The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-10-10
DRINK DID IT
my Boy Used to be a Good
Boy"
HUNDREDS OF WEAK ONES
Burning Words However We're
Spoken Against the Closing of
New York Dives.
HUNDREDS OF WEAK ONES


'My boy used to be a good boy until
he began to drink"
1t was poor old Bridget Murphy, Of
No. 50i East Fourteenth street, who was
talking. She was saying 1t to q nurse
in the Charity hospital on Blackwells
Island last Sunday The film was slowly
closing over poor old Bridgets eyes. She
couldn't have been sorry to die; for she
had little to live for. Her lines had
fallen for many years in hard and cruel
places; made Infinitely harder by the
thought that she had nursed and tendeS
and loved the boy who in one of his
drunken outbursts of passion had pound
ed and kicked and beaten her until she
was pltiful spectacle of wounds ana
bruises and was taken Off to the hos
pital to die. And now that 1t was all
ending-a tragedy just as sorrowful and
suggestive as If Bridget Murphy had been
born in the purple and mad lived in lux
ury-the grim fate that had followed her
softened for a moment and let in upon
her fading sight the light of tender
memory. HE was good boy" she said,
until he began to drink"
It was after he began to drink that
Martin Murphy ceased to be IA good boy"
First he became burden to his mother,
drink out Of her small earnings as laun-
dress. Then he began abusing her in
drunken fits until, as the poor old woman
moaned there in the hospital, "he became
perfect devil" So when good old Brid-
get Murphy, on the night Of September
2, in the kindness Of her heart-the kind
ness and gentleness which as national
characteristics outshine even the pro-
verbal eloquence and persuasiveness Of
the Irish people-offered shelter in her
own home to some dispossessed nelghbors,
this boy Martin, utterly worthless
| through the idleness that attends drunken
habits, made vicious by the associations
which they entail, and bristllng with the
brutality engendered by fiery potatlons,
rose up and demanded that they should
be elected. Upon his mothers refusal to
comply with the order of the drunken
brute, he turned upon her, beat her and
kicked her and so maltreated her that,
when found later she was covered with
wounds, with one of her ribs broken,
"a good boy" the poor old woman
moaned as she lay dying of his brutality
until he began to drink"
So Bridget Murphy Is dead, and Mar
tin Murphy, the good boy until he began
to drink" is in prison waiting to be tried
for killing his mother.
In East Fourteenth street, in the neigh
borhood of Avenue A-where Bridget Muir
ply lived, and by hard days works made
a home for Martin Murphy, her son, and
furnished out, of her earnings none.
for Martin to spend In the purchase of
drink, which made a brute OF him and
took all pity out Of him and sent him
home at night ready to knock down and
kick into shapeess jelly the best and
probably the only friend he had on earth
there are from three to four places
in the block where the poor man"
can get the drink that was the necessity
of Martin Murphy's life. '"rhe poor man"
can get 1t at every hour Of the day or
night and, until Commissioner Roosevelt
began his high-handed interference with
the liberties of citizens by directing the
enforcement OF a law which the same
citizens had enacted, could get 1t at all
hours for seven days In the week all the
year round. The law closed them on
Sundays in order that good boys like
Martin Murphy might have a few hours
rest from drunkenness and brutality, and
that good, hard working mothers like
Bridget Murphy might have little rest
from the cruelty and hard blows inflicted
on them by their own good boys who
had learned to drink. But when the law
was enforced Martin MurphyB personal
liberty was infringed. 'grhe poor mans
cubs-three or four Of them to a block
where Martin Murphy was accustomed to
spend his waking hours diligently train
ing himself to mental and physical con-
dition in which he could go home and
beat his mother into insenslbility, were
shut up to him Martin Murphy was
Az
into whose Golfers Martin Murphy's
mothers money fell.
And a great political party Is holding
convention at Syracuse today, at which
burning words win be pronounced-Perry
Belmont poured out some Of them yester-
day-against the unspeakab.e outrage
which has been perpetrated upon Martin
Murphy and other poor men" by the
enforcement of a law which c,oses the
poor mems clubs" in East Fourteenth
street, for a few hours In each week. And
the convention will pass resolutions about
1t just as though there was nothing at
stake except in the interests OF the men
into whose Golfers Martin Murphy poured
the little rlll OF his mothers hard earn
ipgs for seven days in the week all the
year round. Well, Bridget Murphy-dear,
charitable, kindly old soul-is dead. 1t
won't disturb her any more whether they
keep the poor mems clubs" open all
the year round or not. And Martin MUIR
ply, who used to be "a good boy until he
began to drink''-lt won't disturb him
much. either-he Is in prison waiting to
be tried for killing his mother under the
Inspiration OF the motive power Of the
poor mems Clubs" I'ut, after all is
said and done at Syracuse, It may be that
a great many Of the common people OF
this state win conclude that, on the
whole, II some small step can be taken
toward hindering the Martin Murphys
from turning constant and unceaslng
stream Of Bridget Murphys' earnings into
the distillerS Golfers. and the Martin
Murphys are thereby allowed a little time
to think before they go home and beat
their mothers to death. the damage to
personal liberty wiA not be overpower-
ing.