e big Tammany victory
in 1897, Richard Croker went down to Lakewood to make up the slate of
offices for Mayor Van Wyck to distribute. All the district leaders and
many more Tammany men went down there, too, to pick up anything good
that was goin.' There was nothin' but dress suits at dinner at Lakewood,
and Croker wouldn't let any Tammany men go to dinner without them. Well,
a bright young West Side politician, who held a three-thousan dollar job
in one of the departments, went to Lakewood to ask Croker for something
better. He wore a dress suit for the first time in his hie. It was his
undoin'. He got stuck on himself. He thought he looked too beautiful for
anything, and when he came home he was a changed man. As soon as he got
to his house every evenin' he put on that dress Suit and set around in
it until bedtime. That didn't satisfy him long. He wanted others to see
how beautiful he was in a dress suit; so he joined dancin' clubs and
began goin' to all the balls that was given in town. Soon he began
to neglect his family. Then he took to drinkin', and didn't pay any
attention to his political work in the district. The end came in less
than a year. He was dismissed from the department and went to the dogs.
The other day I met him rigged out almost like a hobo, but he still
had a dress-suit vest on. When I asked him what he was doin', he said:
"Nothin' at present, but I got a promise of a job enrollin' voters at
Citizens' Union head-quarters." Yes, a dress Suit had brought him that
low!

I'll tell you another case right in my own Assembly District. A few
years ago I had as one of my lieutenants a man named Zeke Thompson. He
did fine work for me and I thought he had a bright future. One day he
came to me, said he intended to buy an option on a house, and asked me
to help him out. I like to see a young man acquirin' property and I had
so much confidence in Zeke that I put up for him on the house.

A month or so afterwards I heard strange rumors. People told me that
Zeke was beginnin' to put on style. They said he had a billiard table in
his house and had hired Jap servants. I couldn't believe it. The idea
of a Democrat, a follower of George Washington Plunkitt in the Fifteenth
Assembly District havin' a billiard table and Jap servants! One mornin'
I called at the house to give Zeke a chance to clear himself. A Jap
opened the door for me. I saw the billiard table--Zeke was guilty! When
I got over the shock, I said to Zek