New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-16
S4CKCLOTH AT ALBANY.

Albany is beginning to resume its
wonted aspect The subdued. chastened,
Good Government Club spirit that it has
shown ever since Conger made his
charges and Aids was driven out Of pub
lie life is wearing off. The Legislature
has flung aside its winter garment of
repentance" The 'joker" is once more
abroad. relieving the preternatural gray
ity of lawmakers temporarily impressed
with the need of saving their souls. A
IMAM in clerical garb,' as beftted Al
bany's prolonged lenten season Of this
year. was induced TO hand the first
Joker Of the session to one of the most
impeccable of Senators. in the lobby of
the Senate chamber itself. It had been
So long since any member of the Senate
had seen a Joker" that no one recog-
nized ii until the Governor pointed it
out. when it was rejected, not without
grief that so excellent a legislator should
have been the first victim through the
innocent act of one in clerical garb. The
clerical error has enlivened the proceed
ings and the Joker is now being handed
around by men who do not even have to
hide behind the robes of sanctity.
1t viii not do. of course, 70 attach too
much importance TO these jocund indi-
cations, but there are other reasons for
wondering if there is not some truth III
/ the reports that the reform programme,
whose course seemed easy in the virtu-
Gus hours succeeding the conviction of
J r6a Of assI
mortality were wildly present upon
every hand. and when Grady was moved
/ to confess how lonesome he was and was
stricken with inconsistencies. is now be-
/ set with danger. There is the coming
retirement of Governor Hughes, not
merely from executive Office, but from
active political life. to a place where he
will surely cease from troubling And
there was the triumph Of his opponents
I in the defeat of direct primaries, proof
positive of how hard it is to shake the
power of those influences he sought to
! Danish from public affairs. Not even
Joker" insinuated into the midst of a
/ penitential service is so strong a sign
that the season of sackcl0th and ashes
is over.
/ Therefore it is profitable to inquire Sc
riously if the disposition has not come 10
! shake little of the ashes out of the
sacbcloth? Will the graft inquiry. in
other words, be merely superficial? Has
/ the Joker hidden his soothing presence
within that garment of humiliation. put
there. not by a man in clerical garb. but
/ by the friends Of William II. Buckley
'our friends about whom he used TO
write in such honeyed words: 1t is
surely not at all inconceivable that the
prospect Of sackcloth and ashes does not
seem by any means so imperative as it
did few weeks back
In the simpler days of old sacl5clotb
and ashes were regarded as an ade-
quate outfit for such an occasion as tbe
Legislature recently saw itself facing
but fashions. even of repentance and
humiliation, have become more compli-
Gated. so in addition to this primitive
apparel a few hair suits were procured
Are these going To be hung ND i'm the
closet and left 10 the moths in recogni-
ton Of the jovial presence OF the re-
! turned Joker? There are the anti gam
/ bling bills. with special hair on them for
old wounds, cast aside last year with all
the circumstances Of finality. Are they
among the garments of the repentance
te be flung. according to the poets ad-
vice. into the fires Of spring? And
! the telegraph and telephone bill and the
amendments 10 the Public Service com
missions law. reminders of the err
rancy Of legislators, which complete the
wardrobe-are they never to be donned?
II is plain that the prospect of sack
cloth and haircloth grows irks0me. Per-
haps the legislators are reacting in favor
of the counsel n short life. but a merry
one" They can easily make sure of the
first part of that programme