Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-12

against Tammany Before that sentiment
was aroused against the great democratic
organization, but not that practical opposi-
ton that finally swept everything before ii.
His Fight for Parkhurst's Agent.
Mr.. Golf came to the front at auspi-
cious momert. Tamnany was fighting
Parkhurst and was beating him. They had
arrested one of Parkhursts agents and
were convicting him. Judge and jury alike
were Tammany men, and the outlook was
dark. There was no one who wanted to
take up the Parkhurst agents case, it
seemed SO One-sided John W. Golf saw the
trouble and stepped forward himself. He
took up the case and fought it SO vigor-
ously that the court room rang with his de-
nunciations of Tammany and its methods.
he attacked the organization so strongly,
and the ways of the court in upholdng
Tammany SO bodily. that Recorder Smyth
fined him 500 Tor contempt of court.
!. If it had not peen for that incident Mr..
Golf would not now be recorder-elect. He
would not have taken the office. But that
fine arrayeo him against Recorder Smyth in
a duel to the death, which Con won. Smyth
fined Golf 500 but on Tuesday the city of
New York fined Smyth majority of $1,000
votes, and in favor of Golf. Mr.. Golf de-
clare1 at that time that he would not pay
that fine. He would go to prison sooner
than submit to what he thought was rank
Injustice The pleadinys of his friends had
no effect; he declared that he would not
pay one cent. His friends became alarmed,
and. headed by his law partner they quietly
paid the 500 themselves before Golf knew
of it.
Mr.. COTS Early Struggles.
This man who has downed Tammany
was once a Tammany man himself. He is
a democrat and drifted into that organiza-
ton when only a boy. Thirty-fve years
ago Golf came here from Ireland, a dozen
years of age. landing American soil
with a few shillings in his pocket and his
baggage in his hand. He became office boy,
then clerk in large mercantile house. He
was ambitious to learn, but he had his
bread and butter to earn, he could only
study at night. But when night came he
took book under his arm and went to
Cooper Union. The boy was thin. but
straight as an arrow. If he came to classes
without his dinner, because dinners were
too expensive for his purse, his smile was
none the less jolly, his lessons none the
less perfect.
He obtained an education and then began
to study law in the same way, taking adj
vantage of generous old Peter Cooper's
free school. He studied hard and was add
mitted to the bar. and then he gave up the
store for the courts. AS a young lawyer he
was noted for his honesty. Some of his
friends rldieuled him. He would not de-
fend che wrong, even for pay. Sometimes
they called him Abraham Lincoln, because
Lincoln was honest and worked by day
and studied by night on an empty stomach.
ne JOlIieu LOT ne WAS an en-
thusiastic democrat. but he was not a real
Tammany man. They called him a black
sheep because he condemned the methods
of his party. This did not bother the lean,
goOd-nat ured man, who went on in his in
dependent way building up an honest prac-
tice. The more they called him hard names
the sharper they found his shafts, the
more disagreeable his chatting.
So the young Irishman went on and
ceeded as lawyer. He learned to despise
Tammany and detest it's methods. He
ade a splendid fight for Parkhurst's agent
and won. When the LeXOw committee met
the voice of New York was unanimous that
John w Golf should lead the assault
against New York corruption. How he has
worked and what the work he has done is
the whole world knows. But they do not
know how much Of the evidence he has
unearthel himself; how he has been the
head, shoulders and soul of the whole in
vestigatiOn. The world has seen him cross
examining witnesses, but they have not
seen him spending nights In the darkest
quarters of the city uncovering fraud and
invading the very nests of crime.