El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-09
Fascinating asst is Inform
ing, and Full of Appre-
citation of the Spirit OF
American. Practical Pol
itiCS.

I each hand, they say-and there are
those who have nursed broken heads
t. remember Dick Croker; also that he
not only fought at the drop of the hat.
but often logged the hand which held
the hat. being an impatient lad. with
no stomach for dalIiaDce.
He learned his trade thoroughly, and
they tell how he built a locomotive
| with his own hands, put it together
it over to the company after inspecting
its speed on a trial trip. His hands
were highly educated. If his head lack
ed knowledge Of the stuff of which
textbooks are made. He took his
masters degree in the shops, and was
graduated as master mechanic. having
learned industry, handcraft and the
simpler uses of physical courage. He
left his alma mater with the welter-
weight championship of the institu-
ton as wrestler, boxer and swim
mer. He was admitted to full part
nership, and soon after to full leader
ship, in a political concern engaged in
picking up a more or less honest liv-
ing, one way and another. known as
the Fourth Avenue funnel gang. In
this institution Croker took post grad
uate work in sociology. physics and po-
litical ethics. He awaited himself of
rude appliances of the laboratory which
covered an acreage OF ten squares. The
assistant, who was managing the af-
fairs for Boss Tweed, in the vicinity of
the Fourth Avenue Tunnel, would not
supply chemicals to Croker and his fell
low students, and otherwise this assist
ant hindered the intellectual develop
ment of the gang. So the gang set out
to show Mr.. Tweed what group of
young men of high ideals and two MIN
BILE fists may do toward attaining the
Good, the True and the Beautiful. Gro
ker, being a husky boy. was chosen to
run for alderman in due time in the st.
Georgian contest with the dragon
Tweed. Croker won. Tweed went to
Albany and legislated Croker out of
Office. That was in II. Croker ran
again. Again he won. Tweed was
overthrown. The young gentlemen of
the Fourth Avenue Tunnel gang tri-
umphed. Croker took his Phi. d. in
the study of mankind and entered upon
the active practice of his profession.
The destiny that shapes our ends
probably did her most effective days
Tammany Soon thereafter he be-
came captain of his election precinct.
The election precinct is the base or
unit of the Tammany, system. Now,
the average citizen of the republic may
fancy that the duties of a Tammany
captain of an election precinct. in the
days of rough and ready politics-in
the days of riot and murder at the polls
in which Croker took violent hand
were solely those of a plug-ugly. Be
cause before the days of the Australian
ballot. the precinct captain had to sit
in the saloon and give out the ballots,
and occasionally to call upon the cor
oner to help the freeman execute his
WILL popular imagination has an al
together wrong idea of the services
rendered by the captain of Tammany
precinct. To encourage misdemeanor
and to foster felony were only Incl
dents in the life of a captains annual
routine. They were the means to an
end and the most of the other means
remain the same. Indeed. the Office is
today what it was in spirit a genera
ton ago. and what in spirit ii may be
a generation hence. for the success of
Tammany depends. and always must
depend. upon paternalism strongly fra
ternal. The Tammany which trained
Young Croker. and which is now train
ing his unknown successor, is a human
institution. Therefore. it rules. not by
its vices. but by it's virtues, and in spite
of it's vices. Here is what Tammany
taught Croker: To be kind to those
in trouble; to look after the sick in the
tenements in his precinct. and to see
the widows had food and fuel. that the
men had jobs and the orphan children
clothes; to mourn with those who
mourn. and to rejoice with them that
rejoice.
Tammany taught discipline. 1t