The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-05-19
LESS FLAGRANT IMMORTALITY.


New York Evening Post.
The recent collapse from prolonged dissi-
patton of a prominent Tammany politician,
who has been the Democratic leader in the
Senate at Albany, follows soon after the
death from the same cause of a less con-
spicuOus member of the organization who
had served two terms in the House of Rep
resentatives at Washington. Ii Is a strik-
ing circumstance that Congressman Brad
leyS life should be ended at almost the
same time that 1.-The silver-tongued Grady
Is driven by the same cause from the Capt.
toll to a sanitarium.
But a more notable feature of the case,
when one stops to recall the past, is the
fact that the breakdown of a politician
from dissipation is a much rarer event
nowadays than 1t used 10 be a generation
ago. This is simply to say that men in
public life are not so apt to become drunk
ards, or even TO make occasional exhibit
tons of themselves while under the In
f1uence of liquor, in our day as in that OF
our fathers and grandfathers. Abundant
evidence 10 sustain this conclusion Is ac-
cessible.
To begin at home, it is the testimony of
an experienced reporter, who has long
served at the New York city hall. that in
toxication is noticeably less common In and
about that building than Ii was fifteen
years ago. The Board of Aldermen repre-
sents as low a type of Officeholders as We
have. but this observer has been impressed
by its almost entire freedom from drunk
enness. a similar change for the better has
occurred in the Capitol at Albany. Old oc-
cupants of the reporters galleries in the
two chambers of Congress make the same
report. 1t is a less common sight now than
formerly to see a senator or a representa-
tive on the floor when he Is not himself
from drink. and the strain of an all-night
session, such as that of the Sd of March
last. does not breed so many scandals as
were expected twenty or thirty years ago.
fragrant immortality of other sorts is
also less frequently thrust upon the public
notice. The shrewd politician does not
fiaunt his contempt for the decencies of
life i'm his relations with women. Men
whose conduct in this regard had become
scandalous have found that they suffered
for Al when they sought reelection, eS-
pecially in those States of the farther
West where women have been given the
ballot.
In short, the morals of our public men,
so far as they are manifested i'm their out
ward conduct. make a decidedly better
showing. This is only to say that Tam
many aldermen. Albany legislators. ma
a change which has come over the people
whom they represent. The veteran editor
of the Northampton (Mass.) Gazette noted
in his newspaper the other day the fact
that he had just seen a couple OF brawny
fellows. who seemed TO be pretty well
corned," fighting on the idewalk in the
heart of that pleasant little city. But he
added the still more significant statement
that he had not seen such a fight before
for many years. "A half century ago. he
said. when rum was more plenty and its
use more general. with less restraints. per-
sonal encounters were more frequent"-and
this, too. though Northampton then was
hardly more than a village. This is all
part of a general movement toward better
self-control. public opinion holding the
whiphand in the matter and administering
the lash when a politician makes a scene
by losing his temper or develops the habit
of getting drunk or otherwise displays his
immortality.