Fol de Rol de Rido

New York, 1895

That's the game Boss Youngs seems to have been playing with George Downing of Oyster Bay. Mr. Downing had the misfortune to fail in business, but not because of tariff reform, and his mind turned to public office. He appealed to the Boss, and what the Boss did for him has been told to the public by Mr. Youngs himself, through the columns of Sunday's Brooklyn Eagle, as follows:

"I have been looking for a place for him and think he can secure one if he will take a civil service examination, as every other applicant has to do."

Fol de rol de rido!

"Been looking out for a place for him," Boss, have you? 'Well, why didn't you give him the place you yourself seized on at $5 a day? You are worth $100,000, and you have an income from $50,000 more. You, Boss, did not need the $5 a day place. Poor Downing did.

And you think poor Downing ought to take a "civil service examination as every other applicant has to do," eh! Say, Boss, you did not take a civil service examination to get that $5 a day job! You know the law did not require you to. It is pretty plain that you are playing the civil service dodge on poor Downing to rid yourself of him. The trick wouldn't work with Dr. Wright, whom you fear politically.

Poor Downing is but another victim of misplaced confidence,

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 3, 1895, p. 4.