The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-10-21
The Men on Whom New York
Bestows the Offices
PULLS RULE TIE COURTS.
Aifke B<neG<iai - tAe Politician. The 70
lie<nan 80 sA~ Cansier-fhe Fan
II Onnlpoteat.
yer York Pres.

noted enough 10 be pointed out To strangers
rs distinguished must be . Bi9die. Or At
least the assistant superintendent OF
Sunday school: in Chicago be must be an
orator or . converted criminal: but IN our
own good city OF New York we care not
whether man ever had an ancestor or
saw the inside Of either Sunday school or
a prison.
The man whom New York delights 10
honor il the man with pull he is the
one whoEn We psoin. out 20 strangers as the
individual upon whose shoulders the
mantle of power has really fallen His inn
portanee Is. OF course, measured By the
kind and the force of the pull which he
exerts- Money and brains. while not
frowned upon. are OF little consequence.
unless in rare cases. Ike that OF the genial
poet Geoghegan, where literature Is only
the recreation of life that Is replete with
pull
Pail Is the most powerful and expires
<ive OF the provinciaisFns that strike a
stranger. II is hardly capable OF an exact
definition. Ex-senator Eeclesine's deiini-
tioa that ''pnn" is the peculiar quality
possessed by some men of doing what no
Others can. and of not doing that which all
Others are compelled To 10, is doubtless
correct. for the ex-senator ought TO know,
but il hardly covers all the ground. The
man in this town with genuine pull can
do anything except change the preamble to
the Declaration OF Independence. He,
with fellows equally gifted, selects the can
didates for Office and manages the elections.
The conaidate, If he be q good talker. may
tie permitted 10 appear at a public meeting
or two. If not. why. under .he plea that
he is man OF great business ability. who
doesn't believe in words. and who isn't
particular whether be gets the office or not,
they run IL themselves. and then after the
election they run the offices.
There is no department of the state or
city government in which these men with
pulls do not exercise their power. Even in
courts. where only justice is supposed
to rule, they have their influence felt. The
indictments piled up for many years in the
Office of the several district attorneys who
have looked after crime in this city are
monument 10 the efficacy of pull The
wretched. miserable thief who was born in
the midst of crime, the Iow-minded pick
pocket. the murderer and the unfortunate
stranger. all are tried. and even
tried with commemorate dispatch. but
both now, as in the DAYS gone
by, unless forced by public clanor, people
OF influence oft go untried The lawvef
with pull or the criminal with pull has
for the great underlying principle Of his
lie the old rule and the good one tina. the
best way OF winning some cases is to never
have them tried. 1t takes pull to have it
done, but to find lawyers with pulls one
need not go without the gates of the city.
To have pull in criminal proceedings or
quasi criminal proceedings is well akin to
having possession in an ejectment or trover
suit.
That pull rules the courts of the civil
justices to an abnormal extent vas album
dainty proven in q series of articles from
life written in the Press only few weeks
ago. They were not denied. The justices
were angry, but the pull goes on. To see
how it works ordinarily there are instances
which the stranger may witness for him.
self. For example, let him stroll through
Park row on an early Sunday morning or
Sunday evening. Two things will strike
him in connection with the observance
or the non-observance OF the Excise
law. Some of the barroom's light
comes streaming through the semi
darkened windows, while the sound
of voices seem but the echoes of the
Saturday night carousals. Men are in
there. but the front doors are barred and
locked. You must either enter from the
back street or through the side door. That
man has only feeble pull He is only an
amateur. Indeed. his pull may be purely
mythical, but he may be useful in after
DAYS, and the men with pulls indulge him
and see he is not disturbed. There are
other places, however. into which the
stranger may walk in all the majesty of
manhood through the front door on a
Sunday night, walk upto the counter, have
his drink and walk out. The policeman
on the corner or on the opposite side of the
street NAV envy him, but does not modest
him. Now, that harkeeper has genuine
pull. and in proportion as YOU are friend
OF his SO grows your pull. The officer
who has winked 81 the violation of the law
has himself pull by reason Of his for
bearance, forced though it he. The officer
who ever dared report man with a Dull
for violation OF the excise law and then
continued on the force. could make a small
fortune exhibiting himself in any of the
many museums a. a freak.
As ruIe he knows better before he gets
on the force. Ordinarily man NAV mass
as many examinations as he chooses, bnt
he has got 20 have pull before he can get
on the police force, The boss of his dis
triet must indorse him. thousand Others
may, but their recommendations are of no
service \ case in point is that of man
whom many citizens. headed by Theodore
Observation-Disclosures to have placed on the
force. He had passed the examination salts
factorily, bat Theodore Roosevelt had no
pull with the commissioners. and although
ninety places were TO he filed. this man
was passed by. He had made the mistake
OF not having the boss o. his district in
sympathy with the party in power indorSe
hin, and that mistake Was doubtless. in the
eyes Of the commissioners. an indication
that there was htsle sharpness in tae appli-
cant.
This department. perhaps more than anv
o'her' Is one n which the pau predom-
mates. IN ali eases Is Is not unfairly used
oat that u Is Used IS indicative OF how the
people aaNe been educated up 10 its i'm
poVtaace IN matters oi moment to them.
Indeed. very frequently in bat trivial
matters u Is exercised. just az the pres
eni ua4e. when people are registering tor
tie coming elections. the number o. booths
At whlch 4ey must enroll themselves is az
coarse very considerable. The esnolumant
received by the owners IS comparatively
tgifslug, though even IN that little matte
PAL plays part. There are dozens Of AT
Pileant@ every year for The place in eacb
district. and hence the virtue of the pail
Other things being eqasi or unequal. the
man sttA the putt ,riamphs.
Another trivial matter into which mi
eF'ters l. the obedience or s!i>ohedl~nes IN