The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-01
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERCURRENTs OF
THE METROPOLIS.

New Triumvirs-What He Hns to
Say About Tammany's Secret of
SuccesS-The Ignorance of Human
Nature-The Average RefOrmer.
Two Striking Funerals-New York.
Real Bloody War on Between Au-
tomobiIes and NOn-AutomObiIes.
A weeks killings Shock the City.
How Slick PIunkett Got DIR. Byrne's
Voters Away From Him.
New York. May 31.-Dan Mcmahon,
one Of the new triumvirs of Tammany
Hall, has his own idea of why Tam
many Hall can hold its votes. He
gave it to me years ago when New
York talked of reform only as it talked
of the Venus of Milo. MY dear fell
low" said Dan, they can't beat us.
And why? Sure, because there isn't
a single solitary hen amongst them
that knows enough about human ma
ture to tell an enemy from friend.
Look at our crowd, on the other
hand. There is Gilroy" (Gilroy was
Mayor them born and bred amongst
the people of the tenement districts.
So was 1. So was Croker. So was
pretty nearly every one of US. And it's
the tenement house districts that elect
the officials of New York.
You chaps" (meaning the reformers)
ION the other hand, don't know any
thing about the troubles and trials and
temptations nor yet about the pleas
ures of the tenement house folk. You
can't any more talk to them under
standingly than you could fly. And
If you could, do you suppose that they
would pay any attention to you? Not
much! You amt their kind and they
don't want any truck with you. So
you fellows put in your valuable time
in the brown stone districts, districts
where there amt whole voter to
house We get a hundred and more
voters out of each house. That's the
difference.
There never was one of your re-
formers yet that knew anything about
any kind of human nature, tenement
house or any other kind. They think
that a man who studies peoples pre-
JUDGES and preferences and fads can't
be honest. They charge on everything
blindly and before they have begun
10 warm their offices they have step
ped on every tender toe in sight"
Dan was police justice then, and it
is only simple candor to state that he
was a good one. Certainly Tammany
influence often tempted the wind of
justice to the Tammany lamb If he
happened to be up" on some incon-
sequential charge. But in many
months of daily attendance at his court
! never saw either him perpetrate in
Justice on any one for political reasons
or fail to deal out common sense law,
humanized by thorough sympathy,
whenever there was an opportunity for
1t.
They call him "Dago Dan" now be-
cause he and his partner, Naughton.
with whom he entered the contracting
business, are accused of having hired
tar too many "Dagos." But Dan has
comparatively few enemies, and his
whole course in politics has been so
prudent and steady that Croker's
choice of him probably will turn out
to be a wise one. Apparently McMa-
hon will be the balance wheel in the
new triumvirate. Murphy will be the
fighter.
The whole think is puzzle to New
York as yet. Nobody except those on
the inside knews what the new game
is going to be. There is only one thing
sure and that is that one Croker, of
Vantage. Berks, will not be left out
in the cold just yet,
There were two funerals in New
York to-day that served to show, in
a striking way, the immense extremes
OF New York's social life. Far up
town near the North river. many
thousands of tenement dwellers stood
in reverent sorrow while the body of
a little 4year-old girl, Kathleen Elan
again, was being borne to the cemetery.
She had disappeared suddenly while
mt with her father and for than
a week the greater part of the popula-
ton in that section of the city was
kept stirred up about her. Men and
women and children, laborers, idlers,
policemen. tugboat men and boatmen
looked for her, None would admit that
she could have fallen overheard. al
though it was sadly obvious that that
fate had been hers, for within a few
moment of her disappearance she had
been seen playing on the stringpiece of
a pier. But the word was passed
through the city that her parents be-
lieved that she had been kidnapped
and the city became as anxious as
were the poor father and mother not
to admit the truth and to grasp at the
hope that the little child might be alive.
In the meanwhile men in all walks
of life hunted the city for her. AL
most all their work was given free.
Nothing awaited until yesterday when
the churning of a tugboats propeller
brought Kathleens little corpse to
view within twenty feet of the place
where she had been seen last.
Within five minutes, more than five
thousand people had rushed down the
streets leading to the river front and
almost that many formed a silent pro-
cession behind the patrol wagon that
took the body to the police station
house
The other funeral to-day was from
Fifth avenue and fifty-first streets
Herman Oelrichs house. The body
of pet parrot was taken solemnly TO
the Oelrich's summer home in New
port TO be inferred there. The news
of the birds death really affected So
ciety. II spread as rapidly as even
the most spicy news about some one S
misfortune could have been expected
to do and the newspapers, discovering
quickly that 1t had really become a
subject for interested discussion every
where, (society's "everywhere'O, gave
the subject far more space that often
is given to the death of an ordinarily
prominent person. Polly's peculiarities
and beauties of mind and feature were
discussed with profundity and her
career of twenty-five years as Mrs
Oelrich's pet was dwelt on pathet-
scally.
The general belief that Kathleen
Flanagan had been kidnapped only IL
illustrates a new fear that has strange
~ affected all the poorer districts OF
New York. 1t would be understand
able enough If rich folk were thrown
into a state of terror by fears of kid
MAPPING, but this time the panic is