Mayor of Buffalo in a communication to to contribute in some way to the cause of the Common Council "It seems to me, It seems to me," the Union. A sort of family council was he said, "that a successful and faithful held. Grover had just been admitted to ministration of the Government of a city the bar at Buffalo and was beginning to may be accomplished by constantly bear- have some practice. Two younger brothing in mind that we are the trustees anders volunteered to go to the army and leave agents of our fellow-citizens, holding their Grover at home to support their mother funds in sacred trust to be expended for and sisters. This was agreed to all their benefit, that we should at all times around, and the two brothers went to the be prepared to render an honest account front and served with honor till the war to them touching the manner of its expen- closed. When peace was, declared they diture, and that the affairs of the city returned home, but were soon afterward should be conducted as far as possible up- lost at sea. Grover Cleveland was the first on the same principles as a good business man drafted in Buffalo. He promptly man manages his private concerns." supplied a substitute, who made a faithful soldier. Gov Cleveland has always been a friend of the soldiers, and was what was Buffalo there was an attempt to make capcalled a War Democrat. While Mayor of ital out of the fact that he had vetoed a

What His Administration Shows.
The administration of Grover Cleveland

as Governor has been highly satisfactory
and fully in accordance with his views

expressed in his letter accepting the nomination. All the appointments to office which he has made bear the stamp of that high, conscientious spirit which has always actuated him. His industry is beyond all question. Never has there been a man less approachable by politicians in quest of fat offices. His moral courage is great,

as witness his veto of the Five Cent Fare bill, which he treated regardless of the shower of abuse which he knew to be coming. Many of his other vetoes have been singularly objectionable to New York ward politicians. Many of the bills he has signed. have had a like effect. For instance, those curtailing the emoluments of the County Clerk, of the Register and of the Sheriff. If he is elected President he may be expected to follow in the path of political rectitude which has always distinguished him, and he will be opposed by

none but the schemers and tricksters of his party

Why it was he didn't “ Go for a Soldier." There is nothing discreditable about Gov. Cleveland's war record. At the opening of the war it was a question whether he should go to the army or not. He was entirely ready and willing to do so, but his father had died some time before and left a widowed mother, poor and with a large family, several of whom were daughters. Provision had to be made for their support, and yet the family felt obliged

bill appropriating public money for a soldiers' monument in the city. When the did it on the ground that the City Council facts came out it proved to be true that he for a purpose of that kind, but he suggested had no right to appropriate public funds that the result might be reached by a public subscription. The hint was adopted, a subscription paper was taken around and the first and largest subscriber was Mayor Cleveland. Since he has been Governor of New York he has approved a bill providing that the heads of the various State departments shall, when making appointnents, give preference to honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the United winter because of his vetoing a bill in reStates. Some irritation was created last ference to Grand Army badges. In the bill was a provision making the wearing of such a badge by any person not entitled to do so by reason of membership of some post a crime, punishable by imprisonment. The Governor thought the penalty unnecessarily severe. It was also logically observed that the child of a veteran might be imprisoned for wearing his father's badge.

The Governor's Veto of the Five Cent
Fare Bill.

One of the charges against the administration of Governor Cleveland is his veto of the above bill, and the facts in the case have been so perverted in order to excite the prejudices of the poor working men against

him, as a friend and protector of grasping | Court of Appeals, referring to the law, monopolies as against labor, that a plain said: statement of the case is here presented. When those outside of the corporations interested, shall have read this, and become possessed of the true merits of the case, there can be little doubt that he will be sustained by every unprejudiced and honorable voter

commission trains should be run during by that clause of the Constitution of the certain hours of the morning and evening, United States which prohibits the passage of a law by any State impairing the obligation of contracts.''

upon which-for the benefit of workingmen and the laboring classes-the fare should not exceed five cents for conveyance between the Battery and Fifty-ninth street, nor should exceed seven cents for a through passenger from the Battery to Harlem during those hours. The railroad company further agreed that when the net income of the proposed road, after all expenditures, taxes and charges are paid, should amount to a sum sufficient to pay exceeding 10 per cent. per annum on the capital stock of the company that in such case and within six months thereafter, and so long as said net earnings amount to a sum sufficient to pay more than 10 per cent., the said company would run commission trains on its road at all hours during which it should be operated, at the rates of fare mentioned.

These agreements were at the time of their formulation highly satisfactory to the Commissioners, who accordingly transmitted them to the Mayor, accompanied by a highly congratulatory report, upon the receipt of which the Mayor submitted the papers to the Board of Aldermen, who approved the act. This was in the fall of 1875. The New York Elevated Railroad Company thereupon constructed its road from the Battery to Harlem, a distance of ten miles.

The New Bill Ignored the Old Contract.

The new bill, however, which was presented to the Governor for signature last year, provided that, notwithstanding all the laws which had been passed and rigidly complied with on the part of the railroad company, a new scale of rates should be forced upon it, insisting that passengers should be carried the whole length of the road for five cents, a sum about half that which was specified in the agreement. In his consideration of the bill Governor Cleveland was compelled, out of a single spirit of honesty, to say:

He went on to say that section 33 of the General Railroads act provided that the Legislature may, when any railroad shall be opened for use, from time to time alter or reduce the rates of freight, fare or other profits upon said road, but the sum shall not without the consent of the company be so reduced as to bring down the profits on the invested capital to less than 10 per In his communication cent. per annum. to the Legislature vetoing the proposed bill modifying the rates of fare the Governor said that even if the State had the power to reduce the rates of fare on the elevated roads, it promised in its agreement not to do so except under certain circumstances and after a certain specified examination.

Constitutional Objections.

"I am not satisfied," he said, "that these circumstances exist. It is conceded that no such examination has been made. The constitutional objections which I have suggested to the bill under consideration. are not, I think, removed by the claim that the proposed legislation is in the nature of an alteration of the charters of these companies, and that this is permitted by the State Constitution and by the provisions of some of the laws to which I have referred. I suppose that while the charters of corporations may be altered or repealed, it must be done in subordination to the Constitution of the United States, the supreme law of the land. This leads to the conclusion that the alteration of a charter cannot be made the pretext for the passage of a law which impairs the obligation of a contract. If I am mistaken in supposing that there are legal objections to this bill, there is another consideration which furnishes to my mind a sufficient reason why I should not give it my approval.

A Breach of Faith.

"I am of the opinion that in the legis- "It seems to me that to arbitrarily reduce lation and proceedings which I have de- these fares at this time under existing cirtailed, and in the fact that pursuant thereto cumstances involves a breach of faith on the road of the company was constructed the part of the State and a betrayal of and finished, there exists a contract in confidence which the State has invited. favor of this company which is protected The fact was notorious that for many years

The New York World in speaking of thin brown hair, rapidly tending to baldthis veto gives the following illustration of how the bill, had it become a law, would have affected car drivers.

ness, and is a prepossessing-looking bachelor. He has good executive ability. He shuns society, and chiefly delights in 'The pay of a driver on a Harlem association with his own sex. He has Railroad line is, say, $2 per day. The dark, penetrating eyes and heavy eyeround trip from the bridge to the City Hall brows. His movements are deliberate

and dignified, but devoid of the heaviness which sometimes accompanies men of his type. His manner is so curt and brusque, his 'yea'' yea,' and his nay nay,' that he often offends those who speak with him for the first time, but the longer he is known the more warmly he is esteemed, respected and admired. He does not wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at, but under his stern demeanor he conceals a kindly, generous and charitable nature. One of his oldest and most intimate friends characteristically defined him as "an up and up man." Everybody who has ever had any dealings with him is aware that he means precisely what he says and says exactly what he means. In In appearance, no less than in character, he is one of the old Continental school of politicians, and seems to have come down to us from a former generation to teach us what strong, brave, honest, resolute men our forefathers were who founded this Republic. Mr Cleveland is a member of the large social clubs of Buffalo. In September, 1882, he was elected vice president of the State Bar Association from the Eighth Judicial district.

A Visitor's Description.

A visitor at the Executive Mansion thus describes an interview with the Governor "The moment he found that I did not want to ask him about the future and was quite content to listen to the past, he talked freely and familiarly There was nothing in his humble origin and struggling career that he was ashamed of. I fancied he was rather proud of his early struggles. And it was not impossible in an hour's conversation to make some kind of measurement of the man's mind and character I said to myself, this is the executive not the reflective man. I don't suppose he is ever perplexed with questions of ethics. ethics. Such men have a steady poise of judgment that saves a world of words. The right pathway is never obscured or hidden. With them the doctrinaire has a hard time of it, for instead of chasing a principle through all the mazes of possibilities for the sake of the hunt, they hold the dogs of dialectics in leash and, with unerringly clear sight and constant good nature, whip them all back to the true scent. I was always struck with a single sentence in the second volume of Carlyle's His face, no less than his figure and ac- 'French Revolution," which, after those tions, indicates strenuous vital force and two volumes of bloody chaos, announce that admirable co-ordination of faculties the arrival of Napoleon. The purport of which is best expressed in the phrase, "a that sentence, as I now recall it, is that cool head." Those traits which are in a man having now come upon the scene part the result of early and constant self- events began to straighten themselves training have given him the air of con- out.' And I suppose that whatever events scious and quiet power which belongs only become chaotic and life gets into confusion to the triumphant antagonist in the world's that it is absolutely necessary to have a fight. His figure betokens herculean man at the helm. And history shows that strength-massiveness is the best word for it is the executive man, equipped with it-and there is in the smoothly shaven convictions and endowed with courage face, the same token of equal solidity of who assumes the chieftainship in moments character, with the suggestion of physical of public doubt. Distracted on everything vigor in the soft brown mustache that else, the people are willing to rest their strongly contrasts with the scantiness of issues on indubitable strength of charachair on his head. There is a decided ten- ter, capable of both representing and dency to corpulency-ás is usually the leading. He may not bring any new case in vital temperaments—and a double truth with him, or a more brilliant method, chin is beginning to hang down over the but the trust is that he will with clear eye, simple white necktie. There is nothing pure heart and strong hand keep the colphlegmatic in the man's manner. His umns in close order along the approved face lights up with a sympathetic smile path of safety and advance."

and without becoming animated or brilliant he is at once interesting, unaffected and intensely real.

A True American Citizen. Grover Cleveland, both in his record and in his person, impresses one as pecu