The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-06-11
Two Senator RradIeys.

TWO SShdtOI DIduicySs
Both New York and New Jersey
are blessed with Senators of the name
Bradley. Both are star reformers,
and both are more than a little fond
of seeing their names in the paper.
Both hail from great religious centres.
The New York State solon comes
from Brooklyn and New Jerseys Brad
ley halls from Asbury Park. Brook
lyn embraces all the religion in the
country in the winter and Asbury
Park gets it in the summer. The air
of both places is supercharged with
observation-disclosures, and both Sena-
tors have their full share OF the spirit
which moveth men to pay a great
deal of heed to their neighbours
affairs.
Senator Bradley of New Jersey
possessed the opportunity of a life
time when the Legislature met this
year. He was a power. He was
a little party all by himself in the
Senate and, without an alliance with
him, neither of the other parties
could make the least Roadway in
legislation. He was nominally a re-
publican, but the leaders of that
party early made up their minds that
they had no hold on him, and to get
his aid for certain pet schemes which
they had on hand, they were willing
to pay almost any price in the way OF
passing measures in which Bradley
might choose to take an especial
interest. Bradley started out with
an apparent realization of his power.
He talked a great deal about it-a
very great deal. He proclaimed
from the housetops what he was
going to do. y Heoalwas going to
have one or two very good bills
passed and also one or two very
foolish ones; furthermore he was go
ing TO put his foot down upon every
thing perniciously partisan that b
other republicans, the ten immoral
ones, might undertake. In Jul new
columns today WI pl ace on record the
actual results of the sessions work by
Senator Bradley. The net result is a
handful of tuppenny local measures
affecting Asbury Park. There is not
one item of broad or generally useful
legislation to his credit. He had
charge of one bill out of which he
might have won great glory-the
State Water Commission bill. He did
nothing with it, he was half deluded
and half frightened into letting it
drop. Neither did Bradley offer any
final resistance to any bill, however
bad, that the Republican machine
wanted passed. He began by kick
ing against; several Office grabbing
measures. But in the end he bowed
his neck to the party lash as featly as
any ringster of them all. He went
into the Legislature with the reputa-
ton of a bullying, blatant, asinine
crank, who might yet do some good
out of sheer obstinacy. He comes out
a demonstrated huinbug, coward and
irnbecile. He is of no use to himself,
of no use to any cause he may
espouse. and next year as he Will be
of no use to his party his party will
have no use for him.
New York's Senator Bradley seems
to be an almost equally ridiculous
person. He seems to have confound-
ed the functions of a modern Senator
with those of an Eastern Khalif of
the romantic age. After the III amer
OF the late Haroun-al-R aschid-maY
his shadow never grow less-he has
been dressing up like a countryman
and prowling about the slums of the
city in search of trouble. This Phari-
saical Bradley chose the Bowery for
the field of his 1inyestiga tions. A
young man asked him the time and
he concluded he was being buncoed.
A policeman saluted him by name.
and the idea penetrated his brain that
the New York police were a pretty
wideawake lot. He was shocked to
learn that a concert was in progress
at one of the theatres; he was horri-
fed to find that young men could
find stores open in which to buy neck
ties and paper collars. The whole ex-
perience led him to wax rhapsodical
in his admiration for Brooklyn.
We have no great admiration for
this performance of the Brooklyn
Senator. It seems a trifle nonsensical,
if not worse; but at least there was a
touch of originality about 1t. We
do not remember ever before hearing
of a Senator doing such "a thing.
From this point of view, the'sNew
Yorker has the advantage over the
Asbury Parkian. The latter was
deadly dull in addition to his other
faults. The Breoklyn-man has the
merit of being like Artemus Wards
coon ian amoosin sortslo' cussep 4
A LITTLE gentleman in Hoboken,
q Rathjen by name. we believe, has
undertaken the. thankiess 5qtask OF
bulldozing a reporter of THE JERSEY
Cry NEWS. There was once another
ra,tlo,pan i'm this town who under