Show GOSSIP IN GOTHAM Bright and Newsy Sketches of S Men and Things POLITICAL AND CLUB CIRCLES Pen Picture of an American Prince A Jolly Railroad ManWhere are tho Pretty Women Naw Yom March 1Special correspondence cor-respondence of Tnn SOXDAV HERALD I occasionally see Mr John Russell Young the wellknown journalist on a flying visit to New York Since he retired from the service of tho Ucrald the last time ho has made his home in Philadelphia birthplace birth-place He has an interest in the Evening 1 Star there along with his brother and brotherinlaw and he is now doing considerable con-siderable writing for that journal At the same time ho keeps up his literary work and in all respect J is leading a very pleas and satisfactory life He tolls tbat he is collecting and preparing his material for a complete and thorough biography of General Gen-eral U S Grant It is a shame really that the history of the great soldier has not been prepared before this time Of course we have the miserable and fraudulent fraudu-lent biographies of Badeau and a number of trivial attempts to hand the great soldier down to posterity but as yet nothing noth-ing in any sense worthy of the great subject sub-ject No man living today is as well equipped equip-ped for this work as John Russell Young His long training as a journalist and his marvelous clearness as a writer provide him with the literary qualifications while his close and intimate relation with General Gen-eral Grant during the years when he was S confidential and communicative place him far above all other aspirants Mr Young had a true and genuine admiration for General Grant and he won the regard and esteem of the great soldier on his celebrated cele-brated tour around the world The book which he printed seine years ago containing contain-ing a transcript the principal events of that marvelous pilgrimage gives us a better insight to General Grants cbaracter than anything that has ever yet been placed in type outside of Grants own Memoirs Mr Young always regarded General Grants wishes never betrayed his confidence and in time ho became tho depository of many important personal political and military facts which tho general alone could impart Of the many confidential chats which they had while on the trip around the world Mr Young took careful shorthand notes Reading them over subsequently to the general his mood being somewhat changed he would say to Mr Young Dont use that remark about Mr SoandSo He is still living and his friends would like to have these facts come to the public I dont want to provoke controvery Mr Young respected his friends wishes and the result re-sult was that many of the best features of tho interviews obtained from him in those calm and thoughtful moments never reached tho public But the material has all been retained and as Mr Young was i regarded by General Grant as his true literary lit-erary executor there is no reason why they should not now be embraced in the work which Mr Young contemplates General Grant is growing daily in esteem and future generations will want to know I more about him Every man who ever came in contact with Napoleon Bonaparte seemed to retain some facts concerning him and they havo all written and written until the world has been flooded at onetime one-time or another with matter relating to That remarkable monster That the greatest great-est soldier and the noblest victor of civilization civiliz-ation should be left without an adequately written record is a reflection upon our times I was struck with what Mr Young I said to mo not long ago about the ideal existence ex-istence which General Grant wanted to lead after ho returned from his circumnavigation circumnavi-gation of the globe For the first time then he felt relieved from the cares and responsibilities respon-sibilities of office Ho told Mr Young one day while on the trip that ho wanted to buy a nice little farm somewhere near Washington city whero ho could settle down quietly and breed some handsome horses He wanted to be near enough to the town so that he could drive in about once a week and have a chat with General Bealo and some friends and far enough away from tho city to prevent the intrusion intru-sion of people whom ho did not care for With occasional visits from his old chums he thought he would be able to end his days in peace and comfort He afterward after-ward regretted in a conversation with I Mr Young his having come to the city of New York Be never liked the bustle and roar and social exactions of this life here I HabIt however that something was duo to his wife and growing family and as they liked Now York city he yielded He disliked dis-liked dress coats and formal dinners and social functions of all kinds and the last 4 years of his life here were passed in anything any-thing but composure In view of the pathetic pa-thetic ending how much better it would have been could he havo realized and enjoyed en-joyed his ideal stock farm We shall never know the true nobility of General Grants character until Mr Youngs book is written writ-ten and I trust that ho will not hesitate to soon discharge the obligation which he owes to the American republic MR OTTEKDORFEJlS SOUBOW There is great disturbance just now between be-tween Mr Oswald Ottendorfer and the gentlemen who politically control the destinies des-tinies of this city For tho past three years the Tammany magnates have been anxious to erect a new municipal building in tho City Hall park They have met with great hostility from the newspaper proprietors whose buildings lace the park and who are averse as it were to being shut out from a view of the green grass Billa authorizing the use of the park have been passed at Albany and havo been repealed by the newspapers and finally the building commission com-mission being forced to select a site outside U out-side of the park has concluded to appropriate appro-priate the triangular square near the bridge h entrance known as Tryon square The south end of this square is adorned by the building of the StaatsZettuna one of the handsomest structures in lower New York Mr Ottendorfer the proprietor has been manifesting hostility to Tammany hall for some time in his newspaper and ho now claims that the proposed condemnation and appropriation of his property is simply retaliation and persecution persecu-tion on the part of Tammany and Mayor Grant I do not believe this for tho simple sim-ple reason that this site has been under discussion for at least three years or before be-fore Mr Ottendofer began to made his hostility to Tammany hall seriously felt Viewed from a distance Mr Ottendorfer has always struck me as gentleman inclined in-clined to exaggerate his importance very much He wears his skin wrong side out and is nearly always ready to manifest hi sensitiveness His intellectual ability i not great and his chief distinction comes from the fact that he owns tho most profitable profit-able German newspaper in the United States The StaatsZeituna was established some fiftyeight years ago In 1SS4 it fell into the hands of a German printer named Uhl His wife was a remarkable woman She was indeed his helpmeet and partner While Mr Uhl looked after the mechanical department of tho little newspaper his wife superintended the business end of it and to her sagacity and energy much of tho success of the newspaper is due She was one of the first to reach tho business office every day and one of the last to leavo and her influence was felt throughout the entire establishment establish-ment Mr Ottendorfer in time became a clerk in the office After Mr Uhis death he married the widow While she lived and kept her health she retained a close grip upon the business affairs of the paper and at her death it was so well groundea that no sort of mismanagement could shake or disparage it She was an exceedingly exceed-ingly benevolent woman and one has left traces or her benevolence throuphout this city Mr Ottendorfer has harbored for years an idea that he could make himself a great power politically in this country I am told that he has even entertained the idea that he might be elected mayor of this city I have heard itsaid when prominent Germans were spoken of in connection with that office that Mr Ottendorfer would never support a man of German extraction for mayor because he had not been permitted to enjoy that office himself I him-self He fell out with Mayor Hewitt on I account of his Idiotic prejudice against foreign for-eign born citizens and in a small way helped to elect Mr Grant mayor Shortly afterward he fell away from tho administration adminis-tration and recently he has been quite bitter bit-ter in his enmity to Tammany and its bosses While eminent as a reformer Mr Ottendorfer has never failed to have a candidate can-didate for pretty much every office in the gift of the people Not long ago he insisted upon having one of his protegees sent to Congress Ho asks a great deal politically and gives very little in return so the Tammany Tam-many people say and the quarrel which has taken place was not an development de-velopment Mr Ottendorfer is now an old man and his health is sadly broken He takes the proposition to appropriate his fine property seriously to heart His wealth is estimated at 5000000 THE END OF LONG BRANCH It seems to me that the death of David Dunham Withers puts an end to Long Branch as a summer resort Two years ago when I last vissted tnat place it struck me that its days were numbered The beautiful driveway along the bluff had been pretty thoroughly eaten away by the waves dog fennel was growing in the front yards of the cottages and thore was I an air of dilapidation and neglect which bespoke be-spoke a village hlch bad long since seen its climacteric The Monmouth park racecourse f race-course was all that seemed to be drawing patronage to the few hotels and the blow the town received last year by the legal interference I in-terference with the races followed now by the death of the man who was alone imparting im-parting life to the town ends the place as a fashionable resort Of course the beautiful beauti-ful hotels at Hollywood and the handsome cottages at Elboron will continue to impart I life and beauty to the lower end of the I once great resort but we shall never see Long Branch in its glory again Speaking I of Mr Withers I see that he left a fortune estimated at something like 30 0000 The bulk of this he made out of his racecourses I race-courses and his breeding farm at BrooKdale N J Mr Wit ers was an autocratic strongwilled man and since the death of Mr Belmont has been regarded re-garded as about the only man connected with racing In this country who was moved I by a lofty purpose touching tho turf He baa tho old southern idea that horseracing I was a great and noble sport and he had no sympathy whatever with tho mercenary I ambles and bookmakers who have dragged the pastime down to the level of I I bunco and skin faro He had no sympathy sym-pathy for tho men who gallop horses in I snow and mud in order that a lot of professional pro-fessional gamblers may have something to I wager money on As the head of the racing rac-ing board of control ho antagonized this blackleg gentry and invited their united hostility much to his detriment and loss Mr Winters new race course at Long Branch must havo cost him a quarter of a million of dollars What its future will be nobody can foretell for tho reason that the state of New Jersey is not showing avery I a-very warm side to sports of the turf at present and very few people will care to invest in such an important piece of property prop-erty without tho assurance of noninter forence with their business Mr James Gordon Bennett was a partner with Mr Withers in the Monmouth Park Racing association likewise Meesrs A J Cassatt and John A Morris tho Louisiana lottery man Mr Withers was tho only sportsman sports-man of the old school In the combination He never lost his faith inthe future of racing In this country and up to the last moment was trying to establish his ideal which was an English race course under the patronage of rich and distingushed men His death has probably spared him the spectacle of further humiliation and degradation of what was once regarded in this country as the true sport of gentlemen gentle-men The ethics of horse racing in my opinion are likely to grow much worse in this country before they grow bettor CROCKER AND TUB MArOKALTT One of the newspapers here the other day discussing the mayoralty made the rather startling announcement that Rich aid Crocker harbored designs upon that office and would probably have himsslf nominated therefor this fall From what I know of Mr Crocker I cannot believe that he contemplates any such political move At the same time if ho has any intention of that kind he will never have a better opportunity op-portunity for gratifying his ambition This being presidential year Tammany hall is pretty certain to pull its ticket through After that the trouble will begin The organization is growing so strong that it is pretty certain to fall apart by reason of Its own weight Every form of dissatisfaction dissatisfac-tion will manifest itself after the President is chosen and the probabilities are that it will bo many years before Tammany is as strong and defiant as it is today Its inability in-ability to furnish offices to everybody who makes a demand is naturally creating dissension dis-sension and when this aggregates suffl ciently there will be a protest some kind which will make the nucleus for a grand nonpartisan raliy From what I know of and have seen of Mr Crocker I rather think that ho prefers to enjoy political po-litical power without being personally person-ally conspicuous He did not care particularly to take the office of city chamberlain but he was urged thereto by his friends who hold that inasmuch as his savage organization would be made responsible respon-sible for the city government it would be well for him to be in a position to hold a check over finances He did not enjoy the office and was I think very glad to get out of It To attain the mayoralty of this city would be a great achievement for a man who began life as humbly as Richard Crocker but to a man holding relations to apolitical a-political organization such as ho maintains it would be boset with many dangers When his health gave out two or three years ago Mr Crocker was seriously alarmed and I doubt very much whether he would like to burden himself with a mayors care in view of the risk which would be involved My theory is that the Tammany people will pick out as a candidate candi-date for mayor some man WhO is not too closely allied to other organizations and who may yet be depended upon to serve Tammany and who may yet command a largo independent vote They will certainly cer-tainly do this if they are wise and if they consult the future of their organization For there is a very strong feeling Democratic Demo-cratic circles outside of Tammany that the close corporation business is being overdone over-done THE MODBHX SAWBONES People didnt know anything aoout paresis par-esis ton years ago They are almost as ignorant of appendicitis now But is just at present the very latest thing out in fashionable maladies having been favorably favora-bly been introduced to tho attention of New Yorkers by the son of an English lord Captain Rose who sought under the I knives of New York surgeons relief which he could not get in his own country This was naturally a card for the American faculty fac-ulty but theres nothing particularly new in that since Professor Billrotn of Vienna Vien-na declared tnat Dr William T Bull of New York had no equal in America as a surroon and no superior in the world It Is Dr Bull who has just performed the two famous operations for appendicitis Sir John Roses son a beefy Briton got well Mrs Marion Smith a delicate Rhode Islander succumbed Now the interesting feature of it all is the nonchalance with I which the advanced surgeon of today watches his patients die under his knife He seems absolutely sunerlor to liinmm weaknesses including the emotions His skill has perhaps been won in no small I measure by iron nerves and a heart which pumps tho blood into his fingers and brain i with unvarying regularity It is not his business to soothe to condole or even to regret He operates on a living subject sub-ject in the interests of science If the subject survives so much the better for the subject If not science profits perhaps all tho more This same Dr Bull is one of the coolest of cool hands Ho is one of tho handsomest men In New York besides straignt ivgular of features grayeyed Greeknosed abundantly abund-antly clothed with wellclipped irongray hair and other fashiomibln raiment He isnt much if any more than forty and ho regards newspapers as social tumrs vhich I It would be a good job to excise But he I loves his work and his achievements in it is something all Americans may be proud of THE GUOWT1I OF CLUBDOM I If a Now Yorker wants to find his lawyer law-yer or his doctor outside of office hours the I cub Is pretty sure to be the place to look The number of eminent and professional I men who may be seen looking out over Madison Square of an afternoon from tho windows of tho old Jerome mansion at the I southeast corner of Twenty sixth btreet and Madison avenue ib amazing That is now tho University house Prof Wit thaus the great ctiomical analyst whose testimony I tes-timony went BO far with that of Dr Allan McLane Hamilton toward convicting Carlyle Car-lyle Harris of poisoning the lovely little woman he didnt want to acknowledge as his wife is a regular afternoon figure there He drops in for a smoke on his way from his laboratory down at the east end of Twentysixth street almost opposite the morgue to his bachelor lodginszn in Twentythird street It is said that New York has had no more eminent chemist since Richard S McCullough whoso testimony testi-mony in the Wharton poisoning case years ago made a worldwide stir left the Uni VCraitV of New York at thn Vinilrminrr nr the hostile feeling between north and south in 1SCO and vent down to side with his own people McCullough was a quaint figure a taciturn selfwithdrawing cold grayeyed silent man So ia Wittttaus The Germans are the greatest analysts and their great testtube jugglers hold Witthaus as they held McCullough in the highest esteem Wltthaus and Hamilton are both about Bulls age The three are often together at the University Club It is a question whether any city in the world can produce another group of three so distinguished dis-tinguished and successful men in the science of alleviating human woe They would probably laugh if they were told that Professional etiquette often requires re-quires a doctor to make a fool of himself AN AMEBICAN PRINCE In ono of the corridors of tho Windsor hotel the other evening I saw a remarkable youth promenading up and down with a well groomed valet in evening suit This youth was about ten years of age to all appearances ap-pearances and he wore a dress which would have made him conspicuous in any court in Eurore Ho had a velvet coat of the Louis XIV pattern a long white silk waistcoat a pair of velvet knee breeches black silk stockings silver shoe buckles add no end of lace and frills His long yellow hair hung down in semi curls upon his shoulders ana his air was that of the languid and thoroughly blaze character the most hilarious French period I was f told that he was tho son of Mr Westinghouse Westing-house the inventor of the airnrake and that this evening costume of his was mild and dull compared with the gorgeous vestments vest-ments in which he was arrayed upon high social occasions Some ladies were pre sentln the condor and endeavored to exchange ex-change a few remarks with tho young nobleman but they found him exceedingly rude and not specially bright I have alwas had a sort of sympathy for young men born to riches and power I o me there has always bean a pathetic side to a prince and I have been generous enough to excuse most of their shortcomings upon the ground that their breeding and environments were such as to prevent them from developing into true men As I contemplated this little prince of Westinghouse the other evening I found myself wondering what sort of an American citizen ho would prove to bo What ideas of life can he have Indulged In-dulged and surrounded as ho is1 I tried to contrast his present situation with that which his distinguished father must have occupied at the same age Through his labor genius and his energy Mr Westinghouse Westing-house has made a great fortune and has conferred great blessings upon mankind Who can imagine any outcome from his spoiled and pampered heir Still if this boy has secured the love and adulation of one fond parent he has an important place in life and his mission has not been a useless use-less one A JOLLT RAILROADER Mr Depews influence on the officers of the New York Central Railroad company canno have failed of couse to the beneficial bene-ficial and pleasing in more ways than one But whether or not it is responsible for the development or the revelation to the public of the wit and Tumor of George H Daniels the general passenger agent who is a so president of the Quaint club and one of tho most popular New Yorkers after dinner Mr Daniels friends arc not altogether disposed dis-posed to concede Certain it is that Mr Daniels is one of the best fellows in the world People who knQw him well enough to be rude add and one of the ugliest But it is notso He is stout and short and wears a beautiful red wisp of beard on his chin and nuolB l fashioned auburn roach on his brow But he has vocal as well as mental charms which easily secure him the credit of being an Apollo Few club presidents presi-dents sing as well as he or make more painstaking studies in natural history The Quaint club under his presidency is fast becoming a worthy rival of those other famous dining organizations the Clover club of Philadelphia and the Gridiron club of Washington Hr Depew and exCollec tor Erhardt Mr Arkell and Artist Giilam and other wellknown Now Yorkers are regular attendants at the Quaint clubs monthly dinners Denials is a shrewd and tactful and ready presider Ho also seems to know bow to make the cat jump A RISING PLATWUIGI1T For a few months Sadie Martinet the plump little person who has just made her reentree on the comic opera stage has been living at tho Plaza hotel near Central park getting ready for the presentation of I Pompadour In this preparation sho has I been ubly assisted by Mr Charles Frederick Freder-ick Nirdlinger the gentleman whose name is billed as author of the comedy and whose persistent devotion to Miss Martinet has of recent years discouraged otuer suitors suit-ors aud kept at a respectful distance that Burguudiioviiig union clubman who once I I admired liss Mariiuot more expensively even thun Mme Bernhardt herself He never furnished a house for Mine Bern hardt and cotiaeouently she never daiertod him for a beardless playwright of Hebraic extraction All of w licli coud not be said I of Mile Martinet She and young Mr I Nirdlinger l have walked and talked and dined and dined and written and titlon tOEOther as they bay In Tennessee and Pompadour is the result They havo never hi very savagely however it would seem Niroin er is i said to be the brother of a Buccassful manager in Philadelphia I Phila-delphia Ho has cut out uiuny a New York swell now A CANAL ENGINEER Crawford Douglass tho working American Ameri-can engineer under whose efforts the Atlantic At-lantic end of the Panama canul was actually completed fourteen miles in from Colon has been in New York for some months watching the course ol canal affairs Ho is a bigboned broadbeaded man of some fifty years whose experience in public enterprises en-terprises in the tropics has been very extensive ex-tensive He has been the puestof Do Los seps in Paris repeatedly and has had accurate ac-curate knowledge of all the steps which led the famous Isthmian ditch to bankruptcy bank-ruptcy He has decided toreturn to Colon give up muddigging11 as he calls it and return to journalism A score and more of years ago he was a writer on tho Panama Pan-ama Star and Herald His arrival at the conclusion that he had best return to his first love may be fairly taken as an indIcation indi-cation that he considers the Panama canal enterprise hopeless It is interesting to note however that tho veteran who knows more thau any other American I about can a is says the Warner Muter Nicaragua Nic-aragua ditch is even more hopeless than the Panama scheme because it will cost even more to complete But I have faith in the Nicaragua route and short water communication between the Atlantic anti Pacific as one of the commercial demands of tho epoch WDEUE ARE THE TRETTT WOMEN Nobody will ever know whether Helen of Troy was a beauty or not but Cleopatra has alre dy been demonstrated an ugly brownskinned wench with a pug nose and we do know we who see them fuce to face that the beautiful women who are so much written and talked about in New York are most of them only passably good looking Late hours high living and stimulants stim-ulants do not conduce to the perfection or the feminine type and one may stroll out on Filth avenue of a Sunday or dawdle around the Metropolitan on a gala opera night in tho vain quest of a solitary spool men of American womanhood in its perfection per-fection of facial and figurative outline Then too age has something to do with it and women who expect to keep up alter fifty the reputation for good looks they may havo had at twenty have a hard time of it Mrs Frank Leslie is ono of the NOW York women whose names are publishe in the beauty lists She may have belonged there twenty years ago or she may not There is not a sUgle beautiful woman in i that latest McAllisterian idiocy tho One Hundred and Fifty Grand street coming to and going from work aro our nearest approach to beauty shows GOVERNOR FLOWERS RESOLVE In sending out invitations to tho Press 60 club dinner the other day I made the dma covery that Governor Roswell P Flower Is determined to confine his sociaoility to Albany for the present He bus so many invitations to attend dinners all over tile state that ho has made up his mind not to lay himself open to the charge of partiality He will go to dinners and receptions in Albany but he will not fan the embers of hilarity with tho wine of friendship as Dick Swivellr might say outside the limits of old Fort Orange In this con cas sion to the people of the state there is I suspect a delicate trace of tho presidential bee which has more than once been heard buzzing insido Mr Flowers old straw hat JOHN A COCKERILL |