Williamsburgh Word Portraits, No. 8

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WILLIAMSBURGH WORD PORTRAITS..

By Apelles.—No. 8.

PORTRAIT No. 22

I have now to perform a somewhat daring task—to paint one who is himself a master of the art of word painting—for a series of sketches of clergymen and their preaching, which he wrote a good many years ago, was the main and original cause of the addition which was made at that time to the reputation and influence of a local cotemporary of yours. The gentleman to whom I refer is now a resident of the 19th ward, and is to be considered as an Eastern District man, so that I cannot, in justice to the district, omit adding so honorable and excellent a citizen to my list of celebrities of the Eastern District. I may say, without fear of contradiction, that though my subject has not long resided in the 19th ward, his abilities and high character are already appreciated there—for when, last fall, he ran for a judicial office of great importance, he received such a vote from his neighbors as I am quite satisfied no other Democrat ever did or ever can get in those precincts. And indeed he is popular all over the city, or else he never would have been elected as he was, when all his associates on the ticket were so utterly overthrown. Yet he stoops to no intrigues or adulation of the nomination-mongers to obtain their suffrages. Nor, when elected, has he so acted that his political leanings may be ascertained from his official acts. His first act, indeed, was to re-appoint a most worthy and popular man, though of the opposite party, to the management of the routine business of the department of which he is the head. My subject has filled other prominent positions before his present one. He was the most faithful and industrious legal officer that the city has had—he filled the office of President of the local parliament of the County in a manner which commanded the admiration of all who witnessed his dignified yet courteous demeanor, his ready apprehension of the bearings of every topic that came before the Board. His unvaried good temper and full understanding of the rules of debate, made his retirement from that body a source of regret to all his colleagues. Now he is a member of another of our public bodies, where he rarely speaks, but when he does it is to convince. Few men have the gift of stating a case so plainly, of arranging facts and arguments so unanswerably, as he. I never chanced to hear him plead in court, during his practising days; but from his mode of dealing with questions in debate it needed not the perusal of some of his recent decisions from the Bench to convince me that he possesses the analytical faculty (so essential to the wearer of the ermine) in an eminent degree. And when to this faculty of analysis I add his legal erudition, his constant industry and patient research, I am sure, that though the people of Kings County are not always wise in their choice of men to manage the affairs of the living, they at least have done the very best that could have been done, to assure themselves of justice being done in the distribution of their estates at their decease.

Portrait No. 23

As I have commenced to-day with the legal profession, I will select another member of that numerous confraternity before reverting to any other class in the community. I tread now on somewhat sacred ground—for I take up a link which binds the present generation to the Fathers of the Republic—the heroes of the Revolution —the founders of the government; and not to the least glorious star in the galaxy of imperishable names which shine with ever-increasing brilliancy, clustering around the grand figure of the Pater Patriɦ¹—but to one who, always honored, has yet not received his full deserts; but who, as the events of the past recede, and glide gradually from the domain of politics and prejudice into that of history and fairness, will assume larger and grander proportions, as the thoughtful eye marks well his important share in the great events of the nation's birth. But it is not the father, but the son, whom I have to picture. It has long been a moot point with me, whether for the sake of a man's own fame and credit, he had not better be born of obscure than of illustrious parentage. Napoleon III. has hardly yet emerged from the shade into which the massive proportions of the founder of the Bonaparte family threw him. Mr. Clay's son, and Mr. Webster's son, though both are able men, are regarded as little better than fools, since they have not come up to the stature of their illustrious sires. A distinguished progenitor, in truth, however, is either an advantage or a disadvantage to a man, according as he worthily sustains, or miserably tarnishes by crime or folly, the honored name which his parent bequeathed to him. The man of whom I write can well stand this test. Not the slightest taint has he suffered to fall on the family escutcheon. The loftiest pride of character, the strictest rectitude, have ever distinguished him, and equally with his courteous behavior and affable intercourse with all classes of his fellow citizens, have given him the esteem of the inhabitants of the district, who point with pride to him as an ornament and an honor to the old Burgh. Perhaps no other man has obtained so general an esteem with so few detractors, and with so little effort. For he is never backward in expressing his opinions, or slow in taking a decided course on any local subject of dispute which may arise; yet he is so entirely governed by the right and the merits of the case, and the purity of his motives is so well known and fully conceded, that even those whose course he opposes can entertain no feelings but those of respect for him. Probably hardly any two men here could have a dispute in which both would not be perfectly willing to receive him as an arbitrator. For his code of morals is not based on the easy going expediency of the present day, but rests firmly on the eternal basis of truth and honor, which was relied on mainly in days past, but seems now to have been almost universally abandoned.

Portrait No. 24

For a short sketch, to finish for to-day, I choose a man who, I believe, does not call himself a politician, though the party with whom he votes have elected him to a responsible Legislative office, which he filled to their entire satisfaction, without giving offence to, or inflicting injustice on the minority who voted for another man. He is tall, stout, and wel​ developed in person—takes the world easily, as befits one whom fortune has favored with abundant hereditary possessions —is noted for his good nature and willingness to oblige, and in every way deserves the good opinion which his neighbors entertain of him, and which he fully sustained and retained in the public capacity which with difficulty he was induced to assume. If he desires it, I do not doubt that he can obtain another or rather any number of other renewals of the same trust from the same constituency—for I can assure him they were unusually well pleased to find in him that rara avis in politics, a man who had no axe of his own to grind, and a determination at the same time not to permit others to grind theirs at the expense of the public. With some of his kinsmen, my subject is engaged just now in developing the resources and augmenting the prosperity and population of the district, by sustaining an enterprise in which he has risked, with his colleagues, a large amount of money—and in the conduct of which every well wisher to the place will bid him "God speed."

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