The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-23
DOODLE ALDERMAN DEAD.
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NJ fbe f1tfd " Alder non " iesl Tho
raaiis hustd witch pas4sd Itke Shafp's
nf1idway mhto1d ffaHchar fnr him died
M tifsaIay In q ittie hst ~ ga West i2mh
s,fret 10 had tseh living tlrFe fnr ycafa,
,fyins In hide HE identify
up tary was hotfiv " yesfs M and Tor
re,fa had heen In frpbtr hetlth lie lved
alone 9th hs wife, fof hia only son. oh I'm
fo hid iiolted lcti hotne aorne yeirt aeo.
f. Ia sald that ho AMI hia father never wers
~ GOOD iNrna. ME-. he lacy, who had
stuck ~ hef husband through aIl hts trials,
.ps the only one With him whan he died,
she vas practically tho only ans NJ tho aer.
woo over hia hody which was held In tho Nat
lat night. Nome " hia old time friends
vSrc there Most NJ them ara dead There
va q time whom Bob De tacv'a friends
vo.o many over on tho Fast side and In
GUIDED statesmen, politicians and nnh nciers.
Jake sharp was one Of them and wis Aaid
Nv have often visited de Ia cy's saloon,
Rut aver since DE Lacy crms back. horne
sir, after his four years exile In Montreal
following his indictment, he had beer trying
10 got away from the friends he had known.
In his efforts 90 keep his identity a secret
ha had moved from one neighborhood TO
another. finally landing In the little fat in
Harlem some ten years ago, But 1t was no
rse He never lived in any neighborhood
very long before some one would recognize
him. Then the children would get II, "a
children will when told such things by their
elders, and the old man would be compelled
to move again.
Up in Harlem 1t was the same, and even
In the last few years, so some Of the neigh
bors said yesterday, children had looked
UP as the old mar tottered along the street
and would call Doodle after him. The
ecandal never died for De Lacy, and he gave
up moving finally.
He was seldom seen on the streets up In
the neighborhood where he died and hardly
ever without his wife. He suffered from
O rheumatic trouble, and he had to be led
by his wife in the last years of his life.
They owned considerable property, includ-
ing the apartment house in which he died.
and she and De Lacy would go around and
cole ct the rents themselves. His name in
the City Directory was given as Robert A.
De Lacy"
Some years ago when one of De Lacy's
fellow members died and his identity was
learned De Lacy was very much broken
up. 1t was apparent to him then that he
could never live down the scandal.
De Lacy as a member Of the doodle"
board came into more prominence than
come of the others because he was one Of
the first to skip the town when the whole
thing was laid hare almost W years after
the franchise had been voted to Sharp. He
came of a good family, but vent into the
IA loon business, and when elected Alderman
Il, 1904 haI - ~laNa ut ThtrI Gfrnnt md
Avenue d in the old Twelfth district.
He was one Of those who left Tammany
Hall to start the old County Democracy,
and was elected Alderman on that ticket.
He lived then in a fine house at TAI Fifth
street. He served as Alderman in 1884. 1865,
and va. aifl an Alderman in 1886 when the
scandal broke over the heads of the twenty
two members Of the 1884 board who had
voted for the franchise, one Of whom was
De Lacy. There we're very few of The
doodle" Aldermen who had been reelected,
but De Lacy was one OF them.
De Lacy remained in the city after the
arrest of Henry W. Jaehne, the first to be
locked up, and even after Tom Byrnes
announced that Jaehne had confessed
to him at Byrnes's house that each of the
twenty-five members who had vot ed for
Sharp's franchise had received $50 900
for his vote, the distributor being Billy
Moloney, clerk Of the board. Thea Charlie
Waite came back and peaohed, and some
Of the Aldermen began to make themselves
scarce. One of the first to flee was De Lacy.
He disappeared from his home one day,
but when that was printed he vuiue up the
next day, denounced everybody who had
suggested that he had skipped and went to
the District Attorneys Office to ask if he
was wanted. He announced that he had
nothing to run away for and secuted the
idea of any one having made a confession.
But Byrnes and the District Attorney
began to draw the net still closer, and one
night a bunch of detectives were sent out
to arrest III the members Of the old board.
They got fifteen, but among the missing
was De Lacy.
De Lacy didn't run far at first. 1t was
from Philadelphia that he sent some very
famous kilograms in which he tried to show
how ca ger he was to return.
These kilograms were given out by his
lawyer as they we're received day after day.
One of the first he sent read:
Delayed here by storm. Will reach city
tomorrow without fail"
W nen Une blSlTiCJ AbcoIncy Jill udyo
later again demanded that he be produced,
De Lacy promptly sent another telegram,
which read
"Wife's condition serious. CAM come at
present. Will come as soon as possible.
Tomorrow, if possible
Tomorrow never came, for De Lacy dis
appeared from Philadelphia and urn
up in Montreal along with Billy Moloney,
Charles Dempsey and John Keenan,. Others
turned up there later on. They lived at the
Lawrence Hall, a fashionable hotel, bought
champaign in a way that made the Canadi-
ans stare and seemed to njoy it fora while.
One by one, however, they fell victims to
homesickness and stole back TO Broad
way, until finally Moloney and De Lacy were
the only ones left. They stuck it out for
four years, until at last Moloney is alleged
10 ha We remarked to De Lacy:
You can do what you damn please, but
] won't live here and talk French all my
life, and I'm going back to New York
One day in the summer Of 1850 two men
who had so changed in appearance as to be
hardly recognized by their friends dropped
into the District Attorneys office and an
nounced that they had come back. They
were Moloney and De Lacy. They were
promntly haId in SAO OOO hail each on the old