The death of " Boss " Tweed, the vulgar but
astute man who so long governed and plundered New York, is announced this week. He had fled to Cuba, but the Government gave him up, and he died in custody under an order to refund part of the sums which he and his confederates had obtained, chiefly by fraudulent con- tracts. The system was to vote great expenditures for public pur- poses, and then sell the contracts to dishonest tradesmen for 50 per cent, on their total amounts. With this money, offers of work at high wages, and promises, Tweed kept his voters together, and had his Ring been a little more moderate or more perfectly united, might have been ruling New York now. It is probable they thought they could not be beaten, for when the exposure came, instead of retreating with their plunder, most of them relied on the law courts and the mob, and fought on for months. They quite forgot that though they ruled through a bribed mob, it was with the assistance of a party desiring political ends and not money, and sure to desert them the moment their frauds, which for years were only vaguely suspected, were exposed.
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