The age-herald., 1897-09-09
MATT MINOR
 ON NEW YORK TOPICS.


 I saw Dick crolser as he walked down
 the gang plank of the steamer St. Louis
 on his return from England Tuesday.
 First time I had seen htm for more than three years. Don't look any better
 than he did then. Never was good
 looking. croker's got a pretty tough
 mug. Dick looked a little hungry.
 Hasn't had a rake off from Tammany since 1891, when old Bill Strong got the job of mayor. Croker made a bluff of l trying to look respectable. Dressed as much like an Englishman as he could
 be. Wore Scotch plaid clothes of the 1 latest fashion. Box coat and high hat. That style of dressing is very common in London. I've seen some of the finest l swelts an England walking in the Strand and in Oxford street with very short sack coats and high silk hats. It's English you know. Croker will take good fall out of Tammany. He'll be the power behind the throne, and I am not afraid to risk the prediction here, and now, that if Tammany nominates Cro- ker's man for mayor, whoever that may be, he'll win. Croker understands his | business.
 | It is not generally known, but never theaess it is a fact, that Tom Platt is now the owner of the New York Sun. Had stock in 1t for great many years. It's been Platt's personal organ for the past eight years. That's why the Suns turned to be republican paper. Platt runs the establishment. Don't think it worries Dana in the least to run a re- publican newspaper. He's always been republican. He has dons tle demo- cratic party more harm in New York than any ten men in 1t. Always fighting the organization. Abusing democrats i Complimenting republicans. Papers been practically edited from Wall street for a good many years. I don't blame 1 Tom Platt for buying it if he could. He needs an organ now, and the Suns right in his line. The Suns never supported but one democratic president in the last | - Js and that was Samuel J. TiIden in 1876. 1 It cut Hancock's throat in 1880. Sup | ported Ben Butler in 1884; was against Cleveland in 1888. By this time it was at low ebb and very few people read 1 it. In 1892 it kept in Nine with the party and did not oppose Cleveland. The day I after the election it began to abuse him and kept 1t up until he went out of off, l flee. It supported Mckinley in 1896, and judge now that it will continue to l be a republican paper as long as there is money in it. As a newspaper it is the 1 best in New York, and that means the best in the United States. Prints more 1 news and better class of news.
 | Saw Fred May at the Imperial hotel. l I doutlt if many people remember Fred 1 May. Had a very checkered career. I He's the man that horsewhipped James 1 Gordon Bennett on the day after New 1 Years in the early 7Os. Bennst. was I engaged to marry Mays sister. Bennett l called on Mss May one New Years day. l He was drunk when he called. Was
 
 number of Miss Mays friends were re- l ceiying. Bennetts intoxication was taken as an insult by all the young la l dies present. Miss May communicated i this information to her father and brother. rThIe next day Fred met Jim in | front off the Union League club, in Fifth avenue and lhorsewhipped him in the l presence of 200 people. "A few days aft | erward they went down inllo Delaware and fought a duel. Neither one hurt l Bennett didn't apologize. Bennett quit l New York society soon after that time. l Nearly all the houses closed against him. 1 That's why he's been living in Paris | most of the time since He says he can | edit the Herald better from Paris than | he can from New York. I expec- he can. l Fred May looks like prize fighter. He used to be high roller. Have seen him 1 drunk many times. Always got into a l row every time he was drunk. One of 1 his specialtias was breaking up barroom | furniture. Nearly killed policeman one I night in 1891. Had to skip the country. l Went to South Ame.dca. Was in Chili | at the time the sailors of the man-of-war | Baltimore were assaulted. May render I ed heroic service to the American sail OTIS. Because of lis conduct on that oc- 1 casion the indictments pending against 1 him in New York were quashed and l he was allowed to come back. Sirce that time he has not drank anything. Living 1 a pretty decsnt life now. He don't woik 1 any. William c. Whitney married one of his sisters. Not the one that Bennett | insulted, but another. Whitney gives Fred | all the pocket moEley he needs. May l wanted to marry a Mobile girl about l twenty years ago. She was very much | in love with him, but her paren-s ob- 1 jected Thought May was too tough. She maIried man who went wrong. Better taken May.
 1 Saw President McKinley's private sec- 1 retary, John Addison Porter, on his way l Ito his home in Connecticut I ever I there was a private secretary to presi- 1 Hent w.hn d dn,t know anYthing it's Por-