The Portland daily press., 1892-02-29
NEW YORK LETTER.
Delightful New York Gossip in Choice
Variety.
Mayor Grant at Home - Luxurious and
Artistic ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Love of
Sport and WEAKNESS of Politics
Ills Business Opportunities.
COPYRIGHT, 1921

COPYRIGHT, 1882.
dined the other evening with Mayor
Hugh J. Grant in his elegant bachelor
home in West Serenity third street. The
mayor is a good liver. and his quarters
are the acme of modern luxury. His
house, though small, is built upon the
very best of modern plans and original
~ furnished in most excellent style and
with good taste. He has been grad
ually adding to his collection Of paint
ings and pictures and bric-a-brac until
he now has such home as the wealth.
lest man in the country might envy.
Since he entered tho Office of mayor his
personal and political friends have been
more than kind to him, and every
Christmas has added to his stock of
beautiful house furnishings. His silver
and tableware would be thesdelight of
every proud housekeeper. He has some
very valuable pictures in his collection,
but the one which he seems to enjoy
most is very well executed painting
of himself in white driving coat, spin
ming through Central park behind d
pair Of magnificent trotters-one of
them the famous Kenilworth, who as
tonishsd the eastern country before the
days of Maud S. and Sunol. The mayor
still retains his love for the swift
equine He has six horses in his stable
at tf1e present time, and there is no man
in this country who would SO farther
than himself to see, a good exhibit,
either in the trotting or running line.
There is a youthfulness and buoyancy
about Mayor Grant which, all, things
considered. is rather surprising. There
is serious and matter-of-fact business
side to him, but to his friends he is still
the same warm-hearted. impulsive,
good-natured boy that he was fifteen
years ago. He is exceedingly. tired of
politics. Of late he has taken no active
part in the manipulation Of city politics
beyond what is absolutely forced out of
him by his connection with Tammany
hall. Anyone watching his published
interviews of late will see how indiffer-
ent he has become to general politics.
When he first entered the mayors Office
he was on tap to the reporters and was
good for certain amount of space
every day in the newspapers. He sub
sequently discovered that being inter
viewed by dozen reporters every day
meant a great loss of time from his Of
fetal duties, and now the accepted
formula is something like this:
'Mayor Grant being seen by the re-
porter in reference to the sermon of
DIR. Parlzhurst, said that he had not read
it and did not care to say anything on
the subject" .....-
At the same time, the mayor is al
ways affable and always accessible to
reporters He has been criticised a
good deal for some of his official acts,
especially in the matter Of appoint
ments But it must be understood that
in nahy INSTANCES he has not been per-
mitted to have his own way by any
means. While the mayor of New
York city, he is also Tammnny halls
mayor and Tammany hail has sc-vitors
who must be taken care of at any price.
I am inclined to think that Mr.. Grant
did not care for the second term Of the
mayoralty, but was rather forced
into 1t by the attacks made upon him
by the legislative investigating COM
mittee- His friends insisted upon his
vindication, and having secured ID he is
now ready to end his official life next
January. AS have already said, the
mayor is a generous feeder and his
table attracts some of the best known
epicures in the city.
No man in the country knows more
about duck than Mayor Grant, and his
taste for terrapin is simply sybaritic.
His cook has a special formula for
preparing this much-vaunted dish, and
notwithstanding the very high price
and great scarcity of this reptile, no
formal dinner at the mayors house is
considered complete without it. His
wine cellar is gem in its way. He
makes his own selections, and, recol-
Letting some half dozen dinners with
him, cannot recall an occasion when
he did not introduce a new and rare
vintage of some kind. He told me the
other evening that one of his reasons
for wishing to be relieved of Office and
political cares was based upon his desire
to be untramrneled in a business way.
The mayor is very shrewd man Of
affairs and has always been a money
maker. Hamperod as he is in the
mayors Office he does not feel at lib
erty to seize upon the business oppor-
tunfties which come under his OBSERVE
ticn from time to time. He has, | be-
lieve, already made arrangements to
take the presidency of a very important
corporation as soon as he leaves his OF
fee, and we shall hear much of him
hereafter in the world Of affairs. His
experience in the mayors Office has
been a valuable one, and can see grea
growth in him since the day that he
evoluted from the sheriff's Office. He
is still young enough to have roseate
future-but not political one. I fancy
that he never cared. much for politics,
except as youthful pastime, and that
he was forced into Office by his associar
tions rather than by self-seeking. He
is good fellow all round. and SO far as
the actual business of the city is con-
cerned, he has been great improve
ment On Abram s. Hewett, whose iras-
cibility, loquacity and general verbal
responsibility made him a conspicu-
ous Init not re,-v ,,sef,11 FIXTURE around