The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-09
Mr.. Reed In New York

When in the autumn of 1899 THOMAS B.
REID resigned from Congress and en-
terai IN the practice Of law in New York
hn made venture which would have
been to the last degree hazardous for
man whose rise to a distinguished polit-
cal place had not been due to extraOrdi-
nary intrinsic abilities and actual dis
tinction Of intellect and of character
Great regulations elsewhere made are
easily lost in the fierce competition of the
massed ability Of New York II is fur
mace in which only the genuine metal
can stand the fire.
Mr., REED came 10 New York AT time
of life when it is most dangerous for any
man TO undertake To make a new career
in a new and untrled field He was in
his siXty-frst year, and barring the ex-
perience of his early manhood az the
Maine bar. his career had been in po,-
cal life. Accordingly there seemed 10 be
a probability that in the strange envi-
ronment of New York he would fall into
comparative obscurity, and the more be-
cause his retirement had been due to a
radical disagreement with the policy of
his party which had set him wholly
adrift politically.
When Mr.. REED left the Speakership
and the field of active politics he looked
on his withdrawal as permanent. He
| had made up his mind, as he told a friend
at the time that the tendency of the Re-
! publican party against which he rebelled
would continue to be resist less for AZ
least twenty-five years to come. or for
period covering his whole possible life
| Practically, therefore. when he resigned
| from Congress he turned his back on
politics finally and set his face To build
| ing up IA new and distinct career by the
! practice of his old profession as lawyer
! in New York
II was making wholly fresh start in
| life, under circumstances which the great
! political reputation he brought hither
| rendered all the more trying, for the test
which would be applied to him would be
| peculiarly severe. II was not enough
| for Mr.. REED to take a respectable place
in his profession and in the sociNv of
! New York II was necessary for him TO
achieve a distinction here in a new field
which would Justify his title to the
/ dist notion which had been accorded
! him in his political career by dcmon-
strdting that he was intrinsicalv and
| actually man of supreme consequence.
! This trial Of hS strength he had 10 un-
dcrgo at a period Of life when man 5
/ habits have become fixed. among strange
associations and in competition with a
bar with whose methods he was largely
unfamiliar and whose members would
reasonably measure him BY severe
standard of criticism.
II is not too much TO say that in the
two or three wears to which Mr.. REED
vas subjected To this ordeal he grew
steadily in the cStimat ION of his pro-
feSslon as man of mastcrful ability,
and IN he e>teem Of all the many friends
and acquain'ances he made in New York
as man Of the highest and purc-t type
OF character, man who had become a
leader in politics by no merely ADVENT
tious means, but because the place be-
longed to him by right of superiority
In no association of men into which Mr.
REED entered did there not come speedily
a general recognition OF both his moral
and intellectual eminence. and the more
superior the circle and the more exact
ing its standards of measurement the
higher was this cminencc put by it,
Mr., REED was found TO he a man Of
wisdom and of infcxible principle. He
had the homey Ben Franklin common
sense. His mind was both philosophical