Word: tweed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Long Row to Hoe. For a leader of Tammany to be taking postcard surveys like a sort of political science professor must set the bones of Boss Tweed and Dick Croker to rattling about in their coffins. But the public-opinion poll is only one of the many ways in which Tammany Hall, under De Sapio. has changed, is changing, and will continue to change...
WILLIAM MARCY ("Boss") TWEED, 300 lbs. of political corruption. Son of an Irish chairmaker, Tweed got into politics as the nose-busting foreman of the Americus, or Big Six, volunteer fire company. On the dashboard of the Big Six engine a tiger's head was painted, and it was later used by Cartoonist Thomas Nast as the symbol (see cover) for Tammany and its voracious Boss Tweed. Elected to public office, Tweed was a member of the Board of Aldermen, known widely (and correctly) as "The Forty Thieves." In 1863 Tweed won control of Tammany from Fernando Wood...
...Around Tweed in Tammany Hall revolved the infamous Tweed Ring. Among the other ringleaders: City Chamberlain Peter ("Brains") Sweeny, whose mistress was a masseuse in a Turkish bath; City Comptroller Richard ("Slippery Dick") Connolly, and Mayor Abraham Oakey ("Elegant Oakey") Hall, who wrote a play called Let Me Kiss Him For His Mother, and who, while District Attorney, gave a dramatic reading titled Dido versus Aeneas, an ancient breach of promise trial...
With a vast diamond glittering from his shirt front, Boss Tweed lived in the grand manner. The value of gifts, e.g., 40 sets of sterling silver, at his daughter's wedding was estimated at $700,000. Tweed gave lavishly to charity: once, when approached by a ward leader for a donation to the poor, Tweed wrote a check for $5,000. "Oh Boss," said the ward heeler, half jokingly, "put another naught to it." "Well, well, here goes," said Tweed, and upped the ante...
Personality: Burke is a sturdy man (5 ft. 11 in., 200 Ibs.) with a deceptively easy smile and a soft voice. At home in Washington with his wife (they have no children), he likes torelax with a curved pipe, tweed jacket, a drink and a book. (His latest: Hadrian's Memoirs.} Actually, he gets little chance to relax. During his last tour in Washington, he read reports and ate hot dogs at his desk during his lunch hour, telephoned aides any time between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Like all blue-water sailormen, he is at his best...