Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-02-17
.os Au9eles Aerald.


lifetime by the blessings and the
prayers of thousands of the poor.
The other Saint Francis was
something of q scamp in early life.
His escapades are carefully narrat-
ed by his biographers as good
background for his later sanctity.
Finally he was logged and thrown
into prison for his offenses; and
while in prison he was converted
and devoted himself to the service
of the poor.
Much of this is true of the mod
ern Saint Francis. He, too, found
Christ in prison--(for the prison is
. place where men sometimes find
Christ in more senses than one)-
and gave himself up to a service
whose demands and whose rewards
he did not then at all forecast.
Medieval Europe" says the
historian, "owes much to the Fran.
ciscans. They went everywhere,
and were like flames of fire wher-
ever they went. First of all they
reused the masses. Poor men,
wearing nothing but brown frocks
gIrded about the waist by bits of
rope, they brought the gospel home
to the poor. By and by they made
themselves felt in every walk of
life." 1t begins to look as if mod.
ern America were going to be a
large debtor to the new order OF
Franciscans-to Murphy's men. If
1.-THE massesn of medieval Europe
were any more thoroughly reused
than the masses of some of our
American cities and towns have
been by the preaching of Murphy,
Il must have been q sight to see
them.
1t is to the poor that Francis
Murphy preaches-the poorest of
the poor-the men who have lost
manhood and honor and self-respect
In the bondage OF strong drink.
And when he breaches they listen.
No doubt about that. Night after
night the largest halls are crowded
10 suffocation; hundreds stand for
hours, or cling to the edges of plat
forms and the ratings Of galleries,
listening to his proclamation OF
liberty to the captives and the open
ing Of the prison doors to them that
are bound.
He is q study-this man Murphy.
Get q seat on the platform if you
can, where you can watch his
movements. The great crowd, Or
Derby and CHEEKY, is waiting for his
appearance. Suddenly there is q
Frightening of faces and CLAP
ping of hands, and Murp by walks
forward, bowling to the audience,
shaking hands right and left and
beaming on everybody. He Is q
short man, about as tall as Moody,
but not quite so stout, though his
chest is full and his limbs are mus
cuIar. The face is Celtic and shape
~, the bright eyes look out from
under heavy eyebrows, the clean
shaven jaw is firm, and the gener-
Gus mouth is curtained by black
moustache. A good-natured man,
beyond doubt; and on the best OF
terms with his environment.
The service begins with singing.
The great choir lead in two or three
of the ''gospel melodies" of Bliss
and Sankey, the congregation join
ing In the chorus; and there
are one orltwo sacred songs of a
more pretentiousc character by sing
ers who go about with the apostles
OF temperance to sing the gospel
after the manner of Sankey. Then
Murphy rises, Bible in hand, and
reads q few verses, commenting on
them in a homely, pointed fashion.
His exegssis is sometimes queer, but
never mind that Bad exegesis
often yields good doctrine. If the
sacred writer does not say just what
the expounder represents him as
saying he might well have said it..
Then there is a short prayer, and
the orator naturally passes along
ways of familiar and informal talk
into the speech of the evening.
The story of his own life makes
up good part Of all his speeches.
If he stays only day or two in q
place you get an abridgment of it,;
II he tarries longer he gives it to
you at length, in installments,
with more or less of discursive
moralizing and description and ap-
peal thrown in evening by evening.
The story is we'll told. You would
not tell so much of it if you were
in his place; but you do not feel,
after all, like censuring his frank
ness. You can see in his expert
ence the depth of degradation and
woe into which drink plunges men;
and he evidently thinks he has a
better right to show you the dark
side of his own life than that OF
any other mans. Often as he has
told the tale 1t is far from being a
mere recitation. His heart swells
with emotions that are not simu-
lated, and the tears start from his
own eyes as he speaks of the woes
of "mother" and the children in
the days when drink was cursin G
his home.
Now and then he strikes off into
digressions humorous, descriptive,
dramatic,-some of which are very
telling. The story of the Irish girl
who felt SO grand riding in her mis-
tress's carriage that she wished she
could stand on the sidewalk and see
herself drive by, Is capitally told;
and always when he drops into his
native brogue the Irishman that he
gives us is a genuine bit of charac-
ter. Some OF his more tragic pass
ages are simply tremendous. His
description Of Sheridan's Ride, for
example, or his Imaginative por-
trayal of the "upas tree" of intern
perance, are astounding perform
ances. Such rhetoric, such elocu-
tion, such acting are not often heard
nor seen. He races back and forth
across the platform; he roars like a
Gagged tiger; he leaps, at the climax
Of his passion, three or four feet in
to the air.
OF course you do not approve all
this; 1t is not your way of doing it.
Neither do you approve all of MUIR
PHYS orthoepy or syntax. But it
does the business. Crude though
the parf0rmauca NAV he in spofo