The age-herald., 1900-07-29

breath Opposite you is Tammany Hall Looking upward, your eye catches the legend, "Tammany Society,"" and on either side the dates '17S9' and 1867"
 Seventeen hundred and eight-nine! A hundred years roll back and you are In quaint colonial New York; Fourteenth street stretches away into medow land. Down town the great buildings dwindle to low rambling farm houses. On the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets stands long wooden structure, built one-story, after the old Dutch fashion. This is the tavern of one Brom Martling, a sore and drinking grief to the quietly inclined.
 "Brom Markings Long Room" consu- tuted, on alternate nights, dance hall for the festive, and a wigwam for the early Tammany braves. By reason of its un- sightliness, the Long Room" was stig- matized by Tammany's political adversaries as the Pig Pen" The joviality of the old time gatherings at Martlings is traditional. Of Tammanys good cheer the poet Halleck sung:
 There's a barrel of porter in Tammany
 Hall,
 And the Bucktails are swigging it all the
 night long.
 In the time of my childhood it was pleasant
 For a seat and cigar mid the jovial
 throng.
 After the dispatch of regular business such of the members as desired 'to make night of it' reorganized. The night commonly lasted until morning, and was spent in drinking political toasts, singing songs, and telling stories of the narrator's own exploits by field and blood.
 Before the days of Markings, the very first meetings of the Tammany Society were held in Barden's Tavern, on Broad way, near Trinity Church, and afterwards in public house on Broad street, not far from Captain Kidd's old homestead, where the Stock Exchange now stands. It was not until 1S11 that the Tammany braves were able to rear a wigwam for them- selves. Then the old Tammany Hall. which occupied the present site of the Sun building, was begun.
 Amid much pomp of aboriginal paint and feathers, Clarkson Crolius, the first grand sachem of the society, laid the corner stone. In 1912 the hall was first occupied as the regular Tammany wigwam. It continued to be the headauarters of the New York Democracy until 1867, when the society erected the present Tammany Hall, in Fourteenth street
 A white marble statue of the Delaware chief, Tamanend CTammany) adorns the facade of the Fourteenth street building. One reads of him in Coopers Last of the Mohicans" From him the Tammany Socie- ty took it's name. Tamanend, or Tammany, was a great Delaware warrior of the Turtle clan, famed in song and story for his sa- gacity and his love of liberty. He ruled over the thirteen tribes of the Lenni-Len- ape Delaware) confedracy of New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
 Tamamny was present at the great coun- cil under the elm tree at ShackamaXon and signed the treaty with William Penn. The legend runs that he was afterward invited by Manco Capac to revise the Constitution of Peru, and made journey through Mex ico to the land of the Children of the Sun for that purpose. On his departure for Peru he dedicated each of his thirteen tribes to some particular animal such as the bear the beaver and otto, whose good qualities were commended to its emulation.
 During the Revolutionary days patriotic societies formed throughout the states un- der the name of "The Sons of Tammany." Later Tammany was adopted as a tutelar divinity of Democratic Ameria- These early Tammany societies were scattered th1 ough the South and West but up to 17S1 had no existence in New York or farther east.
 To Wm. Mooney, noted citizen of olden New York, belongs the credit of having or ganized the Tammany Society in New York. Mooney was an Irishman by descent, an American by birth. During the Revolu- tion he was a leader among the famous Liberty Boys" After the war was over Mooney went into business as an uphol- sterer in Nassau street. Toward the close of his life he was appointed keeper of the almshouse
 It was Moneys idea to call the society the Columbian Order" but he wisely yield ed to the popularity of the Indian name, Tammany, and in 1895, sixteen years after its formation the association was incor- porated as "The Tammany Society,"" It's braves clung to the musical Indian appella- ton.
 In the old records of the association the Christian Era was discarded, and all trans- actions dated from three events: the Dis covery of America by Columbus, the Dec laration of Independence and the forma- tion of the Tammany Society. The year was divided into the season of blossoms, of fruits or harvest and of snows. The months were recorded after the Indian fashion, as first, second or third moons"
 The charter of Tammany describes it as simply a charitable institution The so- ciety has frequently assisted the needy. At its earlier meetings it was a common oc- currenece for the hat to be passed around in behalf of destitute patriots, their widows and orphans. In later years it has freely given in times of public disaster-pesti- lenece, flood and famine-both in this coun- try and abroad. As late as 1897 it gave $40,OOO to the Cuban cause and $f0,000 to the poor of New York
 But in its youth Tammany was para mountly social affair. It made special ty of celebrating. During the eighteenth century the festival of Tammany, held on May 12, was a notable holiday. Booming cannon and waving flags heralded it's dawn. Tammany braves paraded the streets in aboriginal glory of paint and feathers In the evening the popular so- ciety repaired to the only theater. On one occasion play entitled '"Tammany, or the Indian Chief" was presented on the boards. Washington, with several members of his Cabinet, applauded the performance.