[SelzShoes]

From the diary of Wm Frederick Adams, Personal Secretary to Thaddeus Hamilton, owner Brooklyn

“If Mr. Hamilton’s body was as strong as his spirit, there is no telling how great a man he would have become. Mayor would be barely a start, and governor not high enough. He has grown quickly into is native intelligence; controlling the purse-strings of the powerful and those who desire to be powerful. Wrecked with fever and prone to fits of cough which reveal to the world the gravity of his situation; people realize they are conversing with a dead man. Doctors have told him a better clime, such as the thinner air of the mountain or the dry air of the dessert, would make his soon to be too short life more comfortable. But he refuses to leave his beloved Brooklyn; especially now that he has provided something other than his considerable skills as a banker and speculator to the city. He dreams of a Brooklyn who can overshadow it’s larger, more boisterous brother city. He feels Brooklyn can be hailed throughout the nation as not only Manhattan’s equal, but it’s superior.

“But the more joy he feels from his Atlantics on the pitch, the more I see his body wither. The conflict of east and west no longer matters to him, as the fighting and constant browbeating from Temple to “side with true sport” further clouds his health. He is not long for this world, and he has begun to neglect his profession for a child’s game. All he wants is to best Manhattan before he walks into the arms of our creator. Would I consider a deal with a devil in his stead? To live a life, and find too close to the end your true desire is a ring even Dante did not imagine.”