The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-28
THE GOSSIP OF GOTHAM TOWN.
WHY MR.. WHITNEY HAS BECOME
AN ALLY OF MIR. CROKER.

An Expected sensatiOn-New York
Yet 10 BE shocked by Revelations
of the PIutOcracy-Mrs. AstOr's
Home Coming.
New York. April 27.-Richard Croker is
now in the thick Of the New York politi-
cal situation. He has been, perhaps,
forced TO permit himself to be placed in
that position. for, although he is not
I nearly so adverse to political life as has
been alleged, his brilliantly opened turf ca
reer seems more pleasing to him. The
question now is, how he will manage
Tammany's affairs. But the answer to
it may be had in what has been accom-
/ plished already. Tammany is to be made
thoroughly respectable. The fatal mistake
! of permitting the organization to fall into
I the hands of disreputables is not likely
to be made again. 1t is an open secret
in the Wigwam that all the shady char
/ acters will be eliminated. But more than
/ this, men of position will be brought
/ into the ranks. Among these are men
| like William c. Whitney, the Belmonts
and a few others OF equal standing in the
world outside as well as inside politics.
/ Some incredulity has been expressed as
/ to the truthfulness OF statements that
4 men of this sort would ally themselves
i
ent condition. such incredulty reveals
I a misunderstanding of the situation.
/ There is no man in the city OF New ork
more friendly to Tammany than Willam
G. Whitney. His great wealth is almost
wholly in municipal franchises, and IN
corporations created through the city
government at a time when the latter
was entirely in Tammany hands. A nod
would convert the Tammany men in the
legislature into so many foes to WITT MT,
ney's corporations. Notwithstanding all
that has been said regarding the eman-
cipation of corporations from the neces-
sity of paying political tribute, 1t Is a
fact that they are all in great awe OF the
machine. Mr. Whitney, as is by this time
an open secret, has long wished 70 shake
of Tammany. But Tammany cings to
him like a leech. The Tiger includes in
the same Complementary affectionGse
embraces all the democrats of standing
who consort with Whitney. The invita-
ton to these men was but a yelled COM
mand.
to exact conditions. Mr. Croker without
seeming to be so, is largely in their hands
That is one reason why Tammany has
become so severely respectable. Another
terrifying thing TO the Tiger was the
threat of exclusion from the next demo-
cratic national convention. That would,
indeed, be a serious blow But Mr.. WHIT
ney has agreed to avert 1t, under certain
conditions 1t will thus he seen that this
politician is practically the central figure
in the situation. He and the Belmonts
are the pictured trinity OF every IafnIna-
nv mans dreams. They are to reconcile
the party to the organization.
Meanwhile the reformers are regarding
these developments with concern. Mayor
Strong has beeen arousing antagonism OF
late. The Tiger IS. on the contrary at
peace with everybody. In the shadow OF
the Presidential election there has come
that sudden calm 50 potentious upon the
ocean of politics.
New York will probably have its own
horror unspeakable before many weeks
have gone by. The Roman shamelessness
of plutocracy is conceded to transcend
anything recorded of the Catalan age
Even women in New York speak to busts
of Oscar Wilde endearingly, and from the
sheer inervation of luxury take refuge
from safety itself in a new sensation.
Degradation has become cult and vice
Anthony Comstock. the one man who
has played the part of Cato in this Ro-
man cesspool, is the archenemy Wnom
prohigacy has picked out to make les
son of. He is logged and bounded, ridt-
/ culed and threatened. He has even been
approached with offers Of mony provided
he would consent to abate his hostihties.
TO all these diatribes he has been ada
mant. He is now the object OF an open
conspiracy to bring him into disrepute
In truth the Sybarites he aims at may
well tremble. Their infamy is equaled
would be as great as their fortunes. We
hear the weirdest tales of imported or
gies of midnight madnesses. of deeds
from which the devil would shrink. And
were il not all made so gorgeous by the
circumstautialty of the details, one would
seem to be reading of Tiberious and Sc
The vice RACES like a prairie fire through
fortunes and physiques until every new
invalid who flies from New York leaves
in his wake a slime of SANDER The sit
uation grows tense and horribly impossi-
bic. The contagion has eaten like an
acid into society.
Mrs Astor-there is only one Mrs. Astor
will return from Paris, 1t is announced.
i'm June. She has been enjoying herself
immensely in Paris, it appears, her ele-
D mt 70 of a 1ffF1
Elysee being a rendezvous OF all sorts ami
/ conditions of people of fashion. When she
gets back Mrs. Aston will go at once to
| Reechwood her superb place at New
port. There she remains until late in
/ September, when her new mansion at
/ Fifth avenue and Sixty-hfth street is to
be completed Mr.. and Mrs. John jacob
/ Astor have visited Mrs. Aston in Paris,
and the three, accompanied by the little
boy made a picnic to Versailles, carry
ing a lunch basket and sitting about on
the grass with the crowd like poor people
out for a holiday. Mrs. Astor's Paris resi-
! dence is by no means so luxurious without
as within. She is much liked in the
neighborhoOd in which she lives, and her
fame as a very rich woman i'm her own
country seems TO be thoroughly under
stood. She was greatly annoyed by smoke
from a cottage chimney near her house
when she first entered her new lodgings
but as the poor man in it had to use
fire, Mrs. Aston rented a place for him
! elsewhere and paid the man to move
Her stay in Paris has been most pleas
ant she writes home.
An enormous sum is being spent weekly
i'm turf enterprises. A veritable equine
craze seems to have asserted itself among
New YOrk's more fashionable men. A
new man, in one sense, is Mr.. Frederick
Gebhard whose luck so far has been sim
ply phenomenal. 1t is not to be sure. all
luck, since Mr.. Gerhard has become quite
an authority on the turf. II and Foxhall
Keene and August Belmont have made
brilliant success of the steeple chase A
j. Cassatt comes over from Philadelphia
a good deal now and is associated with
these men in various turf undertakings.
Morris Park has heretofore been their
chief scene of operations Richard Cro-
ker is understood to have had a wish to
connected himself with the men who are
thus casting glow of fashion over the
race horse but he got the mitten. That is
why he has made an expedition to the
English track. His recent success over
there seems, from all Indications to be
but the first in a brilliant series of fri
umphs. Still, he feels very sore, 1t an
pears, from the snubbing he received
from the men now most prominent as
sportsmen in the metropolis, and they are
likely to be reminded some day that the
Iammany man can harbor a resentment
The betting on horse races, by the wav
has attained great proportions. and the
women take as much part in II as the men.
Restaurants and tables dhote are In