New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-16
their party associates Their favorits nominee
should be beaten out Of sight.
AFTER THE ELECTION.


In November, 1898, Mr.. Ridgway, while Dis
trict Attorney, was publicly charged with be-
friending John Y. McKane. whose 10000 votes
for years were regularly on sale to the highest
bidder. The Mclaughlin machine bought these
votes with almost unfaiIing regularity. When
MoKane sold them TO the Republicans 1t was
done s reminder to the Mclaughlin men that
it paid to recognize McKane as a partner in the
Willoughby-st auction room political brokerage
business. Mr.. Rfdgways conduct was SO cues
tonable in the ''8IcKane year" that William J.
Gaynor. then justice-elect, in appealing to Gov
ernor Flower. to appoint special prosecuting off
GERS to investigate the lIchane frauds. wrote:
The District Attorney Of this county openly. in
court; In the newspapers and IN publc c ,pL
oIciaIs or Gravesend IN Lhe sross crimes "i me-
Of course, done nothing TO bring them to justice
But this was not District Attorney Ridgways
first appearance as e strong Democratic par
tisan- 1t will be remembered that the Judge
Maynard case reached all the way from Albany
to Brooklyn and back again, and that there
were innumerabIe injunctions, stays and Writs'
and a deal Of manipulation to saws the Hill
machine from going to jail On March 81, 1o92'
Harry Peckhana. son Of Justice Rufus Peckham'
found that Mr.. Rtdgway was taking proni-
nent hand in the Maynard affair at Albany, and
took him to task about it. Mr. PeckhaH, before
Mr.. Ridgway blackguard and meddler'
and demanded a reason for his conduct.
At about the same time Justice Edgar NJ. Cul-
len gave Ridgway verbal scalding for state
ments made by Mr.. Ridgway IN the Supreme
Court in trying to protect McKane-
In 1884 the newspapers of Brooklyn and New
York raised cIanor against Ridgway for the
way in which certain indictments had been
pigeonholed. The grand jury. after weeks and
oFb iuSic
men whose names were prominent in politics in
Brooklyn at that time. Some Of the names We're
Wafer, Hennessy, Juengst. Jenkins, Bafsley,
Comfy, McKeown Barry, Judge MCGUIRE, Dono-
hue, O'DonneI, Cook, Ralph, Lewis, Ganzlon,
Benner. Riggs. French, Exstance, Keller, Pigot.
Price, Young, Southland, VAIL Snedeker and Gill.
and, for election frauds in 1898, indictments
were found by the grand jury against O'Neiu,
Driver. Bolton, Smith. Mahan Conklin. Ke
brough Hoffman, Freeing. Tyler. Cronin and
Mcintyre. All these indictments found resting
place in the private morgue kept by District
Attorney Ridgway. and when he was urged to
make some move toward bringing the cuIpr1ts
TO justice he said that he lacked the legal ma
chinery to prosecute. There were other fraud
prosecutions that were sidetracked because Mr..
Ridgway lacked the legal machinery" Some
Of these were the Columbian Day grandstand
frauds. the veteran burial frauds, frauds in the
tax office and the Commercial Bank indictments.
BUCKET SHOPS FLoURIsHED.
District Attorney Ridgway was charged on
July q. 1898, with allowing bucket shops to
conduct business unrnolested in Brooklyn 1t
was openly charged at the time that Mr.. Ridg-
ways law firm was counsel for some Of these
bucket shops When Mr., RIdgway was asked
wbv he did not prosecute the proprietOrs, he was
quoted in the papers as saying that the bucket
shops had as much right to conduct business as
the New-York Stock Exchange. When the law
prohibiting bucket shops was pointed out TO him
he said nothing ana did nothing.
In 1894 the Australian ballot law went into
effect and it then became impracticable to
count pluraIiLies in Kings County as they had
been counted Mr.. Ridgway retired in 1896
and that was his last appearance as an office
holder At about the same time Hugh NcLaugh-
lin got tires OF standing for Rdgway any
longer, ard cast him adrift Mr. Fddgway then
set I'D an offica in Manhattan. AMI fortune smiled
on him anew. He is on close terms with Charles
F. Murphy and other shining Tammany lights
His last attempt TO obtain large political office
was in 1896. when his friends in the General
Committee in Kings County tried TO get for
him an official Endorsement OF his candidacy for
the nomination for Governor on the Democratic
State ticket The committee. on the advice OF
McI.aughIin. turned Ridgway down by vote
of 2O6 TO 90.
The foregoing are come of the more noticeable
Incidents in the career of MIR. Ridgway while he
was in the urnelisht in Brooklyn. When he re-
tired from the Office Of District Attorney he was
Thoroughly discredited. 1t good deal Of
q shock 70 the decent Democrats in Brooklyn ten
DAVIS ago when McCarren told his friends that
Fide-a,azy was to be the candidate for President
of the Borough.
His nomination has caused q spit IN the
Broolllvn Democratic Club. Robert Campbell, a
Prominent member Of the club. has denounced
the nomination of Ridgway and Of the Demo
cratic county ticket. Mr. Campbell says the
ticket is thoroughly representative OF the
gambling interests and that decent citizens
ought TO repudiate it. He said that he never
had boIted the Democratic ticket but that he
would do so this year
The nomination Of ex-Controler Coler for
President of the Borough the Hearst ticket
against Ridgway foreshadows the defeat Of
Rsdgyyav and the election Of Major Ebstein, the
Republican candidate But McCarren and Ridg-
way are going ahead confidently They have an
enormous fund with which TO carry the borough
and unless the decent people Of the borough rally
TO the support of the Republican ticket there
Will be another four years Of Ridgway-
You can register to-day any time between
7 q M and 10 .. m. It is the last opportunity