The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-27
J.R. VOORHIS AT 30
TBUSY EVERY DAY
Tammany Sachem and Presi-
dent Of Elections Board
Calls Vacation Rot
CUTS WOOD AS PAsTIME
Keep Busy and Live Long,
Says Man Who Has Served
Public Many Years.

Among the very few public servants
who win not take a vacation this year
city's Board Of Elections and grand
sachem OF the Society of Tammsny
AS Mr.. voorhis has never done such
a thing he sees no reason for changing
He gets all the exercise he needs by
chopping kindling wood and walking
through the town of which he has been
a part since 1880.
II can't 30 UP hill a. fast as I did
once. but can 20 down Just as fast"
he says Sometimes get q notion that
\ have not yet visited en- opticians
shop that had any better lenses than
my own eyes. Whenever an old friend
halls me he says: You haven't
changed a particle in twenty years 1
do feel Just as well as ever but, ]
don't know. I can't help noticing that
often when board q trolley car some
body gets up and offers me seat Even
young ladies have done that, SO maybe
my friends are only joking.
But, tell you. this vacation BUSH
ness is all rot At least 1 have not
yet reached the age when feel the
need of resting spell Il do
like II when Saturday afternoon comes,
though"
The visitor agrees that the Saturday
half holiday was q great little insti-
tuition.
mo, I wasn't thinking OF that" says
Mr.. Voorhis. What l mean is that
on Saturday afternoon every one else
goes away and ! can work right along
at my desk here without interruption.
It gives me a chance to sum up in
my mind all that's been done during the
week and what's to be done next week,
so that I'm all prepared for Monday
morning Yes. sir, those Saturday af-
ternoon hours are the happiest Of the
week. You know we've all got to give
an account of our stewardship one of
these days and when / am called upon
for a report Of what use has been made
OF my life do hope I shall not be
accused Of fooling away any time"
Well Known Figure Here.
Tammany calls Mr.. voorhis its Grand
Old Man, apologizing for the adjective.
He is also the Grand Old Man of Green
wich Village. and II there is any person
who disputes his right to the appellate On
among active office holders anywhere In
the United States that person should
speak UP or forever after hold his peace.
Every SO often. whom the appointing
power has placed the Grand Sachem in
a post of public service. some highbrow
organization. running its finger down the
list Of names, has exclaimed, ':Can this
man he's too old" But Mr. voorhis is
always appointed Just the same, where
upon he proceeds to set pace that
leaves the striplings painting.
Often he is the FIRST man to reach
the Office Of the Board OF Elections In
the morning. He never goes out for
luncheon. for breakfast and supper are
his only meals. The summer quitting
TIME for city employees is 4 p. NJ. In
variably he stays until 80, timing his
schedule to reach his home at Gretn-
witch and Bethune streets at 6. And II
you don't believe that he's an active
election commissioner go and sit by
him a while and watch him diving
through waves OF detail as the clerks
and visitors pass In and out Thomas
F. Smith, Representative in Congress
and secretary Of Tammany Hall. was
one Of the visitors when a SUN reporter
was there.
mdrVellOuS ediu O4illtn HI
an outside COON HE has held more
public Offices that I can count and has
been efficient In every one of them. He
tells me the secret of longevity is keep
busy / never saw him when he wasn't
at something useful When he hasn't
anything else to do he comes up to the
hall and makes maps Of election and
Assembly districts and figures the shift
of population and voters. A kindly, hon.
est, efficient man, and an old fashioned
patriot"
This is Mr.. voorhis's ninetieth birth
day. II 1t were not Sunday he would
undoubtedly celebrate by repairing to
the carpenter shop back of his house,
he's homo for fifty years, and splitting a
batch Of kindling for the kitchen stove.
He does not believe in birthday fussing
I'D and frilling. Its no credit to me
that / am a year older on the 9th of
ach July" he told THE SUN man. Let
1t pass the same as any other day. /
will have supper with my daughter. who
lives with me / don't know of anything
special on the programme. and hope
there isn't anything. The fact Is that l
was saying nothing, hoping that nobody
would remember. I'm surprised you
know about Il"
oCAOh VI AotbAA
He comes from Dutch settler stock on
both sides. The patronymio was origi-
nally preceded by Van. His mothers
people were Van Sauns and Van Geldera
He was born at Pompton Plains. New
Jersey, but the family moved to the
Eighth ward. Manhattan, whom he was a
year old. which makes him a New
Yorker for eighty-nine years. His moth
er taught him-"she was a very good
speller"-he says. and then sent him to
the pay schoof' In Spring street until
he was 10 years old. He served three
years as errand boy In the law Office Of
John Jay. grandson Of the signer Of the
Declaration OF Independence; both his
grandfathers, by the way. fought in the
Revolution. and from them he heard first
hand stories OF the war.
At 16 he was apprenticed to carpen-
ter. BY 1861 his uncle. with whom he
had formed q partnership. having retired.
he was the boss OF his own shop, special
izing in stairways. Mr.. Voorhls made
and installed the stairs in A. T. Stewards
new store,- now John Wanamaker's
''old building" and also the balustrade
OF the rotunda. He recalls as II It all
happened yesterday how Mr.. Stewart or
dered him to duplicate the mahogany of
the stairs and rotunda Of the store which
the merchant was leaving, the Stewart
Building, ESQ Broadway. and how he.
Mr.. Voorhis. discovered that the wood in
the old store was Mexican mahogany and
not San DOMINICAN, as Mr.. Stewart sup
posed. and how frankly the merchant adj
mitted his mistake When After n ahow