Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-01-22
RISE IND FALL OF N'CAbE

WUL [llsU lIiLL I'll Ill UllUL.
"That reminds me- said the Judge, as
he settled his large person into the arm
chair, that reminds me of McCabe. of
the rise and fall of McCabe. In fact,
there has been scarcely a week in my
life in the last thirty years that l have
cot been reminded of McCabe.
''Well, it was just after the war; he
continued" when l was a young fellow
everybody seemed to be a young fellow
then-my brOther-in-laW had built Il
house away uptown, on Seventeenth
street, near Third avenue. Some of you
know how far up that was in those
days. There were six or seven houses
on the block, with plenty of open space
for squatterS and for goats. The resi-
dents were mostly young married cOu-
pies, and the men were a hrSt-rate cot Of
gO-ahead fellows, with a sense of humor
and proper appreciation of a good time.
well, before living there very long,
we had all got to be very neighborly, as
a little isolated community will. There
was a decent German by the name of
Joe Weile, who kept a beer place on the
corner of our street and Third avenue.
1t was one of those thoroughly German
placeS-clean and cOmforta ble-commOn
found now. There were three of the
men III the colony besides myself who
were unmarried. We had come up there
to live on account of our brothers, or our
sisters, as the case might be, and as we
were not absorbed to Il great extent III
domestic affairs we found things Il bit
slow. 1t was Il long journey downtown
by the horse cars, which crept along at
a snail's pace. Everything was down
town in those days. You know there
were no theaters above Fourteenth
street. There was in fact not much of
anything in the way of life above that
point. The old New York hotel was
about the center of the promenade which
continued down as far as Spring street.
The consequence was that we got to
dropping into Joe's as a rule by 1870.
We were never later than II. 1t was
not a great while before we got to going
to Joes earlier. The married men ac-
quired the habit, little by little, of tax
ing more than one drink and stopping to
smoke a cigar. At times when the con-
verSatiOn got to be of more than usual
interest the whole party would adjourn
to the little back room.
THE sittings had continued until II
on several occasions. but had never gone
beyond that. The fact is, we single
men, with the instinct OF self-preserva-
ton, determined that IL should be the
hour for going home We had each of
phasis, on more than one occasion by our
sisters and SiSterS-in-laW that they were
perfectly well aware we were leading
their husbands astray.
In those days of reconstruction poll
tics was exciting. Men had positively
opposed opinions. It was not the kind
of crowd to let anything personal into a
discussion of any kind but the contro-
versies would at times so beyond the
mere abstract and academic and become
absorbing 1t was on one of these occa-
s1Ons. when the contention had grown
quite warm, that We the single men.
and in fact all of u.s. lost sight of the
CLOCK, or our peace, our comfort, at the
same time. Before we knew where
we were at it was midnight. The mis-
chief was done. We had had lost caste
with our sisters and sisters-in-law. and
no manner of promise, or protestatio
or explanation would avail. We were
| dlSgraced, and there was no truth nor
any manner of good in us.
1T IS difficult for one who has not had
some analogous experience to conceive
how miserable life was made for us.
Joe's was our refuge, our only source
of consolation.
eve single men knew that nothing
we could do would ever rehabilitate us:
that If we managed to keep the hus-
bands at home every night we would
| only be suspected and accused of hatch
| ing some invidiOus plot for their further
| downfall and degradation. SO that now
having nothing in the world to lose and
! no possible prospect or eXDecta ton of
| re-establlshing peace and happiness in our
| homes we threw off all further RESPONSE
| b11ty and sought consolation in such
wicked pleasures as could be found at
| Joe's. The married men, having now
| no restraint upon them by us, abandoned
! themselves also, and from the one or two
! drinks of the earlier and better times,
they grew to think little of a dozen. 1t
| was not very long before they acquired
! the poker habit also.
1T was about this time that McCabe
moved into q new house in the neighbor-
women of the cOlony-called upon Mrs.
| McCabe. They were quite favora bly,
impressed. She was reported to have a
family of three lovely children. and
her home was said TO be q model one
You will please bear in mind that up
boat we were all tarred with the same
stick. If Smith was a wicked, dissolute
fellow, his neighbor Brown was not q
whit better. So, there were no means of
comparison; and I believe the women
had, through lack Of any constrasts.
come to think their husbands and male
relatives and all men alike depraved I,
had noticed, at least, that my sister did
not say to her husband: You are so and
so, but, You men are so and sO;' and
one must admit, continued the Judge
with gravity, that it is less humila ting
to be abused collectively than personally.
One may even find q certain sense of
pleasure in such general and collective
abuse, because you are apt to think it
is the other fellow who is getting hurt
Il have no doubt. had it not been for
the advent of McCabe, we would have
continued to go on from bad to worse
and that some of the present ornaments
of the bench and bar and of the reform
ers of the chamber of commerce would
have been lost to history.
''McCabe, however, was not regarded
by us as an unmixed blessing. | hap.
pened to be at home on the Sunday aft
ernoon Mrs. McCabe returned my sisters
call. Mrs. McCabe was a trim, black
eyed little woman. After some general
conversation, my sister asked why she
had not brought Mr.. McCabe with her.
"McCabew she exclaimed. "Well, I'm
ashamed to say | can't get McCabe to
go anywhere. He's the greatest home
body | ever saw. He's completely rapt
up in his home, in his children and in
his books. he comes home about 5,
romps with the children until dinner
time and ta ks with mo oftaryyard until