State Legislation 103 



all during my presence in it, I chose three of my 

 four colleagues from among those of my fellow- 

 legislators who were Irish either by birth or descent. 

 One of the warmest and most disinterested friends 

 I have ever had or hope to have in New York poli- 

 tics, is by birth an Irishman, and is also as genuine 

 and good an American citizen as is to be found 

 within the United States. 



A good many of the Yankees in the house would 

 blunder time and again; but their blunders were 

 generally merely stupid and not at all amusing, 

 while, on the contrary, the errors of those who were 

 of Milesian extraction always possessed a most re- 

 freshing originality. 



INCIDENTS OF LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE 

 IN 1882, the Democrats in the House had a clear 

 majority, but were for a long time unable to effect 

 an organization, owing to a faction-fight in their 

 own ranks between the Tammany and anti-Tam- 

 many members, each side claiming the lion's share 

 of the spoils. After a good deal of bickering, the 

 anti-Tammany men drew up a paper containing a 

 series of propositions, and submitted it to their op- 

 ponents, with the prefatory remark, in writing, that 

 it was an ultimatum. The Tammany members were 

 at once summoned to an indignation meeting, their 

 feelings closely resembling those of the famous 

 fish- wife who was called a parallelopipedon. None 

 of them had any very accurate idea as to what the 

 word ultimatum meant; but that it was intensely 



