The record-union., 1895-02-02
WHEN | Was MAYOR.
A. Oakley Hall as Chief Magis-
trate of New York.

Relates His Experience In the Office
From 1869 to 1S72-Honor. but
Little Power-The Curious Way
the Office Came to Him-John Kelly
Headed Of-New Years Day In the
City HaIl-The Story of a Turkish
Constituent = Anecdotes The Tale
of the 'sOf1cial Interpreter -
'sD1ck'' Croker as an Alderman.
fright purchased by the RECoRD-UNIoN of
the Box Syndicate Press, New York.
The prominence which the office of
Chief Magistrate in New York City at
tanned in public interest throughout the
Union during the recent municipal cleo
ton there, as well as the succession to
that office of a purely business man, of
high social rank, but without any prevl-
GUS civic experience-which was never
the case, ,previously-has induced news
paper request that L should present rec
objections of my experience in the same
office during the years 1869, 1870, 1871 and
1872, after three successive elections.
had previously been three times sue
cessively chosen by the electors Of the
city upon Tammany nomination to the
post of District Attorney, and was full
filling q final term when John Z. Hoff-
man, then Mayor. became elected Demo-
cratic Governor of the State, and a va
cancy in the first Office was necessarily
suggested my name as candidate for the
vacant post, complimentary assuring
me that by split in their ranks John
Kelly, eX-Alderman, eX-Congressmau
and eX-Sherltf, had received a boIting
nomination, and bid fair, from his great
popularity, to beat the regular organiZa-
ton, but that by reason of my official
tOrbearance in leniency toward Irish rio
ters upon st. Patrlck'S Day, and to-
ward the German element in refusing to
join mperance crusade against lager
beer, L could command the united sup
port of the Hibernian and Teutonic vote,
and become the only candidate likely to
win for Iammany.
The argument seemed reasonable, par
ticularly as New York City is the sec
ond city-lreland even included-of Hi
bernlan resldency in the world; and the
third German city, if immigrants and the
second generation be computed. Gov
ernor Hoffman, q collegiate and intimate
friend, added his wishes in the same di-
rection, being anxious for continued
Iammany supremacy, lnasmuch as he
might become candidate for the Presi-
dency. was 10th to quit my legal posi-
ton and practice at the bar, and was in
disposed to fulfill executive duties for
which my education and literary tastes |
felt myself unsuited. However, the
claims of friendship and OF party fealty
prevailed. L became candidate and was
elected by the large majority of 10000,
Notwithstanding L was honored by hav-
ing as opposing candidate, Frederick A.
COnkling, brother OF Roscoe, man of
wealth, of high education and of social
and political distinction.
In point of fact the Mayor of the City
OF New York was then, as now, under
statutory restrictions, fgure-head only
to the municipal ship, and placed on it's
PROV to receive the knocks of assumed
responsibility, yet without the powers to
make that responsibility active. Even
the Common Council was shorn of DOW
ers popularity supposed to belong to it.
All municipal power was apportioned
among departments and bureaus, whose
heads remained in exclusive control dur
ing long terms and irremovable, except
under tedious legal procedures. The
power of the Mayor was as fictitional
as is that of Queen Victoria, whose Min
listers and Parliament possess the real
power. And well knew that in taking
the office of Mayor | was becoming a sort
of Sinbad the Sailor, with Man of the
Mountain on my shoulders.
During the two years that contingency
precisely occurred. | had no appoint
Dlents to make; they had already been
made. l took over the Mayoralty Chief
Clerk, an admirable knick erbocker
gentleman, Colonel Johne, who was
brotherin-law to my predecessor, and
who had served during the civil war on
the staff Of Major-General Dix. The
Mayors Marshal, who issued licenses, re-
signed, which gave me an opportunity to
appoint in his place that modern Yorick
Joseph h. Tooker, afterwards known as
Commodore Tooker from his superin-
tendency of the fleet of Long Island
Sound steamboats, belonging to Jay
Gould and James Fisk. AS a Private
Secretary l commissioned James c.. Gold
smith, an efficient journalist, from the
staff of the Herald. But all the heads of
departments had been installed under
Mayor Hoffman, and generally for terms
longer than even my own, but they were
of the same party. Moreover the Police
Department was of State creation and
amenable only to the Governor Inas-
much as such department of any city
government is the hub into which set all
the municipal spokes of the driving
wheel the want Of homogeneity in admin
istration can be well 1ancied. For the
official who paved or cleaned or lighted
the streets, for instance, could, for police
aid, rely only on the courtesy of de-
partment with which he was not in mu-
nicipal elbow touch.
The Mayor, however, had pleasantly
ornamental duties. He was an enter
tainer of foreign and tourist guests, and
the recipient of a dozen dinner in Vita
tions per week, and was the traditional
toastmaster at public banquets. He laid
Corner-stones at public buildings and
thereby accumulated a set of silver trow-
els. He organized subscriptions for for
eign as well as domestic charities-such
as relief for an Irish or Turkey famine,
an Oriental earthquake or Chicago ire,
and with the proud but onerous necessity
OF leading Oft with a personal subscrip-
ton ION comparatively inadequate sti-
pend, to an amount that should not dis
honor, whenever published, the prestige
OF great munich pality.
The Mayor was frequently importuned
to perform the marriage ceremony, and
especially between foreigners, for whom
as in France and Germany a civic cere-
mony for property or home statutory
reasons in addition to any ecclesiastical
ceremony was requisite. If the bride
was young or winning the Mayor had the
perqulslte OF osculation, or If she were
elderly or plain the ingenious task of
calamity eXcusing himself from taking
that perquisite. Among the many draw
backs to the Office, however, it is to be
mentioned that the Mayors ears became
complaint books, upon matters over
which he could be heartbroken yet una
BILE TO find remedies, while with difficulty
making the complainants understand
his reasons and the obstacles At the
outset L found IL necessary To select an
interpreter, because cosmopolitan yisi-
tors anDIIc3ntS W mn