The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-01
Real Story of the Famous Part of New
York Where Many Have Sacrificed
Liberty and Honor tor "the
ORGANIZATION"

ty-nrSt street. IL WaS just Ut y
moment when. from the gas works by
the river. great. silent, mysterious
flame shot into the sky.
Have you ever seen this phenomenon
Of the East Side? 1t is a weird spec.
tacle. The garnet colored glow stains
the entire gashouse district with Its
ruddy light. and momentarily brightens
the great gas tanks. long dismal rows
Of them. which give the district its
name-gloomy metal towers. floating on
their unseen water beds. sinking into
vague distances.
The flame faded from the neighbor-
hood, and IN the. uneasy Pickering OF
the dying day the old policeman and
] mechanically turned to look at "a lit
tie two story frame house. with IA gar
den patch In front Of II, which In those
days stood midway In the block. The
leader OF the district lived there, an OBJ
scure East Side politician, whose flu
ture was undreamed Of save by a few
intimates. And yet that little garden
walk was marked with the footsteps
OF many a man who was intimately
concerned with New York city's history
In that time and period.
Suddenly a figure slipped slyly from
the house with the white clapboards
and came staggering to meet US. We
recognized him as Billy McMadden, q
distinctive product Of the district, who
knew every biped in all the territory
between Forty-second and Fourteenth
streets, Lexington avenue and the East
River. every bit Of gossip, every chron-
icle Of the past.
He came up to us with an air of
mysterious Importance, one Of his hands
stuck into slanting side pocket Of his
kersey overcoat which had a broad
collar Of imitation astrakhan, and the
other Tipping the ashes OF the stump
OF half consumed cigarette held be-
tween two nicotine stained fingers.
Good evening. Captain" said McFad-
den, In his breezy way.
The old policeman drew I'D his mill
tary figure and his gray mustache
bristled.
There's no captaincy in sight for
me-" he said sourly. Don't you know,
Mack. that during the last thirty years
there have been three thousand promo
tons In the Police Department. but not
thirty for meritorious duty? All Of em
duty breakers and STRIKERS"
McMadden fiicked his black eyelashes.
"Well,' he said. there's Paddy Cray,
now. who married the Commissio Toner s
sister. On the force two years. and now
q sergeant in the East Twenty second
street station. That shows YOU what
the East Side is"
YES" commented the old policeman
bitterly. "The pun Of a politicians
breath Is worth more than the best
record ever made in police duty. They
don't promote the man who'd climb to a
three story window to save O woman
from a burning building. The other fell
1ow'd run to the fire alarm, look about
him and say The Fire Department will
soon be here"
He was voicing his grim polceman's
philosophy, the logic OF the man who
pounds the pavements, trying cellar and
basement doors In the snow and rain,
while his superiors. the high janizaries
play the larger game Of administering
the city.
Anybody who figures in the game
we're in knows all about the Police De-
partment." said McMadden consolingly.
But you can't beat the great East
Side" With his nicotine yellowed
finger he pointed to the house
with the white clapboards, which he
had just left. There's the Commits
sioner now. the biggest man in New
York to-day. and he's just done Nc.
Madden q favor. I've seen many
Judge Of the Supreme Court go into
that door to get his job and many q
Senator and counsellor begging for in.
huence.
And to think Of 1t. Charley, that's
now Dock Commissioner, leader OF the
gas house district, began life as a driver
on Jake Sharpe's old Twenty-Five
street horse car line, and his brother
Jack. him that's now Councilman, took
him the lunch basket every day at noon.
Yes" he added, prophetically, there's
the next leader Of Tammany Hall, the
only man who ever dared defy Croker,
and he's the best friend McMadden's got.'
Poor Billy. the friendship did him
little good. But since those days much
water has flowed past the Greenpoint
ferry slip and the leader has risen from
his lowly state to q fine mansion and
much coin and the mastery Of
metropolis. But the people who sacri-
need themselves to gain his petty favors
lost their honor and liberty and some
OF them even their lives in his service.
Just then from out the mass Of dingy
nat houses to the eastward We heard a
woman's scream. An indistinct uproar
ensued. mellowed by distance. Carey,
the police philosopher, started of on a
run to the scene Of disturbance, and Nc.
Madden and ! sauntered after, to learn
the cause CT the trouble with the natural
curiosity Of humans.
A lively crowd had gathered in front
OF the tenement and an excited woman.
with q shawl flung over her head,
rushed out to tell her neighbors the
news. They've caught him." she