Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2 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-