The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-07-22
CHICAG0'S BEST MAYOR.
CARTER HARRISON AMONG THE AN.
ARCHlSTS AND STRIKERS.
A Mare Mounted Man Whose Face Was
Familiar During the Great RiOts-Fa-
nous Because He is Personification
'snecia Corr,spon ienc =.

'Specia Correspondence IL
CHICAGO June S-This breezy town has
Just pa ,sed through world of troubles and
tribulat on< WHAT with the struggles be-
tween ambitious labor and jealous capital,
will l-eyed dynamiters and brave police, the
times have been full of turmoil AMI the air
overcharged with reverberations and rumors
of war. Blu. throu shout all the commotion
there has been one conspicuous figure toward
whom all eyes have turne |, one representa-
tive of law. one commander of forces, one
universal arbitrator, one giver Of advice,
dictator, referee and spokesman who has
never lost faith in himself, in the police in
Chica-o. the constitution, the law or the
American eagle His name is Harrison
Carter Henry Harrison-by his 500, 600
suhjec called simply "our Carter" or
Garter" for short Wherever crowds
gathered and trouble brewed there
this mayor of Oh cago was to be
found, with loose coat about
his tired body. a rakish SLOUGH hat on his
head, and the broad back of his high-hred
Kentucky mare between his legs. Garter
and the mare-there go the mayor and the
mare" has been the cry a score of times a
day, first among the strikers at MCormicks
great reaper factory, then in the Bohemian
strict, where you may travel q mile and
see no American name on sign board or
American face among the throngs on
the sidewalks, and again patroling that
wilderness of huge heaps and noisy
planning mills known as the lumber
district Everybody in Chicago, even the
dirty faced chill playing in the alley,
knows Carter, and everybody knows the
mare. AMI so as the noble matched and
matchless pair moved from crowd to crowd
and through street after street shouts Of
recognition greeted them on all sides. Some
called him Garter" few ward workers
addressed him as "the old man." the women
bowed low and exclaimed eyer honor"
while one bold small boy immortaized him.
self by crying "rats." Use of this epithet is
an offense well nigh capital in Chicago, and
the bystanders expected to see the young
or minal arrested and confined in dungeon
cell without delay, but instead the paternal
mayor read the offender lecture which will
doubtless ring in his ears till Gabriel'S trum
pet sounds
To strikers and assembled crowds the mayor
mad many speeches. To employers he gave
much COOL advice. In the midst of rioters
he was as fearless as a cavalryman III a
charge, and in the control of the police he
was all vigilance and energy. He was not in
the Haymarket when that awful bomb ex-
plOded, but he was soon thereafter among
tie wounded and dying policemen at the
cation house. Daily the gray mare has
since stood for half hour before the city
hospital while her rider was inside cheering
the sufferers whose limbs and bodies had
been torn by Anarchist bombs and bullets.
1t is easy TO see that this equestrian pub
| lcst il not man OF commonplace. He is
altogether extraordinary. He picturesque.
| Not very great man, nor an exceptionally
good man, nor a VIGOROUSLY bad man, he
has nevertheless built his fame as wide as
that of the TO vn he rules There are an hun
bred congressman and a score CT senators in
Washington les; known throughout the
country's length and breadth than he He
was in congress once himself-and now has
IN ambition to return after sitting eight
years in the mayors chair OF Americas in
ter ior metropois-but it was not in Wash
ington that his fame was wrought 1t was
here, and if we look for the whyfore we find
it in the fact that he has not only been Chi
cago's chief magistrate, but her impersona-
tor. He has been reflex of many of Chi
cago's most marked characteristics. He has
been, and is, Chicago personified
Like Chicago, he is bod, buoyant, I'M
daunted self complacent, self confident,
prosperous, rich, generous, pew-holding, but
not pious; ambitious, approachable, self
loving, easy-going on the Sabbath day, toler-
ant of saloons, gam blers and run-abouts,
but the soul of horor when money is in
volved, full of vim, business, brains, breeze
ana conceit
Sightseeing visitors in Chicago rarely fail
to ask to be shown the mayor. The business
man from New York, the stock drover from
Kansas, the miner from Colorado, request
the honor of an introduction to the rider of
the mare. They have heard of him. In
some manner their curiosity concerning him
has been eager What he has done to make
him famous they do not know, nor does
ANYBODY else. But analysis shows that he
is notorious, because he stands typical Of
| Chicago.
1t is difficult for non-residents to under
stand how big man Carter Harrison is in
Chicago, how he is regarded as the autocrat
of the town and the one man of power.
Chicago exceeds in population eight or ter
states of the Union, and in wealth and i'm
portance many more. In this principally
the mayor is supreme There is a city
council, but he has the power of Veto and in
his control of the patronage, which all good
aldermen hunger for, he controls the council.
All of the other departments of the city
government, excepting few perfunctory
| offices, are under his thumb. He fills them
with whom he likes Even the police
justices are his Add to this lawful power
the aggressiveness, individuality and pater-
naliSm of the man Harrison, and you have q
potentate who moves in the orbit of an
| emperor.
There was time when this mayor, mare
mounted, could not ride through the street:
of Chicago without being followed by the
buzz as of endless crowds He was popular
"The best mayor" was his sobriquet in every
man mouth, without regard 10 politics
When he returned from a European
trip. during which he had sounded the
praises of the American eagle in the shadow
of the castles of half dozen effete mon
arches. the crowd which met him at the
railway station covered ten acres. In it,
arms the favorite was borne to his carriage
| 1900. drarv frit1rn ban =