| Show MAYOR STRONG AND THE GREATER NEW MEW YORK NEW YORK CITY may aoth 1897 HAVE spent this morning fc jy lp in the capitol building of the second city of the world I 1 refer to the city hall which is to be the center of the goern government ment of the greater new york the greater new york contains twice as many people as either new jersey or iowa it has nine times as many sous souls as rhode island or bouth dakota all the people in nevada would rattle around in some of its 1 silo smaller aller wards like the dry peas ina in a pod and its inhabit inhabitant aws s are more with a tew few exceptions than those of the greatest of our states new york city is surpassed by only one place ftp ad the e w world orld as to its population and it is an easy second among the worlds cities in business and wealth there is no town but graye paired baited london which will compare with it and with lusty strides it is last fast tramp ing on 0 londona Lon dons heels during my visit to the english metropolis not long ago j j heard beard a great fuss made about a sale ot of business property there at a price e equal U a I 1 to ioco oooo an acre A lot was so sold qa d within a stones throw of the city F ball only a year or so ago for a price amounting to an acre this lot was on the corner corne of nassau and liberty streets it contained considerably less than a quarter of an acre of ground 0 und and ana it brought byh here lere ip is s scarcely any property on the island land of manhattan which can be t bought cheaply today there are lots dong along lower broadway which are worth r a carpet of silver dollars over their entire surface and there are some I 1 venture which you could not buy by offering to stand silver dollars on edge side by side bide and end to end making a two inch plaiting over the whole tot lot the tendency of the prices here is ever upward one twelfth of the total assessed value of the united states exists i in n new york the real estate alone amo amounting to snore more than still when the dutch bought the island of manhat tan off the th Inc indians ians they paid for it only worth of glass beads and buttons ailt was the biggest real estate deal on record twenty four dollars then worth billions now think what the in clans lost it is a big thing to be mayor of a city mke like th this the office carries almost as much responsibility as that of the 1 de dent delatos latof of the united states there are I 1 believe about four thousand policemen now in this city and there will be seven thousand in the new new york there arill be all told an arav of city cias s 1 reater r by that which xenophon led on y bis retreat to the sea than the army of the united states and the salary list will to more than thirty three miln count son dollars a year the property inter eats of such a city are enormous the business carried on is of every kind there is more manufacturing done here than in any other town in the united states the shipping interests are so great that three thousand ships come bolln irom foreign countries to these wharves every year and two fifths of all the pro wo w ship imp to foreign countries are aie aalt nt here to be loaded The banking tanking in teresta are the greatest on this hemis hem s phere the new york clearing house does a business ot of twenty five til billions lions annually while the stocks in wall street affect every country town in the united states there are in the greater new york one hundred and sixty thousand dwelling houses and business house which the mayor must see are in sanitary condition the streets which have to be looked looke dalter I 1 alter would ma make ke a line longer than the distance between bema new york and chicago and the mileage ot of the surface railways would make five tracks from new york to washington I 1 dont know the extent of the sewerage of the greater new york but four years ago new york proper had more than four hundred miles of such works and the bill signed by governor black will largely increase this number all of these things have to be looked after in every part of the vast city there are men scheming to get money out of its treasury or to evade its laws all sorts of taxes are brought to the city hall to be ground BE ar d the mayor has to be a very smart man if he keeps the wheel turning in the right direction and uses it solely for the good of the people I 1 believe that mayor strong does this he has no ax of his own to grind and he is the mayor of all the citizens he has brought civil service into what was one of the most corrupt spoils cities of the world and he has realy reaby worked wonders in reforming the government and the police I 1 spent this morning in his office and I 1 was struck with the free american way in which he does things vv whatever there may be about the other departments of new york there is no red tape about the cita hall the ma mayors oes office is open to ail you walk in and take lake your seat and when your turn comes you step up to the mayors desk and state your case when I 1 arrived at the office this morning it was mr strong had already been there a half hour and he was still engaged in answering lag h s mail he had received at this delivery ane hundred letters and more than halt of these were already disposed of he went over the letters rapidly directing his secretary how they shoura should be answered and later on the secretary to took ok the ithe mail and dictated the proper answers to a stenographer after this delegations began to come in the mayor heard the me spokesman of each party and in many cases decided the disputes without leaving his seat it was between two such delegations that I 1 was introduced by mr john Sl elcher formerly the editor of frank leslie and now one of the city officials said mr mr mayor here is a newspaper man who wants to look you in the eye that is an n easy thing to do replies t the e may mayor ora as he turns his face to me and a aa pair i r of i shrewd ilar ewd honest blue eyes look into mine I 1 study his bis face as we chat and am more and more surprised at his vigor tigor and strength as he goes on the mayor of new york is by no means an old man and still he is more than threescore three score years and ten his eyes are bright and full of life his complexion is rosy arid and his face almost free from wrinkles the thick thatch upon his head and chin contains but few gray strands and his voice is as strong as that of a man of forty As he chats chan I 1 think elthe enormous amount of wark he do does and resolve to get at the secret of his vitality I 1 ask him as to his habits he replies that thai he has no habits to speak of that he lives simply works hard and thrives upon it in repay to my questions he answers that he does not drink much although his friends tel tell I 1 me that he is not averse to a finger of good old whisky now and then he tells me that one of the secrets of his bis vitality lies in the fact that he never worries and his assistants say that he sheds trouble as a ducks duckes back sheds water he fays that he always does what seems right to him at th a time and the then n forgets forge ts about the matter until it again comes up he puts his lull full force upon the thing before him nothing seems to ruffle him A man may come into the office and denounce the city government he may storm at the mayor and say things which mient be considered unpleasant the mayor passes upon his case then and there after he has decided it he dismisses it from his mind and the face which is turned to the next caller is as clear as a may morning I 1 am told that mayor strong is very fond of humor he has a homely way which reminds you of president lincoln he can see a joke as quickly as could lincoln and he enjoys a funny story amid the most solemn circum stances stai stat ces people who come before him are surprise j i to hear him burst into a laugh and tell a funny story in the midst of a most serious consultation some of them thein cannot understand how it is in this love of humor that he rests his mind the laugh breaks the strain which his position necessarily entails the mayor is a good storyteller story teller and his best stories are the reminiscences of his own life which has been a typically american one mayor strongs life story is that of a country boy who came to new york and succeeded he was you know born in ohio his early years were spent upon a farm and one of his bis first business ventures was in a small store at mansfield ohio mansfield is now a town of twenty thousand people jbea mayor strong was young I 1 doubt whether it had bad three thousand but among its young men it included some of the brightest minds of the united states one ot of mr Stron strongs gys associates and aad friends was john sherman who had come to mansfield from a school at mount vernon to study law with his big brother charley it must have been during mr strongs mercantile experience there that sherman became a can date for congress and canvassed the hit district going about with an old white horse and stopping at the country crow cross roads to make speeches another young youn man was amos townsend who afterward went to cleveland aid made made a big fortune there he was sent from cleveland to congress and was for years one ut of the soundest advisers of the republican party I 1 think that townsend and strong were partners at mansfield another man who has done much since he left that part of ohio is general tom eckert who is now the president of the western union telegraph company during my chat with the mayor I 1 asked h m how he happened to leave mansfield he told me that he was ambitious wanted to see something of the world and concluded to try new york he H began his work here as a clerk receiving at first a hundred dollars a month then he was sent out west to collect bills lor for his firm and lie he succeed ed d so well that his salary was increased tight right along in those days davs there were no collecting agencies the merchants came to new york to buy their goods and as they usually purchased on time the wholesale dealers had to send their collectors out west to vet get the money they sent them much as they now send drummers out to sell goods young strong soon got a large acquaintance in the west he was a good mixer and was so popular that it is said that he would often take dinner with a man in the evening or go to church with him the man knowing that he would the next day appear against him in a lawsuit re he did so well in fact that he was soon able to go into business for himself and he is now one of the rich men of new york he is I 1 am told worth considerably more than a million dollars and in addrion to abig a big commission business he has other interests of many kinds when he was elected mayor he was one of the directors of the new york life insurance company president of the homer lee bank note company and the confidential adviser of other institutions before he took the office however he said to his bis associates of the different boards gentlemen for the next three years you will have to get along without my aid I 1 am now in the employ of the city of new york and will lave have to work for them mayor strong lias carried out this resolution his commission business is managed ly by his son putnam im bradlee strong and the mayers mayors whole strength is devoted to the ae city r I 1 asked basked mayor strong a few questions about the greater new york M he said he had no doubt but that the city would prosper per even more than it bad done in the past and that it would eventually be the greatest city of the whole world his is ideas on this subject are those of an optimist t mist he has faith in the united M states tes and in new york he does not believe the country is going to the dogs and evidently does not think the days of 1 prosperity are past one of my questions was as to whether he thought that that young men had still a chance of success in the great metropolis and whether the business chances would be good in the greater new york the mayor replied there are plenty of opportunities for young men who come here in the right 1 but what is the right way mr mayor I 1 asked any young man who expects to succeed in new york replied mayor strong must come here determined to tely rely upon himself he must push out for himself and not depend upon his friends ki ends the boy who does that is sure to succeed if he has good principles and bodd habits he must however bend every energy toward to ward accomplishing what he sets out to do and he must be economical in respect to moneys money time and strength if he does this and has it in him bim be will have a great success for there is no place where the bilies of great successes are more than right here PI which has the best chance to succeed mr mayor the boy reared in the country or the boy reared in the city 11 t doust doot think the locality has much to dewith do with it was the reply the manner of the boys rearing often has snore the country boy bay bap as a rule had the advantage of having beim been made to work he is usually a poor boy and his bis nerve and muscle have usually been developed by adversity this may be the case with the city boy but in many instances his early life has been too easy his parents have pampered him he does not know the value of a dollar until he learns it by experience after he has gone into business and in this way he starts in behind the horny handed son of the country the country boys life has tended to the development of self reliance in him and he cornes comes here with the determination to stand alone this remark of mayor strong may be forcibly illustrated by a story of his own self reliance it was during his first years in new york he had bad been in the employ of one of the leading merchants here for some time when a disagreement arose between him and the merchant about a certain matter in the discussion which followed strong thought that he was not progeny treated and as a result there were hot words between the two at last the employer toll told mr strong that he did not believe that he could work any longer for him work any longer for you was strongs reply work for you alter after this why man I 1 would not work for you after what you have said tor for rocoo a minute thereupon young strong took up his hat and left he was out of a place for a few days the first man to whom he applied for work asked him for references young strong at once gave him the name of the man who had just dismissed him said he 1 I could refer you to bilty men who know me each of whom I 1 doubt not would say a good thing for me but what you want is the name of some one I 1 have worked for and that man can tell you all about m my work V the result was that the man went to his former employer and asked as to strong and was told in reply that strong was a very good man but hard to get along with said his old employer if you can manage him he is worth all that you can pay him but as for me he told me when he left that he be would not work for me again for a minute this answer strange to say pleased the man he gave strong the place and never had reason to regret it I 1 asked the mayor if he had found that the men of new york were smarter than those of the west he replied no I 1 dont think so there are now in village stores men who are just as bright as any of the merchants here in in new york and there are lawyers at the county seats who have as much brains as those who advise the big corporations in wall street this matter of greatness is to a large extent one ot of circumstances and surroundings mr mayor I 1 want to ask you if you think a mans life is safe in any part of new york at any hour of the n night ht many people of the country are zo afraid lid ot of this city 1 I believe replied the mayor that life and property areas are as safe here as in any place in the world there is no more danger of a man being robbed or killed |
