Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1904-06-03
THE LATE MAYOR McLANE.
Baltimore, JUNO 2, IgO4.

10 lIe Ihiiof vi the AteAiDuih o"~'
The last sad tribute to the mortal re-
mains of the late Mayor Robert NJ.
McLane was paid on Wednesday alter
noon at his funeral, which took place
from the residence of his parents at 9O3
Cathedral street.
Robert NJ. McLane was martyred
mayor, and the term is used adylsedly.
He accepted the nomination for the OIL
fee reluctantly and only after the most
strenuous persuasion and importantly.
Even after election he had to bear the
brunt OF a bitter contest TO establish his
claim, and had 10 pay his own legal ex-
penses, the democratic organ alton
having basely left him in the lurch.
Scarcely had he been securely seated in
the mayoralty chair than Baltimore's
stupendous calamity occurred and mil
lions upon millions of dollars worth Of
the most valuable property in the city
was destroyed almost in the twinSllng
Of an eve. Then it was that Robert
n. McLane's indeiatigable energy his
resourceiul ideas, and his great love OF
his native city were shown to the best
advantage. During the three days that
the five ragged he did not know what
sleep was, and when happily the worst
was over, he was promptly at'his post OF
duty. wide-awake and eager to aid in
the work of rebuilding the devastated
ruins of the city he loved so well.
He entered into the work with a vim
and earnestness, characteristic of the
man. That he may have erred, is pos
sible. He like the rest Of us was only
human, but if he did err, and the writer
positively doubts it, he did so on the
right side. During his adm 1istration
from the inception to the unhappy ending,
he had been besetwith a crowd of dis
appointed and carping politicians, who
made his lot a most unhappy one. And
this was not enough; the appalling ca
tastrophe of the fre--a condition which
has fortunately not often happened to a
city executive--with. its consequences
sternly confronted him. And he was
equal to the emergency from the start,
being head and front in inaugurating any
and every movement that looked to the
relief aud improvement of our stricken
city. But in every city land Baltimore
seems to have a superintendent share)
there is a host of earping cities, and
every act of the young mayor was
condemned and made the target for
merciless criticism. The ''com-
munication") columns Of the news
papers were thrown open to scrib-
blers, who, under various pseudonyms,
attacked the mayor, his policy his
appointees, and even his ancestry.
Every Tom, Dick and Harry, who could
WELD pen added his or her idiotic
eiiusion to the general mass with which
we have been RECALLED ad nauseum. Even
the newspapers themselves, some OF
them departing from their staidness OF
the past, have editorially and in their
reportOrial columns held up to rio Guile
and contempt many of the mayors acts,
especially the burned district COM
mission, body composed of Baltimore
best representative citizens. Even this
board and its members, who are citizens
of prominence and wealth, have been
charged with holding matters back and
with general sloSness in order to make
their sala. ed jobs last lor yer.
Il it any wonder that Mr.. McLane
succumbed to such a tremendous and
unjust pressure, aud in rashmoment
severed the golden cord wf;ch bound
bin to life and lu. Ire fine? There are
many scandalous stores about f. nily
troubles being b. Jited alb ,ut by morbid
ghOuls, but there is not an iOta OF nth
in any of them. Mr. McLane was a
man of refined sensibiIties, and was
highly sensitive 91d wi'hal e:lremely
Jealous Of the fair fame Of his admiris-
tra''On and anything that would tend to
show that it had not been successful
would doubtless, I'd did no doubt, prey
on his mind until the tragic ending came.
As a prominent speaker said last
night, at meeting of the Masonic fra
ternity, he had been bounded to death
by politicians who should have been his
friends and by unjust and unwarranted
publications.
Mr.. E. Clay Timanus, the republican
president OF the second brahch of City
Council, now, under our new charter,
ASSUMES the duties of the mayoralty for
the unexpired term Of three years, and
already the republican sheets here are
beginning to lecture democratic Office
holders about giving an undivided sup
port to the new Mayor, strongly init
mating that it is now a republican city
government, aud dire will be the con-
sequences to them if they do not humb-
ly bow the neck. The negroes too have
caught the fever, aud are singing peons
of victory and rejoicing over the pros
pect of their appointment to the street
brigade, fire department etc. But all
of them may reckon without their host.
Maryland still has a dem ocratic COVER
nor and an oyel whelming democratic
legislature, and if any undue or ex.
IRENE partisanship is shown by the
powers that be, an extra session at An
napolis may be the result, and with
an Assembly pledged to a white mans
government the ending can be easily
surmised. My MARYLAND.
Deaths and Damage by Storms.