Connecticut western news., 1893-06-15

73 ,OOO. This is about the vote which Tweed's candidate for register boiled when the boss was wearing striped clothes. They stand together in season and out of season, in every contest and under all conditions. They have no re- gard for public opinion. Ethical stand ards in no way interfere with their deci- sions.
 The corruption of government in our great cities is rapidly assuming pro portions that, unless checked, must soon threaten the life of the nation it. self. The debauchery of the city of necessity must affect the life of the na- tion because of the overshadowing in- fuence of the modern city. We do not stop here to discuss this point, which we have presented again and again during this series. We observe the fact:
 First-In the supremacy of the slums in the city. By the slums I do not mean the poor in money. By the slums I mean the vicious and the degraded, the criminal and the evil minded. It is a fact that the lowest and vilest clements of the city's life practically dominate it. Take New York as an illustration. It is an illustration of what Is true in all the greater cities in lesser degree. We find the center of government in cor rupt society answering to nobody save it's boss and the clements of corruption on which it lives and out of which 1t was born.
 ORGANIZED CRIMINALS.
 Tammany Hall is the most powerful coterie of organized criminals that ever dominated the life of any people. It makes and unmakes judges and jurtes, feeds and breeds on vice and crime. With iron heel it crushes the weak, in- timidates the half hearted and defies the strong. It is whitening curse to the city's life, damning with hot breath of corruption every ramihcation of the body polite. Like cancer, it literally eats the heart out of the honor of the young manhood of our day. And though it is such an organization it lives and thrives and continues it's reign with supreme impotence. have said many emphatic things about this gang in the past. have never had occasion to regret one utterance, to take back one sentence. The more have studied them, the longer have lived among them, the better I know them, the more utterly impossible 1t becomes to find language sufficiently emphatic to give any ade- quate notion of the actual facts.
 Glance for a moment today at our gov ernment and test its character. We be- hold on the judges bench man who Is about to be arrested for rascality and who had become drunken loafer, who now receives salary of $8,0O0 year. We have the great and only Paddy Divver on the judges bench with his noted companion. A biographical sketch of the Hon. Patrick Divver, commonly called Paddy" leader of the Tammany hosts in the Second assembly district, re- lates that "he is the keeper of sailors boarding house and Is the proprietor or has interests i'll several liquor saloons, He is an ex-member of the board of aldermen, race track frequenter and the friend and confdant of gamblers. He is on terms of intimacy with Johnny Matthews and Jake Shipsey, two mem- bers of the sporting and gambling fra ternity, whose particular methods of gaining livelihood are unknown to the frequenters of Paddy Divers and other rumshops on Park row, where they are generally to be found"
 We have also on the judges bench the distinguished ex-chairman of the board of excise, man whom 1 denounced from this pulpit in unmeasured terms at the time of his reappointment on the board, and who carries the brand of that arraignment as originally uttered, though he invoked all the machinery of the courts under the influence of Tam many to protect him from its force. This man, during the pendency of indictments for penitentiary offenses, was elevated by the present mayor of the city to the pc
 dtion of judge. He has shown since his elevation to the judgeship that he Is about as thoroughly fitted for the posi- ton as would be any criminal who would be taken from the stockades at Sing Sing and placed upon the bench. He pleads for the fact that he was grad uated from Columbia law school, and yet he laid aside his judicial duties a few days ago and appeared as the attor- ney for 8 saloon that desired to open a rum hole within less than 200 feet of a church.
 AN INTERESTING BIOGRAPHY.
 We have among the recent batch oi appointments by Mayor Gilroy, elevated to a position of high responsibility, g man who Is common convict for theft who was convicted for stealing as any other ordinary thief. We have also among these appointments the notorious John J. Scannell. MT. 6cannell has been made chairman of the board of fire com. missioners at salary of 5000 year The biography of Mir. Scannell has beer recorded briefly as follows:
 "He is Tammany's leader in the Elev enth district, was a saloon keeper anc professional gambler. For many yeari he kept the Compton House. the i'll re pute of which extended over the whole city. His reputation as a professtona gambler Is that of one of the best bnowr men In the profession. He began his DO htical life by committing murder in { gambling house at Twenty eighth stree and Broadway, where pools were being sold on an election. While Donohue his victim, was passing through Twen ty-third street. at the corner of Thirt avenue, one night he was approached bJ man believed to be John Scannell. HI
 was a tall, thin man, precisely like Scan
 nell in appearance, and was disguised il
 a wig and slouch hat. As Donohue ant
 his friends approached the man he drev 8 revolver and fired. The bullet strucl Donohue in the body, passing through
 rib and lodging in the back without do
 ing him any serious injury.
 "John Scannell disappeared the sam
 night, and nothing was seen of him fo
 nearly year. About two years late
 Scanneu met Tom Donohue in pool
 room in the basement at the northwes
 corner of Twenty eighth street an
 Broadway and killed him by firing fv
 bullets into him. At the first shot Don
 ohue fell to the ground, but Scannel
 fired the remaining four shots from hi | pistol into the prostrate mans body