The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-09
NEW WORKS FEUDAL SYSTEM.

It is remarkable that in order to meet
 with the most primitive conditions o1 | communal organization in New York
 one must go to the most garish and the
 most populous of it's clubs. Once there
 the blaze of electric light falls upor
 palaeolthic surprises. The stone agt
 emerges in the glitter, and the latter lorc
 of the lief, in propria persona, brings thl villenage of the fourteenth century uI
 defiantly abreast of the twentieth cen tury Nothing can be more interesting
 than to study this resurgence of triba conditions and brute chieftainship, as
 they flourish aggressively in the heart ol
 modern city. We find men banded to-
 gether by the rudest and most primitive | ties of sef-protection and plunder. We l find them selecting chieftan who is virtually the proprietary baron of the
 lief, and whose whole puissance is based
 upon the minimizing fidelity of his clans | So essential was this fealty considered | in primitive and feudal times that it
 passed into proverb among men. A breach of faith in the tribe was reck-
 oned the greatest crime of which man
 could be guilty, and this recognition of the absolute necessity of standing to-
 gether, where there was no possibility of standing alone, has come down unim-
 paired to the political club.
 To make the cohesion perfect it was
 necessary to invest some chieftain with
 power instead of quality and summon
 the rudimental emotions, instead of the
 reason, to the fealty. That is what has been done in the political club, and there
 is no survival of primitive man in our
 present social conditions so defiantly an- tique as this. The cheftain answers ex-
 actly to the characteristics of the feu-
 dal baron, or the captain of the merry
 men, who for time charmed the world
 by mixing war and wassail, and en-
 riched themselves at the expense of so-
 ciety. He gets no authority, civic or re-
 ligious, from the community: he has no
 duties to perform in legislative bodies;
 he avoids all official positions which en-
 tail obligations; above him there is no authority and no superior of whom he is
 the representative or the interpreter
 and there is no general or powerful law
 that holds him to it's strict observance.
 But it is in this respect that he best ana swers to the rude instincts of the forces which must have some such figurehead to focus their clan emotions upon. The fact that, unlike the feuda chieftain, he has not earned his position by personal prowess has come to be rather recom- mendation. That he is without educa- tion or talents, or record of industry or any intrinsic qualities of character that would of themselves distinguish him above his fellows, is in some way war rant for his retainers' homage. They alone~are his creators. It is enough that they have agreed that he shall be hon ored and privileged and obeyed. He is thus a living example of what simple loyalty will do, even when it's materials are so scant, and obeisance thus becomes a sort of self-hattery, for every ward heeler, in contemplating his chieftain. feels that there are infinite possibilities in gang.
 The assertion of this rudimental loyal ty comes out in the ordinary inthecourse of the club in most remarkable man. ner It wears on it's edges the flexible subserviency that attends a savage mon arch, and takes on the viruence in the rank and file at times of family ven detta. What the boss says goes" is a common ultinatum of the subordinate chieftains. It is an assertion not of af- lection, but of policy. Even the young lawyers with convictions, and liberal ed ucations, and active professional ambi tions slow down their cOnsciences and their judgments in the atmosphere of the chief. When one of them was asked by the writer of this article if he could with his training and social obligations con- advocate certain objec- tlonable law, the expression of his face assumed the patent doggedness of the and he replied, We obey orders' He said it with the implied obedience of the shrewd marine who knows on which side his bread is but tered. Viewed through the modern cleo 1 tric lights, loyalty, which is thus sub servience on one side, is very apt to be- come pusillanimity on the other, and the retainer who is polite enough to be a | sycophant is pretty sure to be also a l bully.
 These noticeable signs in the political | club do not indicate socialism or anar- chism as some observers have asserted | they indicate just the opposite, that is, | the rude mingling of superstition and | which has always been the | pest guarantee in the history of the race | for despotic forms of government, and | t is very remarka ble fact that democ- 'acy in it's municipal working thus comes round to primitive and imperial stic condition. If it were possible to- morrow to proclaim the Tammany chief ain king of New York, there would be | III instant outpouring of ancient ele- nents which have always selected their )Wn tyrants with what has been blas- called "the voice of God" History would then instinctively repeat tself along it's lower levels.
 Intimations of such racial stavism are occasionally furnished by the club itself Il the unquestioning difference, amount ng almost to a worshipful respect, which the clans bestow upon their chief The homage shows itself in unconscious imitation. The dull peculiarities of the hieftain are reverberated among the esser lieutenants. His words, often set II the vernacular of the costermonger, lave oracular significance to his admir- rs and even his reticences have deepen epths of significance. Rude but honest elicitation attends his prosaic going and alculated honors wait upon his coming When he sets cut aVOWedly to bet and