The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1890-07-19
The Cntnstronhe of Wins.

Tho loss OF the stenographic notes which
were expected to preserve the proceedings
OF the FAssETT Committee, falls like meat.
axe blow upon that diligent but exaspcrated
reformer Mr.. w. MAKEAwAY WINS. For
months past he has lived in an atmosphere
OF stenographic notes. dilating his lungs
with political shorthand and chershing
visions Of power and preferment as he dwelt
upon the questions and answers asked or
given before the great FAssETT; and now his
Machiavellian structure passes away into
the hands Of the iunkman or paper-chaser!
This Is sad blow to the illustrious WINS,
and a sorry reverse to the infant industry
of getting votes in New York city through
questions asked by statesmen from the in
terror. WINS has been at the helm during
the whole business, and he has been pillng
up stenographic records at great rate.
He has run the gamut Of inquiry and
sounded the depths OF knowledge only to
have his stenoRraphic storehouse rifled OF
its treasure by some base enemy OF good
government and reform, some friend OF
miscellaneous cleanliness, some foe OF the
Better Element.
Small wonder that the spirit Of the man
who thought he had the Tammany tiger by
the scruff OF the neck: but who found that
he hadn't, should now be saddened by an
overpowering and pervasive grief. Small
wonder that he should devote his Off hours
to the toll OF searching Those notes were
MAKEAwAY's dynamite. They were charged
with explosive force. Just az he was pre-
pairing to touch off the fuse, they disappear.
The ragman negotiates for their purchase.
and pays, probably, q small price. Is it
strange that the reformer should be dis
consulate?
But passing from the contemplation OF
Brother WINS bereft of his sheet anchor,
rudder, and topsail, and becalmed In Ann
street on sea OF junk, we may go step
further and ask who had any interest in TAX
ing those FAssErr Committee notes, and to
what use can they have been put? To
this question several answers irresistibly
suggest themselves. Perhaps the notes
were taken by an emissary OF the Ballot
Reform Club, and were cut into
slips and pads for the signatures
OF the countless thousands who are
still clamorng for an Australian ballot.
Perhaps they were used by our County
Democracy friends for resolution purposes,
the supply Of paper having run short. Per-
haps Commissioner PORTER used them for
the enrolment of the names omitted during
the late imperfect census Of the city. Per-
haps the Republican Business Men employed
them for some purpose as yet sternly con-
cealed. All these surmses and coniectures
have evidence OF more or less force to sus-
tain them; but We think that, after all, no
one OF them furnishes the true solution Of
the problem. Still We have to ask what has
become Of the stenographic notes Of the
political MANFRED the lonesome but I'M
abashed WILLIAM MAKEAwAY, the man who |
like his prototype who fell from the balloon |
is not In it.
The theory to which we think the facts
point most clearly is that DICE CROKER
took MAKEAwAY's notes with him on the |
Columbia. When here he did not learn much |
OF the FAssErT Committee; when departing, |
what more natural than he should take the |
notes to beguile the tedium OF his voyage to
Hamburg? RICHARD has them, and before
many days they may be like Brother WINS
viewed in his political aspect |
half seas over. This accounts, too, for the |
leaving behind Of Mr.. CRoKER's trunks. He
left the latter in order to take IvINs's notes
and there Is no risk in declaring that he did
a magnamimous act for the trunks of
RICHARD may perhaps furnish TO IvINs's
invention the damning evidence OF some
outrageous mischief, whereas the FAssETr
notes are wholly without the suggestion Of
possible damage to any existing creature.
Undoubtedly the proper thing for WINS
to do is to go abroad in search OF his notes.
He can carry. so to speak, the war OF inves-
tigation into the heart Of Germany; and II
he fights hard and fights fair and stays
away long enough, who knows what
may In his absence await the
Democratic opponents OF Tammany Hall?
Tho Reception Of "Lux Mundi."
As was to be expected, the attempt to
religion and science made in the |