Spaiu. and our state
department didn't take much trouble in the
matter. Since then a great chain has held
him fast. lie offered to give up great heaps
of stolen money. perhaps ali of it. lie
offered to tell ali about his pals in crime,
and nerhaps he wrote the whole story. But
nobodv believed him i'm either case. lie
proveled in his entreaties to make peace and
he LEFT ont but AS at the time nobody dared
attack him. 50 now nobody dared let 90
And the vital forces of his big body, iammed
into narrow walls. turned upon themselye.
and pnawed away his life Boss Tweed i,
dead and nobody enyies him. No dan
GER now that his example will corrupt
Young men.
When Tweed was in the height of hi,
brazen glory wonld anv moor mortal hay,
dared to nrav God 10 puuish a fellow-sinnel
as the Boss has been punished? He reveleC
literally i'm millions of money, and had
palace for his stables defiant, triumphant