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Champ Clark’s Letter
'Reconstruction Gays Recalled —Politics in the
Empire State —A Politician Who Made
Good —The President’s Tuture.
Not long since in a cheap Boston
rooming house died Franklin J. Mo
ses, ex-governor of 'South Carolina,
by asphyxiation. Whether the gas
was turned on accidentally or with
suicidal intent matters little. When
• Frederick, prince of Wales, father to
King Edward 111., died, he was and
for years had been on notoriously bad
terms, or, rather, on no terms at all,
with his parents, George 11. and his
queen. Sad truth to tell, they and
most others were glad that the prince
had departed this life. Some wag
with a turn for rhyme summed up
the public feeling in this wise:
Fred
Is dead.
There is no more to be said.
The feeling about Franklin J.
Moses is about the same. He’s gone,
and there is a general sense of relief.
He was a reminder of the evil days
of reconstruction, which to the young
er generation seem as far away as the
Punic wars, but which still give the
elders the horrors every time they
think of them. Moses was not a car
petbagger. He was, in the parlance
of that day, “a scalawag”—that is,
a native southerner who ratted to the
carpetbaggers and helped them loot
the south. Moses was a native South
'Carolinian and at the beginning of
the war between the states was pri
vate secretary to Governor Pickens,
sufficient evidence of his high stand
ing, socially and politically. He so
licited and received the privilege of
running the Palmetto flag up over
Fort iSumter after Major Anderson
surrendered it. He was a Confede
rate soldier; but, though his courage
was never questioned, he cut little
figure in the army. He achieved the
bad eminence of being the only ex
governor of a state ever convicted of
stealing. This happened to him re
peatedly. He was a reconstruction
governor, the most profligate, the
most corrupt, the most shameless, of
all that mad orgy of crime. So ut
terly disreputable, in fact, was he
that even the reconstruction gang
could not stomach him and refused
him the usual renomination, proof
positive that he was the worst of his
kind.
‘‘IMPORTANT IF TRUE.”
Hon. Charles F. Murphy, like Alex
ander Selkirk, is monarch of all he
surveys. Selkirk’s bailiwick was his
desert island; Murphy’s is Tammany
Hall. At the last general meeting of
the Tammany braves Murphy’s con
duct in the last campaign was in
dorsed by a strong resolution which
was adopted with a warwhoop which
could be heard for blocks in every di
rection. He appears to have as firm
a grip on the organization as John
Kelly or Richard Croker ever had.
From time to time there were small
rebellions against them, just as there
are small rebellions against Murphy
now, but they, in the end, always
came out on top, just as Murphy
poems to be doing now. Whatever
else may be said of it, this must be
said—that it is the best disciplined
organization that is or ever was a
part of the Democratic party.
But Murphy’s triumph is not the
most sensational news feature that
has lately come out of the east. That
is the report that David Bennett Hill
has emerged from his retirement and
is about to take an active- hand in
politics once more. Surely this may
be labeled “Important if true,” for
unless David 'Bennett has lost his
cunning—and it’s a ten to one shot
that he has not—he will, if he re
enters the ring, be a powerful factor
in affairs poKtieal. The rumor is that
Hill and MeCarren will join forces
to control the state organization. Os
course that will be in the nature of
gall and wormwood to Mr. Charles F.
Murphy, but he will be happy in the
knowledge that even the Hill-McCar
ren coalition cannot budge him from
his Tammany stool. By judicious
combinations with parties outside
greater New York who are inimical
to Hill and MeCarren, or to either
Hill or MeCarren, Murphy may be
able to prevent the combination from
getting control of the state organi
zation.
There is still another situation pos
sible, and that is for Hill, MeCarren
and Murphy to line up together, com
pose their differences and thus be
come the triumvirs of New York De
mocracy, for certainly Murphy’s
quarrel with MeCarren is no more
bitter than his quarrel with William
Randolph Hearst prior to the last
campaign.
*
J. J. J.
Speaking of the recrudescence of
David Bennett Hill, it may be apropos
to refer to another recrudescence in
an entirely different field of human,
endeavor—that of James J. Jeffries,
boilermaker of Los Angeles and
bruiser paramount of the wide, wide
world. It will be remembered that
John Lawrence Sullivan—“ Sully,”
as his admirers loved to call him—
refused when at the meridian of his
fame to take off his hat in the pres
ence of King Edward VII., then
prince of Wales, on the very reason
able ground that he (Sullivan) was
as eminent in his profession as Albert
Edward was iq his, a fact which no
one within striking distance of “the
Boston boy” dared to dispute. By
the same method of reasoning I con
clude that there is no cause for com
plaint if the reappearance of J. J. J.
in his chosen field should be men
tioned as of equal importance as the
reappearance of D. B. H. in his
chosen field. Indeed, I am not at all
certain that J. J. J. will not be hailed
with greater delight than D. B. H
It is the fashion just now to draw the
color line, and J. J. J., not to be out
of the fashion, drew.it in fistic mat
ters by flatly refusing to fight -a negro
named Johnson even for the enormous
purse of $50,000. Johnson, it must be
confessed, is a good deal of a scrap-
•tttE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
per, but J. J. J. would have none
of him. If he is criticised for this,
he can plead the precedent of the
immortal Sully, who when in his
prime flatly refused to fight Peter
Jackson, declaring in his emphatic
style that the only way to fight a
negro was with a baseball bat or with >
a shotgun. The news that Jeffries
is once more to enter the roped arena
has set all fistiana in a quiver and has
caused the stock of several would-be
champions to slump considerably. It
may be another case of carrying the
pitcher to the fountain once too of
ten, as some of the youngsters may
wallop Jeff, which would be about as
sad an ending for his career as it
would be for Colonel Roosevelt’s
should he permit the bread and but
ter brigade to give him another nom
ination and then be defeated at the
polls.
“THE MERE POLITICIAN.”
The business man in politics and
his friends have first and last drawn
many parallels between himself and
“the mere politician,” always to the
glorification of himself, but the B. M.
in politics must look to his laurels,
for there is “a mere politician,” a
Tammany one at that, in Greater New
York, who has accomplished the as
tonishing feat of saving half a mil
lion a year to the tax payers by mak
ing water thieves pay for the water
they use. If it be true that an ounce
of practice is worth a pound of
theory, then this “mere politician”
of the Tammany brand deserves well
at the hands of the people. His name
is Michael Clarence Padden, head of
the water rates department of Goth
am. When he was appointed by
Mayor George Brinton McClellan a
great howl went up from the business
interests on the ground of bis sup
posed unfitness for the onerous and
important duties of the place. That
howl was voiced by the anti-Tam
many press of New York, which
means substantially all the papers in
the metropolis. He and the mayor
were both belabored day in and day
out by the howlers, but nevertheless
and notwitstanding Colonel Padden
has made good, and the New York
Tribune, organ of the Roosevelt ad
ministration, edited and owned by
•Whitelaw Reid, American ambassa
dor to the court of St. James, has the
grace and candor to say so. That
testimony to the valuable services of
a political enemy is certainly a suffi
cient vindication for Mayor McClel
lan and Colonel Mike. Strange to re
late, it was out of big business men
that Col. Padden extracted the extra
half million per annum by compelling
them to be honest and to pay for the
water which they use. Among others
who had been failing to pay for water
and whom he rounded up is the New
York Central Railroad Company, a
“solid business” institution most as
suredly. To a looker-on in Vienna
it seems that in this case at least
“the mere politician” completely
turned the tables on the business
men. Most any manufacturer in New
York City or anywhere else has a soft
snap in getting rich if he is permitted
to steal all the water he needs for his
machinery, etc. Colonel Padden seems
to have set his face like flint against
that thrifty performance on the part
of dishonest business men. Mayor
McClellan, Colonel Padden and Great-
er New York are all to be congratiS
lated on the career of “a mere
politician.”
“NAMING OF WARSHIPS.”
Under that heading the Washington
, Post of December 28 contained the
following editorial, which is one of
the richest pieces of humor that have
been printed in America or anywhere
else since Mark Twain wrote “The
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
The Post says:
Several novel suggestions have been
made recently by esteemed contempo
raries which realize the embarrass
ment of the navy department in the
naming of battleships. Counting
Oklahoma, only four states remain
which are not represented on the high
seas by war vessels. As the supply
of war vessels will soon exceed the
supply of names, something must be
done to help the department. One
journal suggests that the good old
names be revived—the Macedonian,
the Levant, the President, the Con
gress and the United States. These
are all good names, stirring names
and worthy of acceptation. Another
paper thinks the British nomencla
ture is superior to ours. It speaks of
the hypnotic power of such names as
the Dreadnought, the Temeraire, the
Devastation and the Invincible. Still
another journal refers to the French
habit of naming vessels after illustri
ous philosophers and poets.
This strikes us as opening a pecu
liarly rich field for the navy depart
ment. The United States has plenty
of philosophers and poets. The sup
ply has never run short, and we hope
it never will. What noble emotions
w r ould soon cluster around a gigantic
warship bearing the name of Petro
leum V. Nasby! Think of the terror
that would overcome the enemy if he
should hear that the armored cruiser
John Kendrick Bangs was bearing
down upon him. The name alone
would stupefy and stun like the deto
nation of a forty pounder. What
could the arrogant Jap do if sudden
ly confronted with the unconquerable
armor clad Mr. Dooley? Even the
stolid Teuton would hesitate before
entering one of our harbors guarded
by the stealthy James Whitcomb Ri
ley. There is a psychology in these
names, a terror by suggestion, that
should not be lost. It should be
trained on the enemy by all means.
Already at Panama the United States
has started this custom by naming
one of its mud scows the Poultney
Bigelow. Let the good work go on.
The philosophers and poets will do
. their share toward vanquishing the
foe.
PETER’S LUCK.
If a plebiscite were held among the
•newspaper readers of the world for
the purpose of naming the luckiest
man on earth, always, of course, ex
cepting the present occupant of the
White House, King Peter of Servia
would perhaps receive the most votes.
His luck is not so much in becoming
king of that turbulent country, for
that seems at a distance to be a most
undesirable 'berth, but in keeping his
head on his shoulders for more than
i three and one-half years while on the
throne. When, upon the assassina
tion of King Alexander and Queen
• Draga, Peter succeeded, there wasn’t
• * life insurance company in Christen-