El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-09

(From the New York Sum-
Finite judgments are often biased by
immaterial evidence. The thrush, the
oriole, the bird of paradise, are es-
teemed by society, while the unlovely
hell-diver is despised. Nature has no
favorites. All her creatures are equal
Iy beloved. In Gods kingdom all the
subjects are of royal blood. The earth
worm is as useful as the lion; the am
oeba has full fellowship with man.
Contrasts being human contrivances,
are generally Observation-Disclosures
of mere within and viewpoint When
men contrast their fellows the result
must make the angels sigh. Each hui
man contrast is the preference for the
oriole over the hell-diver repeated. We
say this man is not SO good as that
man, and this other is not so strong
as a fourth one. who is decried for not
being as skilled as the fifth, and so 1T
goes. We forget that the hell-diver
does Gods work in the mud, which is
as honorable station as the arbor is
even if to our finite eyes the arbor may
seem more beautiful. So when man
rises full of power, all daubed as to
pIumage with the muck of the marsh,
we must measure him by the oriole.
And when Richard Croker appeared in
American politics. all the world gasped
and tacitly wondered why Croker could
not be like Charles Eliot Norton
Whereupon men began to throw rocks
at the Croker-bird, because he is an ug-
Iy bird and has no moral sense.
Now. rock-throwing is a fine sport,
but it does not help scientists to study
the human hell-diver, to find its eco
nomic uses nor to direct its energies
toward the general good The object
of this thesis is to collect and set down
oil LOTT i1oh a
ker; to find his family, genus, and
species; to ascertain what he feeds up
on; what his place is in the scheme OF
things, and what part he is playing in
the conservation of political and So
cial energy that is slowly forcing the
inevitable triumph of reason and the
will of God"
Richard Croker was born in ireland,
and popular belief has labelled him Ir-
ish. Yet the blood that governs Gro
ker's character is English blood, not
Irish, for the Croker family came to
Ireland about six generations ago from
England. The Crokers were people OF
quality. and in the family was sur
veyor-general, a poet and a wit, a great
editor and literary wrangler of parts.
and such courtiers, barristers, soldiers
and citizens as set the stage FOR the
historical plays of the period. Until
the last generation each Croker lived
like the "Thane of Cawdor'-'a pros
porous gentleman" But the fighting
devil seems to have been big in all
of them, and Richard Cookers grand
father apparently was possessed Of an
especially active fighting devil for the
grandfather named Cookers sire Eyre
Coot, after Sir Eyre Coot. dashing
Limerick soldier, who fought Eng
lands battles all over the world, and
whose bones now rest in Westminster.
the wearer of them having grown black
in the face with rage and died OF apo
plexy in the heat of battle at the pros
pect of defeat. Whatever martial spirit
there may have been in Eyre Coot Gro
ker was spent in finding food and shell
ter for large family. of which Rich
ard Croker was the youngest of the
family.
When the family fell upon evil times.
Eyre Coof Croker emigrated with his
flock to America. They passed New
York and went to place near Cincin-
natl. They remained there but short
time, returning to New York abuot
1850. The lad Richard picked up
meagre education in the public schools,
for the Crokers were protestants.
Orchard has since become a Catholic)
In the fifties young Croker entered
the machine shops of what is now the
New York Central railroad. He was
in his early teens when he began to
learn the machinists' trade. but he was
such strapping youngster that there
is today a Croker myth in the shops
made of stories of his prowess. AS a
blacksmith he could swing a sledge in