The times., 1898-01-30

mighty town as a hell of the very first
| birthstone and furnace order, with
| Tammany as the Satanic host and Mr..
| Croker as chief devil.
The history of Tammany is given at
some length, including the legend of
the Indian chief. st. Tammany, after
whom the organization was named.
Mr. Stead admits that it is, in some
ways, for those who are on the in
side, the most. thoroughly democratic
institution in America. No one is too
| poor, too wicked, or too ignorant to be
treated by Tammany as man and
| brother, if he will stand in with the
machine This solidity is the strong
point. and the only strong point of the
organization. By it money has been
raised, votes have been bought and
| conquered, and elections carried, after
which more money was extracted from
the public treasury. Men might come
and go, but Tammany went on forever,
for that it appealed to one of the most
primitive of tribal instincts, loyalty to
the tribe because the tribe would turn
upon and crush out any man who was
not loyal.
After this brief history of Tammany
Mr.. Stead takes off his coat, rolls up
his shirt-sleeves, and pitches into the
tee. Page after page of corruption,
vice, crime, and wanton abuse of pow
er is revealed, with comments of char
acter for which vitriol is rather mild
simile. The condition of the tenement
house dweller, TO whom "the police JUS
tice, the police captain and the district
leader represent America is vividly
pictured, and cases of abuse of these
poor foreign immigrants are brought
TO view. All Of this information was
aired on the occasion of the commit
tees investig at!ons in the daily papers.
Mr. Stead then points out that in or
der to escape in some measure the rule
of this immense secret organization, a
sort of Caesarism has been adopted,
and what he calls a Gar mayor, with
unusual discretionary power, has been
placed al the head of the government
This, he considers. a good thing If the
CZar-mayor happens TO be good man:
otherwise not. He then goes off to San
Francisco, brings Mr.. Hearst to New
York, recounts the history of Mr..
Hearst's newspaper in that city, and
breaches scheme for government by
journalism" which is very great puff
for Mr.. Hearst's paper, because he
virtually declares that that is the only
paper which would be equal to such
government. If he says, the jour
nalism that does things" as Mr..
Hearst is proud to call his journal
ism, should establish sort of inqui-
sition, choosing an inqusitor- general
from among the journalists, to expose
evils and turn them over to the courts
for treatment, it would abate many of
the evils which at present give New
York its Tartarean reputation. He
does not explain what good this turn
ing over to the courts would do if the
courts were themselves as corrupt as
he says they are, but that is a detail.
He also says that the newspaper which
brought forward case that proved
baseless on investigation would lose
in prestige and in authority and so
none of the cases turned over to the
courts would be the result of irrespon-
sible caiumny, but all would be genu-
inc cases Mr. Stead shows a child
like confidence in the character of the
newspapers which is beautiful and
touching, but some newspapers have
no prestige to lose, and they are the
ones which would most joyfully ac-
cept this task of playing chief inqui-
sitor.
Then, Mr.. Stead winds UP his book
with a character sketch of Mr.. Croker.
In this he finds himself very much be-
wildered by Mr.. Croker's simple, un-
assuming ways and lard horse sense
in conversation. He shifts for brim-
stone and cannot find it; he watches
anxiously for the cloven hoof. and ap-
parently thinks it a great marvel that
his devil should not have a cloven hoof,
and that instead of breathing fire
and birthstone he should smoke an or
binary. everyday, commercial cigar
and a good one at that. In short, his
character sketch of Mr. Croker is rath-
er an unfortunate anti-climax. But
the book is an extremely interesting
one for people who want to know what
the history OF Tammany has been, and
what the Lexow Committee did, and
what Mr.. Stead's friends and enemies
have done with themselves generally,
and if the language is rather scriptural
and theological in its vivacity, that is
to be expected Of Mr.. Stead. CNew
York: r. F. Fenno & Co, 8 and II East
Sixteenth street, Washington: Bren-
tano.)