Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1878 — Big Six. [ARTICLE]

Big Six.

Tweed began life at the bottom, sold cushions for chairs, run with an engine in the old days of voluntary fire companies, and got the nickname of Big Six from tlie company of which he was the leader. By some sort of hocuspocus he got admitted to the bar, was chosen member of the Common Council, was sent to Congress one term, became Sohool Committeeman, Alderman, and Supervisor, and, finally, head of the Department of Public Works. In those days he was tall, vigorous, good-looking, with a large head and a commanding presence, though afterward he grew fat and somewhat heavy. His mind was wonderfully quick in its perceptions and movements. He could think round anybody he came in contact with. All his movements were remarkably rapid, and he would do more work in one day than three ordinary men. He spoke witli a lightning-like rapidity of utterance, and, when a little excited, would discharge a volley of words all at once as from a mortar. Last fall, when before the Aldermen, he ejaculated one of these speeches, the words flying after each other as though a charge of dynamite had exploded under a dictionary, electrifying the listeners and filling the sliort-hand reporters with eonsternation. The celerity and grip of his mind and his ability to organize and use men were at the bottom of his success. Then he was royally liberal. He gave as he got, with a free hand. To ask was to get, if he had anything to give. In his prosperous days he distributed thousands every year in gifts to friendß, alms to the poor, contributions to societies and churches. His almost unbounded liberality made him popular and gained him the support of hundreds. People felt that there was a royalty in his giving that atoned in part for his questionable getting, and took his donations without stopping to ask questions. But, at the bottom, Tweed was immoral. He seems never to have had a conscience, nor to have been troubled with scrnples of any kind. He was often surprised when his associates warned him not to offend the moral sense of the oommunity, and wondered that civilized beings could be such fools. He believed in neither God nor hereafter, and once wished that he might die in a ten-acre lot, where there would be room enough to have a good square kick for the last time.