Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-08-13
NO. 1870.
MiseellaneoMs.
AN OLD COUPLE ADRIFr IN THE STREETS.

A struggling heap of poor household
gooGs-a worn mattrass, a few battered
tin pans, some cracked crockery and few
pieces OF broken furniture-liuing the
| sidewalk in front OF No. 81 Bleecker ST.,
opposite Mulberry ST., within stones
, throw and in full view of the Police Cen
tral office, drew passing glance and an
| occasional word OF sympathy from passers
| by on Saturday night On the steps from
| the house from which the furniture had
| evidently been removed, couched a man
| and a woman. both old and feeble. and
| seemingly insensible to what passed
| around them. At the weman's side was a
| well-filed beer mug. from which she
drank at intervals, mnttering hoarse oaths.
| The man seemed sunk in stupor. Thus
| they had remained on Friday, and thus
| they sat all through Saturday and past
midnight, when the woman was forced to
seek shelter at the Mercer Street Station
House. while the man returned to his hard
bed on the stone step. Yesterday. in sun
shine and rain, the same scene was pre-
seDted. The police offered to provide
home for the woman il her husband would
make a charge of perpetual drunkenness
against her. This refused, they ignored
the sidewalk residents.
The white-headed old man who thus sat
| watching through the night was, few
years ago, prosperous Broadway hat
manufacturer. During the war he car
| ried on business at No. 100 Broadway.
Later he established factory at No.
Amity street, aud still later he did thriv-
ing business at No. GA Broadway. The
perfdy of a partner. he claims, together
| with the incurable intemperance of a wife,
| to whom he had been linked tor twenty
| six years, ruined him, and he has since
been earning a precarious living by sell
Ing hats for IA MIR. Walker in Thirty. sew
| enth street. occupying a back room at No.
81 Bleecker street. The rent for this, he
claims, was paid to September l, yet,
nevertheless, he was elected last Friday
without cause.
The woman'S story is even more re-
| markable, ii true. She claims to be the
| only sister of Captain Richard King, the
great catlle-raiser, known as "the cattle
| king of Texas" She says-whenever
anything except abuse can be coaxed out
of her-that she was the only sister of
six brothers, all born in the town of Glen
ola, county Derry. Ireland. OF these
six, only Richard, the Texas man, is now
alive About 1910 be went South, after
working around the Battery in this city,
as a pilot boy, and began life as cattle
herdcr on the plains. She insists that
Richard changed his name from Kane to
King, over which he had serious quar-
rel with his uncle. After thirty years on
the plains he now brands annually $4,000
| calves, and owns the principal interest in
| important steamship and railroad lines.
| The woman states that some time ago her
| brother sent her a $50 note and check
on st. Louis bank, but that by some
means they were lost and never since re-
covered. Her husband showed yesterday
| to reporter photographs OF Captain King
and his two children showing a broad,
thick set man, OF decided Hibernian
| cast of countenance. The story told by
the couple agrees in some respects with
known facts -New York Tribune.