New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-09
HISTORY IN REPETITION.
EANMANY'S PROJECT TO BUILD A SUM
MER HOME RECALLS THE DAYS
OF TWEED AND THE AMER
ICUS CLUB.

The report that Tammany Hall is looking over
the shore resorts Long Island for a suitable
site for magnificent summer home will not
tiTely surprise those who have been watching
the way in which Tammany history is repeating
Itself The modern Princes of Corruption have
Cor a long time been following closely in the
footsteps of Tweed and Connolly and Sweeny,
and the fact that they going TO build sum-
home may be the beginning Of the end. 1t
was for the old Tweed ring They grew rich from
the same grasping corruption that is making
miIIionaires out Of the Tammany leaders of to-
day, and then they built palace and revealed
in it They opened wine" and dined and
gambied whole weeks at time, and were still
al II when the deluge came. Perhaps the Tam
many of to-day viii not go so far, as its schemes
Of robbery show more cleverness in creation
and execution, but il could hardly find bette
way of teasing the long suffering public opinion
into a rage which viii sweep them into exile or
prison than TO build a summer home like the
one which fiourished in the sixties
The Americas Club, which was founded by
political faction in 1853 had very languid ex-
istence for eight or ten years. Then Tweed de-
cided that Tammany Hall needed a social or
ganzation and picked up the easy going amer
icus to save the trouble of forming new club
1t jumped into prominence at once, and changed
IN a season to one Of the gayest and most fniqui-
tous social organizations which the United
States has ever known. Brilliant balls with
thousands Of guests and wine dinners of great
lavishness suhiced for winter entertainment
when summer came the members OF the ciup
found themselves scattered along the coast and
il was decided that clubhouse was necessary
TO keep UP interest.
beautiful site was secured at Greenwich
Conn and an enormous frame structure WAS
erected II was surrounded with broad Porches'
and the lower floors divided INTO large
rooms for banqueting and gambling. The club
bruee was striking for its elaboration of design
and finish 1t was furnished in most eA-
pensiye manner, many of the furnishings oelhs
made in Europe by special order and imported
4 Belgian carpet woven in one piece is an IN
e-ance az this The makers received the hlgh-
81 rrice eyer paid for single modern loom
7,roduct IT was the particular JOY or those
,77eTpFers Of the club who had risen from pow
e-1v and one Of them is said 70 have remarked
a. he was walking over il for the hrst uhe'
why il is as thick a beefsteak!
The banauets given there between the years
n 1861 and 1871 astonished the world Cham
ragna flowed much after the way IN Wmch
water goes over Niagara. Colored walters
l,~o4lgb+ il into the banquet room dozen cases
a. a time and one man was kept busy carrying
aU,av the empty bottles. Whey they tired OF
drinking champagne they bathed in il. Besides,
there were other wines, more expensive
which had been sent from France, Spain and
Italy. Cellars the country over were searched
for old whiskey stock, and no price was con-