The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-01-11
THE STATE TREASURERSHIP
md OTHER TOPICS BEFORE THE
APPROACHING LEGISL4TURE

The Preliminary Fight for the Places
st Organization Nearing Its End
Gossip About the Comfng Session.
TRENTsN, jan 10.-The death Of State
Treasurer Wright on the eve Of the organi-
cation will probably bring the State Treas
urer hip contest to speedy focus, and the
probability is that the joint caucus for the
selection of candidate to succeed him
will be held Immediately after the organi-
cation. Governor Albeit has the right to
appoint an ad interim Treasurer. He has
appointed none 50 far, and says
he will not unless an emergency
demanding it arises. II is among
the probabilities that he will abstain from
making an appointment till the joint eau
Gus shall have been made its deliycrance;
though upon that point he has thrown out
no intimatiors at all. State Comptroller
Anderson says that by the time the State
Treasurer's accounts have been made up
for delivery to his successor, the Legisla-
ture will probably have indicated its choice !;
and as an dd interim Treasurer can serve
only for about month at the best, it is
doubtful if any Democrat would care to go
to the trouble of finding official bondsmen
in $500, 900, so that it is deemed altogether
likely that the Governor will allow the
matter to stand in its present shape till the
joint meeting acts. Or he may, on the
announcement of the result of the joint
caucus, appoint the candidate who sue
ceeds there to serve the balance OF MIR.
Wrighs's unexpired term.
Captain Wright's death was not unex-
pected, yet his sickness was OF singular
origin, and the widest sympathy has been
felt for him in all circles here. He had
accumulated handsome little property in
his business career, and is said to have
been worth 5000, 900 when he took hold of
the States finances Within the last few
years he embarked largely in speculative
enterprises, and is said to have lost all his
fortune. A bottomless well into which he
has poured his wealth lavishly is local
railroad enterprise, SO far from paying
dividend to its promoters, has never ceased
to be drain upon them. The losses he
suffered in connection with it, have wor-
ried him perceptibly of late, and he turned
to the State Treasurership as standby he
could rely upon only to find that many OF
the friends who had been with him in pre-
vious contests. favored other candidates
this wear, The loss of the State Treasurer
ship would not probably have affected him,
but for the fact that the wiping out of his
fortune made its income worth seeking.
Three weeks ego his nervous system had
become SO badly broken down that ne took
to his bed, and he steadily sank under his
nervous prostration till he went to sleep In
death.
His death will not affect the result of the
caucus en- the question of his successor to
any very large extent, and may not affect
it at all. Col Toffey, of Hudson, had
enough votes before it occurred to assure
him the nomination on the first ballot, and
he.stands now of course the only conspicu-
Gus candidate in the field. The removal of
Captain Wright from the contest may in
spire Others. who has not heretofore shown
their hands to enter the lists, and there is
some talk of Joe Cunningham and Henry
L. Butler, of Passaic, and Jimmy" Hayes,
of Essex, and one or two others making
active canyassers now, but your ex-Sherih
can hold his majority as easily against any
or all of them as against Mr.. Wright, and
his nomination is almost as sure to be ac-
complished on the first ballot az the Legis-
lature is to meet.
The contest for the offices of the two
Houses shows no change from last week.
The attitude of the candidates and their
prospects are just about as reported in the
correspondence from this place published
in last Sundays TATTLER. Armstrong is
certain to be Speaker of the House, though
Mr.. Jenkins, of Morris, is making mighty
lively canvass against him. Among the
Senators Youngblood has secured more
votes for the Presidency than anybody sus-
pected he could get 1t is said that he will
have at least three Of the eleven in the eau
Gus. Griggs has been pushing the canvass
with unwonted vigor, and there will prob
ably be music in the caucus before Senator
Schenck captures the prize he is even yet
most likely to win. As to the struggle for
the minor places, there is nothing to be
added to what sent you last Saturday.
After the organization the Governors
message will be read, and the probability is
that it will be very widely read, too. He
will have something to say especially about
the railroads, that will interest the corpora
tions as much as it will interest the people;
and the probability is that much of the ses-
sion will be devoted to further discussion
of the relations of the railroads to the State,
and to the perfecting of legislation design
ed to bring those of them that vet refuse to
accept the terms the people offer them to
their stumps Next to the railroad ques
ton, State prison affairs will engage large
share of legislative attention. The idleness
of the convicts attracts the attention of the
humane, who believe that work is healthy
for them, and of the economists, who have
seen large sacrifice of public moneys to
the demagoguism that has made them idle.
The problem the members will have to
tackle is as to how they can put the con-
victs to work without sacrificing votes, for
with them the State prison question is one
of politics alone Not two of the men who
voted the convicts into idleness last Winter
believed in his soul that he was doing right,
but they all knew that if they voted any
other way they would be certain to encoun-
ter the opposition OF lot of labor cranks.
The Legislature must meet the question
this year. 1t remains to be seen how they
will make right which is not expedient and
expedienoy which is not right hitch.
Among the matters of local interest which
is likely to be acted upon is the movem ent
for new charter which. it is safe to say
without wishing it any harm. will be beaten.
There is some talk, too, of the reintroduct-
ion, of the Washington street bridge bill, and
of determined effort on the part of the
Philadelphia Il Reading to put it through.
Fish, of Essex. gives notice also that the
plank road fight will be renewed; and an
attempt will be made to rush through what
is by courtesy termed non-partisan police
bill. QuITs.
Man with q Record.
The funeral Of William E. Feiler. once a