The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-28
THE BEGINNINGS OF A BOSS.
Piait's Nouth-E< cynotcs of His Ca
reer struck Early-Sentiment
REGARDING SIau Who Went to
..Free the Sons of Ham
From the New York Post.

reer struck EartS-SehaiuiCh nv
Regarding Mau who Went 60
"Free the Sons of Ham,
From the New York Post
Thomas c. PIatt, the boss emeritus
of the Republican state machine, Is
asking that he shall again be elected
to the United states Senate. Some OF
the men in the machine who have
worked with him in politics for great
while are disposed to indulge him in
this fad of his old age, because to de-
prive an old man of what he wants
would be unknd. In view of TINS SIT
nation of affairs in New YORK state
politics it is worth while to review IN
some detail the career of senator
Plat. The story for to-day is his
youth and his entry into public life
Thomas G. Platt spent his first child
hood in Owego. Tioga county dis IA
Their was a lawyer who, in later mood
regretted that he had not gone lnto
the ministry. Thus the sons early
life came 10 be environed with all that
was expected to direct him towards
profession in which he would deal with
lasting verities and fine moralities.
My father was New england
Presbyterian" Mr.. Plat once said. He
was a church deacon, and his home
was a hotel for every Bible and tract
peddler missiona ry, or minister that
came to our town. He was so strict
that he never allowed any cooking to
be done on sunday lie always ate
cold food on that day and ! had TO go
to church four times every Sunday. I
went to Sunday School early in the
morning After that to service TO
conference. l believe t was called; III
- service again IN
the evening. | had such a surfeit OF
church-going in my youth that if it
could be averaged up, or spread out, II
would do for all my life -
Presbyterianism lost q minister, and
Republicanism gained d boss by that
bringing-up.
1t was on account of Deacon Platt's
desire that his son should be a preach
or that he sent him to OWego Acad-
envy and then to Yale College, and il
was owing to the sons Discrimination
and also to feeble health that he soon
LEFT college. where some of his class
mates had been Depew, Judge Shiras,
and Andrew D. White. He went into
a grocery to keep the books; then he
became clerk in bank. That was the
period when he wrote rhymes and jests
for q little Owego magazine called the
St Nicholas Although Mr. Flatt
WINGED a IL when il was reprinted last
year in McClure's Magazine, he may
have simply forgotten that one of mis-
contributions to the periodical was this,
To Stella: ~
4 -little star rode all alone st
Along the azure sky
And sang so mournfully because
No other star was nigh.
But soon another planet swept
Adowp the ethereal main,
Aud twinkled ut that pretty star,
Which twinkled back again.
They ,4ove IN orc their silver crowns
And l1cRed their flashing wings, J
And now 40 rover of the skies
Like fappy s.tlla sings.
lie lived TO WI te things which he
did not c,sCNn. one of which he RAID
a {Ne3r II Two aEo at the GuliIon
Club. 10 show lis matured style. II
was "cn 'he ceatll OF p. |. =. Potter,
Familiarity known as Pig Potter, wlo
fought fcr freedom, bored for water,
and died f,r WHISKY" Here are a few
stanzus
The Potters we're old Berkshire stock.
son "pig'' a bloc,1ed man.
WHO, with smco, li-tore on lis back,
HELPED free the CONS of Ham.
lie saved his hecoa in the wan;
His paw was 70. sins wages,
lie cared no s,gaN. save sages saw
Him chopped into sau-sages.
Figs pens produced choice tender
llo)incs
Rich literary meat,
And when his gait was poetry.
You'd smile to see Pig feet,
At last grim death struck Pigs thick
rnd.
Dried IN his water work:
He made a brine of pure "strychnine"
And picked his fresh pork.
Unlike Pc Potte,, Mr. Platt did not
30 to the war to free the sons of
Ham.
Tie had. by that time made some
rooney in numbering in what was then
tho Northwest, having served on the
way thither as a drug clerk in Massil-
Ion, ohio.
~What was your first ambition when
YOU We're boy2' he was asked net
Ions ago.
ITO make money" he replied prompt
"; but l never succeeded. so l am no
longer ambitious that way
Return to 0weRo.
At 20 years of age, however. he re-
turned to OwegO with enough money to
become a stockholders in the Tioga Ma
tional Bank zone of the eariesO. and
at p he was made president of it. lie
has to this day remained one of it's di-
rectors. There is a legend a bout "a
little back office''-little back offices be-
ing faYorte starting-pla for politi-
clans. He was in the campaigns from
Sc onward through Abolition excite
ments; married early: was elected
county clerk at 2e; ana through being
banker got interested in railroads
and railroad building
One of them ran from Sayre, Pa. to
Lake Ontario, and is now the Lehigh
Nalley-in which he is still supposed
to hold stock, as well as in other coal
roads involved in the recent anthra-
cite strike He was president once of
the Pennsylvania and Tennessee Coal
and Iron Company. In the early sew
entities he was up for nomination 70
Congress. One thousand ballots were
cast i'm a vain effort, his rival for the
place being a resoute fighter, Then,
finding that 500 more ballots showed
no weakening of the deadlock, Plat
surrendered, as he always has when
pushed into corner by a strong OPP
ponent.
Before Goodrich" the opponent in
this case, Mr.. Plat lately recalled,
had taken his seat he began to show
animosity to me. with the result that
] went down to Washington and asked
Gen. Grant to appoint a friend of mine
IA G al -