Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-04-15
MURPHY AT HOME.
His Children Gathered Together
Again, After Ten Years
Separation.

Francis Murphy, the temperance
orator, stood ia the center Of his PAR
lor Saturday evening, says the Phila-
delphia Sunday Times, welcoming the
friends who called to see him for the
first time in his beautiful new home.
Mr.. Murphy was surrounded BY all
his children, four manly sons and two
daughters. There we're the eldest
son, William, aged %, who has Just
finished his education, and will to-
morrow enter upon a new field of
effort in the counting room of one of
the great manufacturing firms Of this
city; Edwin, the second son, a perfect
picture of his father, minus the heavy
mustache and the wrinkles that time
leaves on the face of middle age, a
young man who after having made
some reputation as o lecturer is now
bending his energies to the study of
the law; Mary, an accomplished young
lady of twenty, who takes the place in
the household that her mother could
have filled if she had lived; Robert,
like his brother Edwin, a law student.
in the Office of District Attorney Hor-
ace Rose, of Johnstown; John, a hand
some lad of fourteen, still busy with
his schoo books; andfnally Josephine,
a refined little lady, aged ten years.
The last time hal Mr.. Murphy and
all Of his children were together be-
fore last night was nine years ago,
when the eldest was thirteen and the
youngest one year old. The mother
had just died, and the father was too
poor to maintain even the humble
home from which the mother had
been taken. He had just left the old
life of dissipation and drunkenness
behind him and struck out in the
new course. Neither himself
nor any one else dreamed then
that he was ever to become the ia
nous lecturer that Francis Murphy is
now. He had indeed talked once or
twice in public and told his touching
story in a feeble, bashful way, but It
was not for a year or two after this
that he developed that remarkable
power to move men and women to
laughter and to tears that has made
his name familiar from Maine to Cali
@fornia. AT that time he was glad to
be able to buy a loaf of bread and a
quart Of milk to divide among
his little ones. So Mary and Baby
Josephine were sent to an orphan
asylum and the boys were placed upon
farms. Although Mr.. Murphy gave
himself up to temperance work. his
fame spread very slowly. When he
had been able to save forty dollars he
took his little girls out of the asylum
and put them in Christian homes,
where he maintained them. Not
long after this he organized a
national gospel temperance meeting
in Maine, and it was here that he
made his first great success, aud the
people saw that a good temperance
lecturer had sprung up among them.
DR.. Dio Lewis, who had great popu
Iarity in that section in those DAYS,
was to follow Murphy, but after the
young lrishman had got through the
doctor got up and embraced him and
declared that no man could speak
after that. Demands for Mr.. Murphy's |
services came from all parts of the
country, and from that time on Mr.
Murphy nor his family never suffered
from actual poverty, though it was
a long time before he scored his great
success, which dId not happen until
about four years ago, when he began
his famous campaign in Pittsburgh,
already worked with gratifying
success in Illinois and Iowa. Mr..
Murphy says that his objectin life out
side ofhis public work has been to
educate his children and to make
them good and useful menand women.
He is very happy in his home, which
is a gift from his many friends in
Philadelphia.