Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-02
HaRpertr,s FunernI.

The funeral of the late James Haggerty in
Philadelphia was a most striking satire on the
pomp and ceremony with which the bodies of
great men and rich men are attended to their
graves. Haggerty, it is needless to remind our
readers, was an atrocions and dangerous rufian.
Philadelphia was the home of his youth, and
for long time he was the most notorious des-
perado OF that city, His great strength and his
savage temper made him the terror as well as
the admiration of all tie thieves, gamblers and
roughs. He had no friends it is said, but pleu-
ty of hltterers and parasites. After reigning
for while as tyrant among the ruffians of Phil
adelphia, q succession of crimes of unusual
atrocity caused him to apprehend inconvenicnt
attentions from the police, and, thinking Phila-
delphia an unsafe place of residence, he left thai
city for the eonaenial society Of New York.
There he found plenty of admiring subjects, and
staggered through the drinking shops and
gambling rooms with the same brutal and DOM
ineering insolence that had distinguished his Cal
reer in the other city. After some months of
this kind of life, interspersed with crimes in
grea. number and variety, among which was
murder or two, he was at last shot by rival
bully Just in lime to prevent him from taking
the life of the latter as he had very nearly done
once before
life like this does not make friends, and at
such an ending we should expect neither the
reality nor the pretence OF grief. We are not
surprised. therefore, TO hear that good men and
bad reioiced at his death; that it was a relief to
quiet citizens, who did not know when their
lives or property might be in danger from his
malice, and to his lawless associates, vino were
sure, sooner Or later. to be in the way OF his
savage bumor. The worst rascals in the CITY.
who had known him best were gathered, a
sinister assemblage, jeering and exulting about
his corpse, while the coroner was inquiring into
the manner of his death. If he had any friends
or if any person was so far charitably disposed
as to give the body Of this wretch decent burial
we might suppose that it would be put quietl,
away in the earth with the least possible pub
licity. But this was not the way in which Hag
gerty's funeral was conducted.
The body was removed to Philadelphia wher
elaborate and costly preparations were made TO
the obsequies A splendid coffin, great quaint
ties of the choicest flowers, massive silve
cross and other gorgeous paraphernalia wer
provided at the expense OF the former associate
of the deceased. A long line of carriages fol
lowed the hearse, and al the arrangements wer,
such as to suggest that the pageant was in hon
or Of some one who had earned respect ant
affection by long life filled with useful ant
honorable deeds, whose purity of character wa,
htly symbolized by the flowers which decket
the cotf1n, and his humble faith by the Christian
emblem borne upon its lid. The bearing Of tn
''mourners" was more in keeping with the char
acter of the deceased. The report says that the
were hard faced men, many bearing scars G
bar-room and street fights; they were thieves
burglars and ruflaus, and while the funeral wa
ia progress, brawled, fought and drank whiske
as is their won't This was tine funeral of til
man of whom no one has had anything bette
70 say than this, that "he was not very DANCE
Gus when SOBER" and even this faint praise
qualified by the addition, "but then, be hardl
ever was SOBER"