Evening star., 1899-03-16
City Employees Dismayed by Enforce
ment of Civil Service Rule.
ANENT THAT JEFFERSON BANQUET
Efforts to Secure Both National
Conventions for New York.
CHINATOWN Is DOOMED
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

NEW YORK, March II, 1899.
Within the last few days some of the
most efficient political workers who hold
jobs under the city government have been
dismissed because they could not pass civil
service eXanina tions and because the civil
service comm ssioners could no longer pro-
tect them in their places for fear of them
selves being hauled up for violating the
law. The discharged men were appointed
a year ago under the elastic provision
known as rule "a of the civil service classi-
fication. 1t permits heads of departments
to make temporary appointments to posi-
tons when no eligible list exists for the
position for which requis:ton is made.
Hundreds of the faithful who were kept in
office as "temporaries" under the protect
ing wing of the civil service commission
will have to go. They had the pull to hold
pass an examination Only those who were
lucky enough to be appointed as confiden-
tial inspectors and clerks. and who are eX-
em7t from competitive examination under
schedule a, Will escape the ak.
That Jefferson Day Banquet.
There is considerable gossip clustering
around that rson-day-Tammany ban
quet, the burden of which is that the or
iSinal plan was to make it a great. rousinS,
national affair. Agents, Il is said. were
sent to Washington and elsewhere to con-
suit such leaders as William J. Bryan. SEN
ator james X. Jones. Daniel j. Campau,
Senator Daniel Senator Morgan and others.
In nearly every case il is alleged. pump
refusal to participate was encountered.
Ex-President Cleveland was approached,
and he, too, declined. Then, when this dis
couraSing news reached here. the plans
We're suddenly modified and the decision
was reached To make the dinner a state af-
fair. An amusing but ingenious excuse was
given for the change. 1t was pleaded that
the Opera House. where the dinner is to
be held, could not accommodate all who
wished to attend it from the club alone,
and so the plan had to be changed. Or
course, Croker and his friends knew long
before they decided TO make it a national
dinner how many the Opera House would
accommodate.
The trouble is said to be largely due to
Perry Belmont, the president of the club.
Mr.. Belmont has many political and per-
Sondl enemies both in and outside of the
cub He has always been regarded in
many quarters as a political weathercock
He was a close friend of eX-PreSident
Cleveland. when the latter made him min
lister to Spain. Later he went over to eX-
Senator Hill and was with him for time
and then he tumblcd into the Croker camp
and became president of Croker : club. He
is credited with an ambition to be governor
of New York state. and. ii is said. Croker
feeds this ambition. Just who Will attend
the dinner as speakers IS StIll Il matter OF
mystery.
Gotham Wants National Conventions.
A determined and systematic effort is to
be made to bring the democratic and re-
publican national conventions to New York
next year. the New York board of trade
and transportation having taken up the
matter General Edward y. McAIpin, treas
urer of the republican state committee, has
presented the subject of inviting the con-
venJions here at the meeting in the fol-
lowing resolution, which was approved:
Resolved. That a committee of twenty
five be appointed by the President. with
power to add to their number and also aD-
peal to other organizations and citizens and
to the city authorities for cooperation, to
the end that the city of New York shall
secure the holding within its limits of both
the great national political conventions in
1900
Trophies of War With Spain.
In vacant lot between two of the bond
ed warehouses at the Erie basin. Brooklyn,
there are lying, heaped up indiscriminately,
several hundred old Spanish cannon that
have been sent north. consigned to two
firms in Manhattan, who will melt up most
of The weapons and convert them into mar
ketable bronze. Many of the guns are his
tOrically valuable, and the park depart
-mant has made arrangements to purchase
eighty for the purpose of placing them in
the various parks in Manhattan, Brooklyn
and the Bronx. All the cannon are of most
artistic design, and are beautifully carved
in detail. Quaint names have been given
to some of the pieces by their old owners,
and these names are cut in the bronze or
are in raised letters the breech. There
is a Grand PetTO,' a st John and the
King Some have women's names and
some are christencd in honor Of great
events. This collection of weapons came
from old Moro Castle at Havana, where it
had been growing for nearly two centuries.
Mr.. De Wolf will have the inscriptions
translated and will endeavor to have the
full particulars Of their histories traced by
some one in Havana.
Activity of Recruiting Office.
Uncle Sans recruiting office, opposite
Cooper Union, presents these days scenes
of unusual activity. There applicants are
hurrying to the number of about 600 Il
week to gain admission to the various arms
of the service now being brought up to its
new quota. Major F. 4. Whitney of the
9th United States Infantry, who has charge
of this work in New York has two other
stations under his jurisdiction in this city
Within few days others will be opened at
Middleton and at GlOversviIle Since Febru-
airy l of this year 90 men have been re-
cruited. During the same time between 4,gl
and 1,Jb candidates have been rejected
NhOSI Ol the assembling Is done at the Sd
avenue quarters. From there patches of
about thirty men are dispatched daily TO
take their first lessons i'll the school of the
soldier.
Victim OF had Reef.
Harry Somers, who fought and was
wounded at San Juan Hill as private in
Company NJ of the list Regiment, is dam
serously i'll at the Iiahnemann Hospital. 1t
Is not his wounds that trouble him. although
Mauscr bullets pierced his left leg ana
ploughed through the lid of his right eve.
He has almost forgotten his wounds 1t is
his stomach that i troubling him and if
you ask him how il happened he will grow
eloquent in his portrayal Of the canned beef
which made the Cuban Campa ign a Vcritable
horror. This is what he says: Il had a
splendid stomach when We left this city But
before We go, to Cuba | was practically
knocked oUj. Even on the transport we
had nothing but harjtacli and salt bacon
with Il little canned h-ef thrown in once a
week The memory of tho bacon makes me
naussous. II was horr.d s;uff. and most 90
the boys Gol sores all over their faces and
bodies II rm eating il. Bui the pink of e,-
orYthing that WAS disgusting was the can
ned beet Ii was rotten. putrid-a green
moldy mass. But what went Il man do
when he's starving? We ate that awful
C;trripn. and the result was. of course in.
evitahle- All who swallowed the stuff be-
came deadly sick