The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-05-18
THE CAKES AMEs REVIVAL.

1t is rarely that so plaintive and pitful an
appeal is made to the public as that Of the
heirs of the late Hon. Cakes Ames, Of Massa-
chusetts, in behalf of his memory. He died
broken, and in disgrace, leaving six or seven
millions to heirs who feel the remorseless
edge of the cold steel sticking in the heart Of
his reputation. Rich, buoyant, exultant, reck-
less, confident in the omnipresence Of wealth
and the omnipotence OF power, Ames was the
last man to apprehend any such danger as a
towering conscience erecting itself over and
beyond the excitement and dim Of the great
" -motion-mouon-the country
through"
which in those days enRrossed, to the exclu-
sion of something else, Congress, the people
and the papers.
Ames was at the top of those who had
undertaken the Southern Pacific, and as its
charter interdicted any application of its
stock as brides for Congressional subsidies, it
bought out the Credit Mobilier, Pennsyl
vania corporation, and by means of its name
and charter accomplished, by cautious and
stealthy movements that brought one Con-
gresham after another in its tolls, the most
amazing results in the way Of bribery, and
the most amusing dilemmas after exposure
that fiction ever conceived or fact expounded.
All sought escape by denial, prevarication,
Standardization, lodges of all degrees of
cunning and deception of all degrees Of hy-
pocrsy. There was a prodigious host Of
slain, some like Schuyler Colfax, Vice Pres
ident retired, and their names are never
heard. Others braved it out. None escaped.
But one who had exhibited temerity beyond
parallel found himself in pligh, worse than
the rest, in the face OF responsibility that had
not sought concealment for all the nefarious
acts and fragrant devices. That one was
Oakes Ames. He fought out the fight,
worsted beyond cure, and retired from
he field beyond recall In that
an hour of which might |
lave been precious to him when he had no
bought of its virtues, he was overtaken by
hS aNSuBSi VI tllS "oAld > WlOhBSt NhC lSil-
,ution that, unsupported, often follows men in
he paths they go, and brings them before
hat tribunal for trial where presides a Judge
like remorseless and unerrng, and who Sc
lame is conscience.
He freqnented the old ways and they were
lot the same, and hankered after old delights
hat were lost to him, and he discovered the
aw and its operations, and helpless in that
Extremity which none could relieve or feel, he
'assed through the forms OF trial. compre-
ended only by himself, was condemned to
eath--and died
1t was sad that he should be thus taken
rom his millions. and that with them blight
hould descend upon his heirs, sad that they
an not cleanse the money Of its
lains, and look the bright world
q the face, and enjoy the happiness they have
one nothing to forfeit or destroy. But SO it
;. Justice, which is at the bottom of all
Kings, sometimes, as in this, gets to the top.
I has its own work. 1t has its lesson OF adj
lonition to read to all the world, its warnings
D serve, its good to accomplish. These could
ot be surrendered, and wherever the cost
ais it must be borne.
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THE EXECUTION OF CURLEY.