The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-12-19
POLITICS In THE PAST.
Interesting "reminiscences Of an
Old Reporter from Newark.

in 1858" said an old reporter yester-
day to an active member OF the profess
sion, II began reporting the proceedings
of the New Jersey Senate for the Newark
Mercury, a daily morning paper edited by
II. N. Cougar and published by Cougar &
Porter In the building now owned and oc-
cupied by Otto Moltsr as a hotel aud res.
taurant. The only other reporter in the
Senate at that time was Joseph Bald win,
brother of the Rev. S. l.. Baldwin and
Mrs. A.. F. r. Martin. who. represented
the Daily Advertiser. For three years
Baldwin and | continued to represent the
above named newspapers, but in 1861 Joe.
as he was Familiarity known to all the pol
iticians in the State, entered the army as
a second lieutenant, and very soon
thereafter was killed by a cannon ball
while in CONVERSATION with ONE com
rades in a fort near Washington. In the
Senate of 1s61-62 / therefore became
special correspondent for the Advertiser,
and furnished both that paper and the
Mercury with reports of the regular pro-
ceedings. A year or WI later, Daniel
Holsman was elected Senator from Ber-
from hudson county. and they p owed to
be the two youngest men that had been
chosen to seats In the Senate. Mr.. Hols-
man was twenty-seven and MIR. Randolph
thirty. Both were well equipped for sue
cess in political life; both were men of
means and culture, and both were able
debaters. Holsman had been left y hand
some fortune by his father and soon after
his graduation he married a Miss Mar
koe, q member of one OF the oldest aud
most prominent families in Philadel-
phia. He was a member of the Assembly
and Speaker of that body prior TO his cleo
tion as Senator, int when he took his
co + in rho lntfor hoAu ha uyoo rnIonht
eddy the most popular young man in New
Jersey. During his three years service
in the Senate he relapsed into his former
habits of fighting the tiger" as betting
on faro was then called, and before the
expiration of his senatorial term was a
bankrupt. a borrower from Senator Ru-
dolph, ex-senator Moses Br#mhall and
others of his intimate Democratice
friends. A year after his term expired he
had become so much of a devotee to john
Barlevcorn that he neglected his family,
associated only with sporting men and
ip-acchanaiians, and when | last saw him
he was clad In garments given to him by
friends who had known him in better
days, and penniless and almost shoeless.
l advanced him The most modest amount
of Seventy-five cents he solicited, and a
few weeks later. after Mr.. Robert Gill
christ OF Jersey City had made several
efforts to reclaim him, the memorable
words after life's dtful fever he sleeps
well'' were chiselied upon his tomb.
Theodore +. Randolph. his associate
in political life and in the New Je sey
Senate, was all this time growing wealth.
Ter and politically stronger. He had been
chosen President of the Americ n Coal
Company early in the sixties, aud some
six years later resigned his position, babe
adieu TO his old Office in the Trinity
Building, at No. Ill Broadway, New
York, aud removed with his family to
Morristown. In 1869 he was nominated
as the Democratic candidate for Governor
and elected by a handsome majority.
His messages to the Legislature while
Governor were admirable State papers,
and all his official acts were so far above
reproach that even his political foes found
no cause for unfavorable criticism. AT
the end of his term he withdrew from
political life with the intention of de-
voting the remainder Of his days to his
family. aud 10 the furtherance of the IN
terests of the furnishing town he had