The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-02
INNOCENCE AT ALBANY.
HOW AN HONEST BUT GREEN
 ASSEMBLYMAN
From the Country Was Dupcd By [
 Tammnny Politician.

lcS, Sdlu lIle IGlOTH6u pOllllCldU
 who is now business man, 'I went
 into politics when I was young, and
 I've seen many an interesting thing,
 but about the most interesting was
 during the first term of office I ever
 held. Of course, you know, I lived in
 the country nearly all the time l was
 a politician, and only reformed after I
 moved to the city.
 T used to be solid with the boys at
 the mill up home, and the crowd of us
 cut quite figure, so when old man
 Nathan who was a country merchant
 and farmer across the creek, was elect
 ed Assemblyman, it was easy to get
 him to have me appointed to the clerk ship that he controlled. I was green
 but he was more green, and so he look
 ed to me to guide him around Albany,
 and l knew about all he did. That was
 away back in the '70s, and the New
 Yorker they afterward called the Gold
 en Lunged' had just been elected to
 his first term in the Assembly.
 Well, the first day of the session
 the Golden Lunged' made a speech. It
 wasn't about anything much, but it
 gave him a chance to exercise his lungs
 and exhibit his oratory. In fact, the
 speech was only made to show off Tam
 many's new orator, and he did show off to good advantage. My patron old
 man Nathan, was charmed. Although | of the opposite party, he concluded that if he could gain the friendship of such a smart man as the Golden Lung
 ed' he would be supremely happy. He got introduced that night, and the Golden Lunged seemed to like him. Some of the Tammany men were ac-
 tually jealous of the attention their orator bestowed on an obscure and simple Hudson River farmer like old man Nathan.
 Tn due time the Golden Lunged' was made a member of the Railroad Committee and two or three other good committees-'good' from the Tammany standpoint. 4 day or two later to my great engagement, old man Nathan introduced bill relating to the street railways of New York city. The bill was admirably drawn and of a character to enlist at once the support l of the incipient yellow journalism of \ that day It was peoples bill, and | one that, if enacted into law, would | have cost the railroads a large sum. I didn't understand it at all
 T knew old man Nathan couldn't | have drawn that bill or any other. I knew he didn't know one single thing about the New York street railroads, and that he cared less. But he actually made speech on that bill-a speech that went to the point.
 The bill went to the Railroad Com mittee, and after hearing or two was smothered there. In the mean time old man Nathn introduced more bills of similar nature. that were referred to the Railroad Committee or some other that the Golden Lunged' was a member of, only to be smothered in committee in like manner I could get no information out of my patron beyond a statement that they were good bills, and he thought they should be enacted into laws. People down lome were wondering how the old man lad become so great a man. They read about his bills in the papers, and con- ,luded that their Assemblyman just ibout ran the whole legislature. But, Ike myself, they wondered how he had ound out so much about the wants . If New York city, and why he did not introduce some bills in the interests of lis own district
 Finally, the legislature adjourned That night old man Nathan and met he Golden Lunged' at a hotel in AL ,any, and we had a spread The Golden Lunged' insisted on paying for erything-wouldn't let us spend a ent. After we had eaten-and drunk ome, too--the Golden Lunged' was iddire us good night, when he said: See here, Nathan, I mean to do some |, hing for you. I suppose I ought to di- idle even, but that seems almost too nuoh, for I made clear s17,0o0 off of hose bills I got you to introduce, and he other fellows on the committee did retty we'll. But I tell you what I will O. If you run again next fall I'll give ou $1 GOO to run your campaign with say, you ought to have seen old man latham. I really believe that was the rst time he had so much as suspected @ was being used as a catspaw by a triker He was speechless. It hit i'm so hard that he wouldn't run the ext fall and so the Golden Lunged' ever had to spend that thousand dol ITS. For, you see the old man was so onest that he had never supposed any le else was dishonest. whats become of the Golden Lung l?' Oh, he's still alive and from the gar he entered the Assembly along ith old man Nathan has been success Il as a politician. He's had lots of ex- ,rience in politics since then, and the 7 ,000 he made that first year has mul- piled many times. As for old man Ma lan, he's been dead for many years, Id I don't believe any of his relatives e living. If the old man wasn't dead wouldn't tell you this story, for it fight get back to him, and I know it ould have broken his heart to think at any one knew of that experience sides himself, the Golden Lunged Id me."-New York Tribune.