The herald., 1894-01-01

Tilden. The four members OF the ring
Tweed, Sweeney, Connolly and Inger.
soll-had been imprudent enough to
divide upwards of four millions OF dol
lars OF their plunder by the figure four
the number of the confederstes-snd to
pass the sums SO divided into their in
dividual bank accounts. Long immunity
had given them feeling of security.
/ was in New York when Bill Tweed,
notwithstanding all the hue and cry
against him, was elected to the senate
OF New York by majority OF over nine
thousand. There was absolutely no
corruption about that election. For
several hours l walked around the polls
with Judge Bowling and Morgan Jones,
and it was as fair an election as ever was
held. Whatever may have been his
crimes, Tweed was popular with the
masses. He made himself so. If he
stole-and he certainly did so on colos-
sal scale-he was the only one of the
four that ever surrendered any OF the
! plunder to the demands of charity. Ii
it be true that charity covers Q multi
tude OF sins, he may fare better in the
next world than he did in this. Peter
Brains Sweeney, as the New York Her
aid was wont to cal him, found refuge
in Paris, Ingersoll fed to Canada and
Connolly hid himself somewhere till the
storm blew over. The whole vengeance
OF the law was concentrated on Tweed
the least guilty OF the lot.
Was Tweed, then, the vulgar and
offensive person depicted by Mast, whose
malignity, until he was struck by
paresis or some other visitation Of Provi-
dence, was unsparing, and who helped
to drive Horace Greeley to his grave?
By no means. He was man Of com
manding stature, and was thus enabled
to carry with some dignity pronounced
embonpoint. He had the bad TASTE to
wear big diamonds. but many man has
done that who has stood very well in
the eyee of the world. 1t has been my
privilege to talk with multitudes of the
most distinguished men in the United
States. and with half dozen exceptions
I "
sational ability. He had read much
and had met nearly every public man OF
note since the time of Clay and Jackson.
He possessed much good nature and
started with good heart, however cor
rupted it may have become in life
whose early struggles we're bitter and
grievous.
That he deserved large measure OF
the retribution that overlook him can
not be doubted, but it was pretty rough
to have to take it all. He lived to see
his friends fall off from him, as is usual
where the groundwork of success hae
been fraud. In such conJunctures. it is
the bolder and manlier spirits that suf-
fer. The weaklings bend before the
storm. 1t was Tweed's defiant spirit
that was his undoing. He came out to
California before his trial and, if he had
then hied him to Asia or the islands, he
would not have died in felon's cell.
His return from San Francisco to New
York sealed his doom. Perhaps bet
ter so.
Tweed and his associates built up
colossal power in New York. For years
they controlled the legislation OF both
parties. Their word was law. Higher
and higher the fabric Of their power
arose., only to make its fall the more
impressive. They lived to verify the
words OF Prospero in the Tempest:
I'll, n, loud On nnad towara IN a oorUaous ns 90.
he solemn n tom ules, the great globe itself
Yea, all which it inherits-shall dissolve;
Anu, like this insubstantial pageant faded.
Leave not a rack behind.
The lesson of Tweed's career 10 open
for the monition OF all aspiring A meri-
cans who believe that transient success
can be looked upon as compensation
for public reprobation and the retribu-
tion Of violated laws.
The mention of Tweed naturally
brings up the striking personnel of Samuel
J.. Tilden. At that time this distin-
guished statesman had law Office on
Wall street. 1 received telegram from
Mr.. Brigham, the editor of the Pitts
burg Commercial, journal which
Harper's Weekly called one of the
'quadrilsteral OF great western news
pspers"-instructing me to interview
Mr.. Tilden ON the effect OF the nomina-
tion of Horace Greeley as president of
the United States by the Democratic
party. waited on Mr.. Tilden at his
law rooms, and was received with much
courtesy. This was the second time l
had met this gentleman. On this occa-
sion he impressed me as a typical
Yankee. l saw quite early in our
interview that he intended to tell me
nothing. But owed it to my brethren
of the newspaper guild not to give up
until had exhausted every recourse.
Mr.. Tilden simply impressed me as a
diplomatic. Like Ben Butler, he
required to be in incesssnt motion.
Unlike Butler, he was not endowed
with a big stomach. He had the
nervous, jerky motions Of a man with
out digestion and weighted down with
big head. II Tilden ever was, as has
been asserted, railway wrecker, he had
the intellectual momentum and velocity
to insure success, and he lacked the
sublime pluck that would have made
the Hayes conspiracy, with Grant at the
head of it, aboftive.
As have said, that was not the frat