Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-07-23
OUR NEW YORK LETTER
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS.


In all the sumersaults in the turning of
which Mr.. Plat and his friends have
shown so much agility in the past. none
has been more complete and more comic
in its effects than the one just accom-
plished. Not 81 very many months ago
Mr.. l.emuel QuigS was wont to sit in
his comfortable chair in the big marble
building at Twenty third street and
Madison avenue and between the putfs
/ of the very fat cigar he ever affected
would discourse learnedly ON the beau
ties of home rule for les: of the enoi-
nous and altogether mertorious ad-
! vance made toward this in the charter
Of the new city, and above all what
beautiful thing was Il bipartisan police
board appointed by the mayor, whom
| public sentiment would compel to OBJ
serve honestly the spirit of the law as
| we'll as the letter. That, however. was
before the election, and long. long be-
fore wicked Tammany, in the form of
Mayor Van Wyck, took the bit in it's
teeth and kicked Mr. Patts good
friends. Messrs. Hamilton and Phillips,
out of easy $4,000 jobs, at the same time
disturbing the balance of power 50 ne
cessary in bipartisan government. To-
| day, however. we see Mr.. Quigg and
several of his lieutenantS earnestly be
seeching Governor Black To take the
control of the New York police force in
/ to his own hands by having IL law passed
Ousting the present board, and authoriZ-
ing himself, the governor, to organize an
other board, appointing the members
himself, but having his choice iestrict-
| ed to such as are approved by the au-
thOriZed leaders of the party organiZa-
tons. The situation is full of humor in
more ways than one--indeed it APP
proaches very close to the ridiculous
First we have those ardent home rule
| advocates Messrs. Platt, Tracy, Quigs.
ct al, begging the gove nor to allow the
| police force to be governed in Albany.
Then we see all these men rush into
print to deny that they had ausht to do
with the appointment of Abel of Brook
lyn, the latest police commissioner, and
although he has always been stanrh
machine man whose loyalty has never
been questioned, as they all acknowl-
! edge, they say that for the present at
| least it is their duty to snub him be-
! cause Lou Payn secured his appoint
/ ment But they hasten to add that they
| have no i'll feeling toward him person.
| ally, and as soon as this little trouble
| has blown over they Will accept him as
brother again. Then comes Lou Payn,
who says that he knew nothing of Abells
appointment until he read of 1t in the
rapers. and, in addition to that. he in
Inmates strongly that the local machine
did know something of it. Finally all
unite to put the blame on Lieutenant
Governor Woodruff. who has not yet had
| time to deny it. In the meantime these
ardent advocates of honest elections,
who with such pious horror deny that
any new deal has been made with Tam
many, go to Governor Black and tell
him that they do not want any legisla-
| tiOn affecting the elections in this city
| If they cannot have what they want.
| bipartisan metropolitan police board
appointed by the governor from candi-
dates named by the two party organi-
cations On it's face there seems to be
nothing wrong in such a proposition.
but the difficulty is that Governor Black
has publicly said that he would be most
unwilling to father any such legislation
certainly now, at least, when he has two
|
required work. besides Furnishing some
very nice plums in the way of patron
age, most of which would be of his Civ
ing. One plan calls for state bi-parti-
san board of control, with board of
elections in each county, and 1T would
mean an expenditure of about 81, OOO, ,OOQ
q year. Not bad thing at all for
governor to have, and in itself sutii-
cient reason for opposition from the To-
cal machine. The other plan would give
as much patronage, calling, as 1t does
| for a state superintendent OF elections
who shall have power to appoint super
visOrs in each county. This plan, how
ever, involves the expenditure of only
about half million Of dollars. third
plan, which carries not nearly so much
patronage as the others, proposed by
some of the upstate statesmen, makes
the secretary of state supervisor OF elec-
tions, limiting the law to cities of the
first class (New York and Buffalo), au-
thorzes him to appoint a supervisor in
turn to have the power to appoint dep
uty supervisors, an equal number from
each party. and as many as he deems
necessary to oversee the registration and
properly managed, would bring the de-
sired result, if, indeed, as seems likely,
honest elections cannot be had assured
by the present system, but the Platt ma
chine will have none of them. Give us
q metropolitan police board or give us
nothing" they cry but it looks now as If
they will have to take whatever Is given
them, whether they like it OF not and un-
less past history goes for nothing IT is
nothing that they want. When spon-
sor has been found for Abel it is safe
chance to take that his political abiding
place will be found to be not far from
the headquarters of the RepuDllcan
county committee. which will mean
that a satisfactory arrangement with
the enemy has been made. thus account
ing for the vigor Quigg shows in press
ing request the governor refused al
most before il was made.
Captain Adrian Anson of Chicago.
so long the mast picturesque
figure on the baseball field, never
did fit in with the New York ag-
gregation. While AnsOn was supposed
to have full charge of the New York
club, Captain William Joyce was con-
tinually holding secret sessions with
President Freedman. Anson knew of
this, and was therefore not enamored
with the job before him. He knew that
Joyce would have to be removed before
the players would look on him as the
real manager. and for that reason was
anxious to get new first baseman, as
the spectators We're making mark of
Joyce and kissing him every time he
made an error. Joyce was clever enough
to get the support of Freedman and
thereby down Anson.
The prospect improves that Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt, if he comes back
safe from Cuba will carry the Repub-
lican state convention with whoop. If
Platt finds Teddy" on his hands as
governor, no one will be able to say that
in,