Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-07-24


strong one. Cleveland was but little known.
There were several men who would have
been more available. He felt perfectly sat-
isfied with the nomination. He expressed
the belief that the tariff issue would be par
amount in the campaign, and would draw a
good many votes from the other side.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
HIS VIEWS ON CIVIL SERVICE.
In his letter accepting the nomination for
Governor of New York, his views on civil
service reform and on the dangers OF bribery
were thus elaborated:
Suborndinates in public place should be
selected and retained for. their efficiency and
not because they may be used to accomplish
patisan ends. The people have a right to
demand here, as in cases of private employ
ment, that their money be paid to chose
who will render the best service in return,
and that the appointment to and tenure OF
such places should depend upon ability and
merit. If the clerks and assistants in pub
lie departments were paid the same COM
amount of work as those employed in pru-
IDENTIFY conducted private establishments
the anxiety to hold these public places
would be much diminished and the cause
of civil service reform materially aided.
The expenditure of money to influence
the action of the people at the polls or to
secure LEGISLATION is calculated to excite the
gravest concern. When this pernicious
agency is successfully employed represen-
tative form of government becomes sham,
and laws passed under its baleful influence
cease to protect, but are made the means by
which the rights of the people are sacrificed
and the public treasury despoiled. 1t is
useless and foolish to shut our eyes to the
fact that this evil exists among us, and the
party which leads in an honest effort to
return to better and purer methods will re-
ceive the confidence of our citizens and Sc
cure their support. 1t is Wilful blindness
not to see that the people care but little for
party obligations, when they are invoked
to countenance and sustain fraudulent and
corrupt practices. And it is well for our
country and for the purifcation Of politics
that the people, at times fully reused to
danger. remind their leaders that party
methods should be something more than
q means used to answer the purposes OF
those who profit by political occupation.
CLEVELAND AS SHERIFF.
It was as sheriff of Erie county, n. Y,
that Governor Cleveland became known in
a political or official way, and many inter
esting anecdotes are told by those who re,
member those days. During his term OF
men into eternity. The first one was the
notorious Jack Gaffney, a reckless young
Irishman who kept saloon at the corner OF
Washington and Carroll streets, almost op-
posite the Courier Office. Gaffney was seat.
ed in low dive on Canal street-"Ted''
Sweeney's-playing cards with kindred
spirit named Patrick Fahey. The two
quarrelled over the stakes and Gaffney shot
and killed Fahey in cold blood: He was
sentenced by the General Term in Decem'
ber to hang February following. During
these two months there was the greatest ct;
fort made on the part of the reporters to tind
out how the condemned man spent his time
but the sheriff turned deaf ear to them
and not few times gave them to under
stand that they wanted to know too much
He kept them out Of the Jail entirely after
awhile and they were in sore straits. Inc
interest in the case was intensified at the
last from the fact that Governor Hoffman
respited the condemned for week, and
that the most strenuous efforts were made
to get q communication of sentence Tor the
doomed man. Meanwhile the solid ole
sheriff was more rigid in his discipline thar
ever, and he went so far as to station an olo
Dutchman outside with strict orders to keeI
reporters off the premises. This outside
guard was used to relieve the guard INSIDE
of Gaffney's cell, so that he was we'll posted
on what was going on inside. One OF the
reporters, VINO now, by the way, is city
editor of the city, conceived the idea OF
"working" the grim German sentinel out
side. He did not try to do it all at once
but by skillful working Of his points ne
became acquainted with him as the young
man who attended the spiritual adviser
By degrees he became aware that the grim
sentinel had weakness for beer. 1t was
easy work after that, for he contrived t.,
meet him every night after he was relieved
and together the two talked over the events
of the day in the Jail over their beverage
The German was full of information in just
the proportion that he was full of beer, and
the facts that filled many a breezy column
of his paper were costing the enterprising
news-gather dear. Sheriff Cleveland was
wild. He questioned every one about the
jail, but could getno satisfaction, At last
his eye fell upon the sentinel and he was
spotted. 1t was the night before the exc
cution the two men were seen together.
That settled it, for in the morning the SEN
tinel was gone and in his place was another.
Gaffney swung on the morning. of the 14th
of February, 1872 Many citizens of the
city remember the execution and thequlck-
ness with which the Governor disappeared
after he had cut the cord.
The second execution performed by the
Governor while sheriff was five months
later. The murderer was one OF the most
despicable wretches that ever deserved a
shameful death-Patrick Morrissey: lie
lived with his poor old mother IN the vi
cinity of the old "Packet" dock, in the rear
of what was known as the Alhambra Thea
tire. He was a thoroughly heartless man
and was given to frequent and continued
debauches, during which he submitted his
dependent mother to the most shameful
cruelty. While on one Of these sprees ne
sought out his mothers hovel and demand
ed of her the few pence she had earned by
her own eXertions to buy bread. She refused
him, when he struck her to the floor. At
the time she was cutting loaf of bread for
his supper. AS she struggled to her feet
she said to him, "You had better kill your
mother and be done with it," AS she ut
tered the words he grasped the knife from
her hands and with the words, II will Kill
you them" buried it in her breast. The
horror of the martricide made people OF the
city shudder, and the jury by which he was
tried lost no time in bringing in verdict of
murder in the first degree. Morrissey was
sentenced to be hung on the 9Th day of Sep
tember Prominent among the witnesses
on that famous trial was Albert Haight,
now a Supreme Court Judge. The eXecu-
ton took place on the day named in the
warrant, and the present Governor was the
eXecutioner.
THE ROMANCE OF HIS LIFE.
A Buffalo letter gives the following reason
why the most conspicuous of present bach
elors wears not the binding yoke:
When Governor Cleveland was just able
to support himself he became enamored of
a Young woman, who was a relative of the
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