The San Francisco call., 1898-03-27

severely, he refused to yield up any DOT tion of his dominions to the evil one. The fight went on for months, and so severe were the struggles of the combatants that whole forests were thrown down and prairie land, which remains to this day, created. The devil barely escaped
 and St. Tammany crossed the river to New York, where he established his home.
 Thus. out of this fragmentary legend St. Tammany rose to an assured position in the ranks of the Revolutionary Army. Having no patron saint of their own, St. | Tammany served the Americans as a kind of modern St. George, and the 12th of May, Tammanys birthday, was cele- brated with wigwams, liberty poles, toma- hawks and many other things in regular Indian fashion. The ranks of the army of Pennsylvania nourished this great po- litical society, which about the beginning of the century established it's home in New York. It is said to be the oldest purely sef-constituted political organza- tion in the world. It began with the re- public, being organized within a fortnight of the inauguration of the first President, and in spite of all internal factions which have ragged, remains, according to MT. Stead, ITO this day the strongest the best disciplined and the most feared po- litical organization in the world
 A saloon-keeper, who for twenty years was a captain of Tammany, revealed to MT. Stead what he describes as the secret of the organizations strength.
 "If you get into trouble Tammany will help you out. If you are out of a job Tammany will see that you have the first chance of whatever is going. It is a great power, is Tammany. Whether it is with the police or in the court, or in the City Hall, you will find Tammany men everywhere, and they all stick together. There Is nothing sticks so tight as Tam many"
 So much for Tammany. San Francisco people will turn more eagerly to the lat ter pages of the book, where the charter which has just created Greater New York is discussed MT. Stead has his. doubts about the endurance of this new form of autocratic government, and points out that, between 1846 and 1890, New York had no less than eleven charters, or an aver age of one every four years. As long as the minority party in the city can com mand the votes of the majority of the State Legislature, this state of constant change is likely to continue, and even the creation of a Czar Mayor does not guar antee fnality.
 Here is Mir. Steads candid opinion of the charter, given, as will be seen, with some hesitation: Even now I shrink from expressing an opinion lest it should be misconstrued as implying any claim on my part to sit in judgment on those who are saddled with the responsibility of governing New York. But when doc tors differ the people decide, and when To- cal experts are at hopeless variance as to the merits or demerits of the charter, it may perhaps be permitted to British on- locker, even at distance of 5000 miles, to put on record the way in which the char ter strikes him. If this should not he do nied me l may say at once that the char ter seems to have written on it's face thor oughgoing distrust of the people The as- pect of the charter IS black with despair It is far worse as an expression of demo- cratic despair than the Brooklyn char ter, for the Brooklyn charter at least trusted the Czar Mayor, whereas the New York charter shrihks even from doing that.