The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1884-08-13

qualities necessary to success as a
lawyer. HIS first appearance in
politics on his own account was
made in 1865, when he was noml-
mated for District Attorney, but was
defeated at the election. HIS next
venture was in 1860, when he made
a successful race for sheriff. the du-
ties Of which Office he discharged
with customary faithtulness.
HIS CAREER AS 4 REFORM MAYOR.
When his term of office ended he
turned his attention to the practice
OF his profession. He took an in
terest but no part in politics until
1881, when his neighbors, casting
about for a strong and available man
to nominate for Mayor, pitched up
on him. Buffalo was not a great
city, but in the matter of municipal
corruption and combinations it could
have given points to others with
many times It's number of people.
It was rIng-rldden. Its revenues
| were stolen or wasted and no Mayor
had been found tor manv years who
had at once the ability and the bold
| ness necessary to attack these abu-
ses.
But Grover Cleveland, elevated
to this position by majority OF s.
600, entered cheerfully and earnest
| ly upon his work. He had not
sought the position. He had not
been an active political worker IN
the accepted sense of that word.
He knew nothing about the manipu-
lation of caucuses and conventions.
He was connected with no halls or
other organizations for extorting
public plunder from the officers
chosen by the popular voice, and his
political experience had been con-
fined to a single term in the COM
paratively unlmportant office OF
sheriff of the county eleven years
before.
But he succeeded where other men
had faltercd or failed. And what
was the secret of this success? II
was simplv due to the fact that the
day he became Mayor of Buffalo II
name he became also Mayor in tact
He did not enter upon its duties tc
register the edlcts OF a party caucu:
or to obey the orders of party bos
ses. He looked upon the office o
Mayor as the business agency OF tht
{ people OF his city. He attacked
corruDt combinations in a manne
, which soon convinced the trading
, members OF q City Council that h
understood each item of a bill an'
that he had determined to reject a!
: corrupt or unnecessary expenditur
and administer the city business a
, faithfully as If it were his own II
: used the veto power with inteillSen
x persistence. Schemes conferrin
special privileges or making unwise
e extravagant or sentimental appropr
!, atlons, or tor unnecessarily lncreas
ing offices were relentlessly slau9h
s tered. The people of Buffalo, az
= customed to the waste andprof1lgac
o incident to municipal, governmen
" discovered that they had atlast toun
= q man who looked upon Othce
]. something more than mere playspe
at or an opportunity to reward h
ID friends. and they noised his tan
as | abroad.
~ NOMINATION AND ELECTION AS GO
ERNoR.
; They made such a showing al
:. so successfully convinced the dem
~ Gratis of the State Of their earnestne
~ and the worth of their man that NJ
;r Cleveland was nominated tor 90
Je ernor over well-known and acti
a competitors. His reputation, mere
lv local as it had been, was still tou
ne quite large enough to spread ov
he the State. The campaign was T
to markable even for New York, w
~ its astonishing and kaleidoscoI
- changes in politics, Many OF t
N. leading republicans of the St'
,ht ranged themselves on the side
~ Cleveland's candidacy. The ln'
~. ny pendent element Ct all parties cal
his to his support: factions IN his o.
Dol party disappeared, and the resuitl
al majority OF one hundred and nine
tbe two thousand, the largest ever gi'
10 a candidate for Governor i'll
,s, State in the Union. carried J
sIt Cleveland into the Governorsh
a Thus the plain, ploddins citizen
He Buffalo. whose capacity was nett
,rs. generally known nor suspected {
.s+ side the limits of his conmun
-, became one OF the leading men
he the country in less than year a
,lo he had emerged from his h'dil
the place.
AS Governor he has carried
l. .l,n sir,r,le. business DCllCV he