The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1886-08-28
BfOaibrinS New York Letter.

Two mayors, one going out ana lnt
other coming in, are playing a grabgamt
for public plunder. Edison wants tc
circumvent Grace, and Grace wants tc
knock out Edison. Heelers, strikers
gamblers, thieves and villains of every
degree, are mixed up in the fight; nethe;
of their IIonors seems at all choice about
his company-both want votes, and they
are not particular how they get them, oil
from whom. Votes here have a sub
stantial commercial value, and no one
understands this better than New York
alderman. That's politics, as Mr.
Thompson remarked, when he handed
Squire the dummy and pocketed the or
iginal letter. No wonder Squire eX.
claimed In the bitterness of his soul
when he found out the trick, "D---r
such politics." What shocking reve.
lation rises from the grave of this dead
commissioner, over which his boon com,
panions, of the last ten years, refuse tc
put stone. And right here the ques.
ton is forced upon us: Did Hubert o.
Thompson die by his own hand? The
hale hearty man of thirty-eigh ght-tht
life of the County DemocracY-the terror
of Tammany-the idol of the Pugs and
Thugs-the Jupiter Tonans of State and
County conventions, lis suddenly taken
i'll. The portly gentleman who tipped
the scale at trife short of three hun.
dred begins to lose flesh, and men notice
that his flow of spirits was not as free
as Of old; soft-shelled crabs, truftles
pate de fois gras, Vermouth, lobster
salad, whisky sour and champagne, are
now putting in their fine work, and Mr.
Thompson is not himself. Dyspepsia
some say. No, no; not that; the com.
plaint lies deeper. Friends hint at soft.
ening of the brain. Possibly, yet that's
not 1t; the complaint lies deeper still
and for his i'll earth affords no remedy,
and Mr.. Thompson knows it. In lit.
tie box in the magnificent Safe Deposit
building, Is a crumpled bit of paper,
which is to carry civil and political dam
nation to the foremost politicians of the
city. 1t tells terrible story-that little
bit of paper, of venality, treachery, cor
ruption, crime unparalleled. A wretch
ed adYenturer and trickster is put for
ward as puppet by the political gam
blers, who are playing for the city's
plunder They stop at nothing; rob
berry is their trade, cheating their pas
time, if murder were necessary, they
would commit it without a twinge. All
of the parties engaged in the villainous
compact were men of more than aver
age intelligence, and each fully under
stood the consequences of his crime.
Thompson inspires the letter; Flynn
dictates it; Squire signs it; Flynn holds
it; Thompson gets it. So far all is safe.
Squire is elected, and then realizes that
he has drawn the bolts of the State pris-
on on himself, unless he can recover
that fatal letter. He goes to Thomp-
son-gets down on his knees, and begs
for its restoration; after time Thomp-
son gives it to him. In the wild delir-
ium of man suddenly reprieved from
the gallows-he tears the fatal letter in
a thousand pieces and casts the pieces
in the fire. He is saved. In front of
him sits the fat commissioner laughing
in his sleeve at the trick he has played
upon him; as Squire rises to his feet a
free man, and no longer the abject slave
of the holder of the letter, his port is
changed at once--the cringing sycophant
OF moment ago, now carries his head
high, and the very next day forty of Mr..
Thompson's friends are kicked out of the
Board of Public Works. Thompson ap-
pears to Squire, and Squire gives Thomp-
son to understand that he owes him no
obligation. Maurice b. Flynn is now
the director of the Board of Public
Works, and from him Mr.. Squire takes
his orders. Then come rumors that the
letter is not destroyed, in which Squire
bauered away his body and soul to Flynn,
to obtain the Office of Commissioner of
the Board of Public Works. Ruin stares
him in the face; he goes to Thompson
and taxes him with his perfdy, Thomp-
son acknowledges the corn, and replies
to Squire, That's politics."
D--n such politics, says Squire.
Yes such politics are accursed, accursed
of God, and stamped with the seal of
condemnation bv every honest man. 1t
is politics like this that have debauched,
debased and corrupted the hearts of
our public men; they have staked their
all upon political success, and gathered
in the Dead Seas fruit of ashes. Did
Hubert o. Thompson die by his own
hand? Let us see. For the last six years
Mr.. Thompson held almost unlimited
power in New York, and to him more
than any man living or dead was Grover
Cleveland indebted for his election to
the Presidency. "Rum, Romanism and
Rebellion" WAS only feather in the scale
alongside of the imperial service of Hub
ert o. Thompson, aud the County Dem
ocracy of New York. The President
knew and acknowledged the obligation
but he could not requite il with the New
York collectorship-for he knew the
character of his man, and he dared not
imperil his own high position by making
the appointment. A man never heard
of in New York politics was selected fol
the place, and Thompson, who had
elected the President-had taken him
the unknown Mayor of an inland town
and had made him Governor of the State
of New York, and before his term ot
Governor expired, made him PrisidenI
Of the United States, found his powel
waning and the ground crumbling be
meath his feet. Old time friends avoid
ed him-the summer flies 1ew back tC
| the enemV's camp. his money was ooue