New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-30
A PROUD ERADICATION.

The community will hear with emotion the
announcement that De Lacy. Robert T., late
City Father has abandoned his claim fol
$500. That modest sum is the salary he for
feited for the privilege of absenting himself
from the State during the nine months between
April 1 and December 81, 1884. We believe
that his first intention after the Indictment had
been dismissed was to claim interest in full to
date but being a sensitive man no doubt he
felt the force Of the suggestion that the period
of his absence was the precise period of his
career when his presence was most ardently de-
sired by the city. Mindful of this considera-
ton he resolved to take no more than the bare
principal, but being just as we'll as delicate
person, he recognized the improperly OF leav-
ing himself entirely out in the cold, and, more
over, he was averse to setting dangerous ex-
ample The exact amount of an Alderman s
salary for three quarters of a year seemed TO
him. therefore, the least that a conscientious
man could demand and the most that a man
of sensblity could accept.
But without warning and apparently without
generalization, just as he was on the point OF
substantiating the justice Of his claim before an
intelligent and impartial assistant to the Cor
poration Counsel and even aftor he had ad-
dressed half-jocular, half-impeTiOuS remark to
that official he suddenly seemed to find him
self less at home than he had anticipated. There
were several individuals in the room whose ap-
pearance was sinister and fOrbidding in his
eyes. lie surmsed that they might be reporters
for an unfeeling press, and the declaration that
they were for the most part merely harmless
attendants of the Office did not reassure him.
Il have concluded to abandon this claim" he
said, adding to that unexpected announcement
the sclf-depreciatory assertion that he would
never have demanded the money If others had
not advised him to do so. Then, with a nobility
Of feeling and dcmeanor which cannot be too
highly valued in a degenerate commercial age,
he said: 81 only came here to show that
have nerve and prove that am no coward"
The simple majesty of that declaration is be-
yond all praise. We think it was unnecessary,
but that is another consideration. We DO not
know what arguments can have prevailed over
his innate love of justice, but we do not keep
his conscience. The palpable and sublime fact
remains that on his own acknowledgment De
Lacy is no coward. 1t is worth while to have
survived long and desoate exile in foreign
parts to have become footsore and weary in
eudng the police, and perhaps to have been
even suspected of a craven and pusianimous
spirit in order to gain at last this hour Of tri-
umph. We observe that he spurns the base
suggestion that he should sign release. 1t
was Sir William Gordon Cummings promise
never to play cards again which convicted him
of dishonor, and it would be fatal bunder for
De Lacy to impugn the famous Aldermanio
vintage of 1884 by putting himself under bonds
not to sue for his salary if at some future time
circumstances should dictate that course. If he
is treated with proper courtesy and considerl
ton he will forbear, but he will not be driven
into corner.