The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-24
THE STORY OF CROKER.
A Tale as Wonderful as Any In the
Arabian Nights.
Boyhood Home and Education-Puei-
listic Prowess as Leader of the
Fourth Avenue Tunnel Gang-The
Secret of His Power.
Copyright, 1882

is, the princely ease in which he lives.
the imperial sway he exercises, is to rem
der impossible realization of the fact
that not many years ago he was destitute
destitute of power, means, influence.
What is the secret Of it all2 How comes
it that an unread, untutored laborer, the
son of an ignorant blacksmith, has lifted
himself from the streets to a throne Of
municipal Cesarism, more absolute
than that in which sat Lorenzo-the
Magnificent, when Florence was a queen
of cities2 About the slums of New York
to-day men are prowling, ragged and I'm
washed, who in other years called Croker
"Dick," and idled with him On Third ave
nue. street corners.
1.
FIRST YEARS.
Richard Croker was the third of seven
children. He was born in County Cork
Ireland, in 1910, his birthplace being a
gathering of little huts not far from 1.-The
city of the proud harbor." 1t has been
stated that lS43 was the year of his birth,
and also that April 10 is his birthday,
both of which allegations have been de-
MED by Mr.. Croker himself. 1t is, indeed
declared that New York's boss does not
know on what day he was born, and his
own father, Eyre G. Croker, of Cork.
Orangeman, said not long before he died
that he did not remember whether his
boy Dick or his boy Ed. was the Oldest
Eyre Croker, father of the 'boss, seems
to have been a peculiar character. He
was the blacksmith of his native hamlet
married early in life, and by the year 1850
found himself the possessor of dwindling
business and a growing family.
His Vifn-Sha now livas in tba boYea -
DR.. Jenkins of quarantine fame, who
married Richard Croker's sister-pro-
posed emigrating to America. This the
blacksmith did not wish to do 1t is the
idlest platitude to remark that the elder
Croker never dreamed in those days that
he and all of his would yet live in digni-
fed ease at the expense of the tax payers
of New York city For every member of
the family has derived pecuniary profit
from the municipal treasury either as en-
ploye or as indirect beneficiary.
1t was not until 1851 that the Crokers
landed in America. They came over in
the steerage of one of the old emigrant
tubs. The father fell in with a fellow
Orangeman during the voyage and was
advised to drop blacksmithing. He must
be veterinary surgeon. The hint was
acted upon. 1t was the village black
smith who emigrated from Cork with his
wife and children, but the new world re-
ceived him as eyre G. Croker, veterin-
airy surgeon"
Little Dick was then II years old. His
first home in the city he was destined to
rule was an old farm shanty lust off
Ninety-ninth street, in place that is now
part of Central park 1t was a crazy 2
storied structure, surrounded by high
rock and a growth of trees and rubbish.
Here the veterinary surgeon" made
some feeble efforts to get together a
practice. Some of the old Harlem
squatters still remember the Crokers.
but no one particularly recalls s'little
Dick.n The only definite thing now re-
called is that the veterinary surgeon
had pronounced Orange tendencies and
could not get along with his Catholic
countrymen on that account. One day he
came home from an Orangeman's parade
and made sneering allusion to the pa
pacy. He was promptly knocked down
by old Col. Bowe, whose son afterwards
became sheriff of New York.
Early in 1852 the Crokers were living
at No. 103 East Twenty-sixth street, a
house which still stands. not much al
tered. Needless to say, "Dick" did not
live in mansions then. The neighborhood
was poor and so were the people Yet in
the vicinage Croker's youth and manhood
were passed. In December of 1854 the
whole family again moved but only the
distance of block or so. The new ad-
dress was No. "a East Twenty-eighth
street, a property which no longer exists
under that designation. 1t was far hum
bier than the one they just quilted, but
the Crokers were in it full hedged
tenants, not sub-tenants. The veterinary
surgeon was not doing particularly well.
So Mrs. Croker took respectable
mechanics as boarders. For years she
toiled as best she could and Dick was the
only one who helped her much. George
was the first to earn money. Ed"
another brother was something like his
father
Such schooling as Richard Croker got
in his life he is indebted for to the public
school which still stands on East Twenty
seventh street, near Third avenue.
'Dick" was IL when he began attending
1t, andiof course, fit only for the primary
Miss Francis M. Faulkner was head
teacher, succeeded in 1854 by well known
Martha Gapper. William H. Wood was
principal of the male department They
remembered Richard Croker in after
years as a noisy, dark-haired urchin
During his last year there he was many a
time sent home with a "bad rate" for
lighting. 1t is further recorded that
'Dick" could not read without first
spelling out the words aloud Mr.. Gro
ker achieved note in his sgd year by sUg-
costing the use of what he was pleased to
call party ''symblems" on printed ballots
fact which indicates what sort of an ed
ucation he managed to acquire in TWEEN
ty seventh street.
Even at that early age Richard Croker
was the leader Of gang. They were his
schoolmates and Principal Wood had no
end of trouble with them. 1t is notorious
that old Croker never had any influence
over Dick. Themother did. He was her
favorite son. When he had money he
shared it with her. During his rise to
power he did not forget her. The father
was not so much in favor. To be sure, in
after years Croker persuaded Alderman
afterwards Sheriff James O'Brien, to
make old Eyre, a keeper in the parks and
afterwards a nominal horse doctor in the
Ihirty-second street stables of the Har-
lem Car company But that was only an
Indirect way of being good to his mother.
II.
EARLY MANHOOD.
1t was in 1856 that Richard Croker
began to battle for himself in the world.
The Crokers were down at the heel. The
father still made no money. Mrs. Croker's
Doarders were not a source of profit.
Those who remember the family's cir
cumstances about this time draw very
pathetic picture of domestic suffering.
brokers' two sisters, who lived with their