New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-07

err. a studious boy. who had ieanlns
toward higher education and the ia"'
and this brother died.
Brothers Death Changed All
"That event switched me of the
beaten track" relates Judge hyiah.
with my brother dead, l suddenly
conceived the idea that | might taAe
the place he would have hlled at me
bar | preached the subject TO my
wife, and her advice was good then' d
IL has always been since. She ad'lsso
me 10 tackle it,"
Without even q complete elementary
schooI education behind him, what
Hvlan was going to attempt was no
essv thing. 81 had the groundworE
OF education as obtained in a coun-
trv school" he declared put that IS
about all. 1t was my first big prob
lem"
Working long hours for the ran
road did not leave mueh time ~. ~
study, but young Hylan solved 'ho
difficulty. Snatching time wneie no
could from working scheduIs "
seven days q week, he took the ace
demic course in the Long Island nusi'
ness College in Brooklyn, and, mean
time. turned to a friend IN the Ia"
for law books and guidance.
BY cutting his sleep short oy s.uuy-
ing during his lunch hour ana Oy
getting I'D before sun-up and reaains
long after midnight, he hnisne1 ms
business college course, ana theIo-
after began to devote himself 10 'he
law. He borrowed law books ana
read at home, he read in his CAB az
snare moments and in the round
house.
Enters New York Law School
BUT this would not do, ne wanted
TO 90 to a real law college, so, sun
working as an engineer, he entered
the New York Law School. In june
1897 he was graduated, but he was
not then employed as an engineer on
the BROOKLYN Elevated railroad. ne
had been seen by an INSPECTOR read
ING in his cab end discharged.
He had saved a little money, how
ever. and with his wife and daughter,
then a baby, he went back to the farm
at Hunter. Greene County. There they
spent the summer of 1897, and in Octo-
her Hylan Journey to Syracuse, riding
free on the strength of his union card,
and there he took and passed MS eA-
aminstions admitting him to the bar.
Thereafter Hylan had fair sailing,
but nothing in the nature Of sea OF
luxury. He put a small mortgage on
the old farm-whieh, by the way. he
had cleared of 6ebt-and with $500 in
cash came back TO Brooklyn and hung
out his single. He chose as loca-
ton Gates Avenue and Broadway, a
neiehborhood where he had friends.
Then. as all young lawyers do, he
waited.
Business came with satisfying
promptness, and in a few years Hylan
was making what was in those days
good living at the law. He soon began
10 take an active interest in the munic-
ipal affairs of what was then the City
of Brooklyn; Joined taxpayers associa-
tions,. betterment leagues and the like,
and gained a considerable reputation
as a student of civic affairs. From the
start he allied himself with the DEM
ocrats, having Joined while still
fedgling barrister the Democratic or
ganization OF what is now the 10th AS
semhly District.
His interest in politics increased
steadily, and in time his name came to
be spoken on both sides of the East
River. In 1905 he ran for his first
Office and was beaten. That was for
Municipal Court judge. Next year
Mayor Mcclellan appointed him city
magistrate to fill out an urexplred
term. Later he was appointed TO
full ten-year term in the sane position
In 1914 Governor Glynn appointed him
20 the County Court bench, and the
next year he WIS elected 10 a county
judgeship, a position which he filed
until picked by Tammany to head its
municipal ticket.
Judge Hylan has insisted that he did
not seek the Mayoralty nomination.
'As for getting in the Mayoralty
race" he said at Saratoga Springs last
fall, 81 can truly say did not seek the
nomination. All along in the delbera-
tions leading up to the designation of
candidates ] advocated the election Of a
Leading business man."
this connection IL was recalled
with smiles during the campaign in No
vember, 1915, while addressing a tax
payers association in Brooklyn, Judge
Hylan had lamented the tendency of
city and county TO elect lawyers to po-
litical Offices and had hoped fervently
that New York would not choose an
other lawyer Mayor, but practical
business man." But to resume what he
said at Saratoga:
Wanted a Business Man