OF OLD NEW YORK

The date, it will be noticed, is 1906. At that time,
Ik Marvel, as he chose to call himself when he wrote the
"Reveries" was 84. He died two years later at his
country home, Edgewood, Connecticut.
 

William Hamlin Childs' Case

The case of William Hamlin Childs, head of the Fusion
Committee that supported Mayor Mitchell, has become
one of great importance as an instance—perhaps the only
one in our history—in which an attempt has been made
to drive out public spirited men from matters of munici¬
pal government, and we record it here as an item to in¬
terest future New Yorkers as well as ourselves. Mr.
Childs was indicted on the single technical offense of
paying out for speakers a certain sum "without mention¬
ing their names," an offense—if offense it may be called
—committed by subordinates and for which Mr. Childs
was held responsible as Chairman of the Executive Com¬
mittee.    In a statement to the press, Mr. Childs says:

The present phase of this matter before the courts is to test
the strict legality of the proceedings of a partisan District Attor¬
ney and to determine whether, as matter of law and irrespective
of the two facts, the charges made by him constitute any offense
against the statutes. In all this I am, of course, in the hands
of my counsel and must be guided by their judgment.

After the election in November, 1917, and during the winter
of 1918, the District Attorney's office gave out misleading and
distorted statements of the terrible disclosures the Grand Jury
was going to uncover in its exhaustive examination of the Fusion
records.

Now, what are the facts? The Grand Jury found that the
records of the committee were kept with most unusual care and
exactness; that no money was improperly received or improperly
expended; that a total of $1,080,000 was expended in a strenuous
effort to continue the best administration New York ever had
(the failure of which efforts many of its opponents now sadly
regret).

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