New-York tribune., 1895-09-25
BRIDGET MERPHY.

bhiDbEI VI NFHI
MY boy used 10 be a good boy until he began
TO drink"
l, was poor old Bridget Murphy. OF No. 504
East TOurteenthst., who was talking. She was
saying It 20 a nurse in the Charity Hospital on
Blackwell's Island last Sunday. The film was
slowly closing over poor old Bridgets eyes. She
couldn't have been sorry 10 die: for she had little
10 live for. Her lines had fallen for many years
IN hard and cruel places; made infinitely harder
by tie thought that she had nursed and tended
and loved the boy who in one OF his drunken
outbursts Of passion had pounded and kicked
and beaten her till she was Il ptiful spectacle
of wounds and bruises, and was taken off TO the
hospital to die. And now that it was all end
ng-a tragedy just as sorrowful and suggestive
as II Bridget Murphy mad been born in the purple
and had lived in luxury-the grim fate that had
followed her softencd for a moment and let in
upon her fading sight the light Of tender
memory. He was good boy she said, 'un-
I'll he began 10 drink
II was after he began To drink that Martin
Murphy ceased 10 be good boy" First he be-
came burden TO his mother, compelling her TO
furnish him money for drink out Of her small
earnings as q laundress. Then he began abusing
her in his drunken its until, as the poor old
woman moaned there in the hospital, ''he became
a perfect devil" SO when good old Bridget
Murphy on the night Of September ., In the
kindness OF her heart--the kindness and gentle
ness which as national characteristics outshine
even she proverbial eloqUeEce and persuasive
cess of the Irish people-offered shelter in her
ona ome 10 some dspossessed neighbors, this
r0v Martin. utterly worthless through the idle
nets that attends on drunken habits. made
vicious by the associations which they entail, and
btistlng with the brutality engcndercd by fiery
potations. 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 NAL
treated Der that when found later she was COW
cred with wounds. with one OF her ribs broken,
and unconscious. And he used 10 be II good
boy" the poor old woman moaned rs she lay
dying of his brutality until he began to drink
SO Bridget Murphy is dead, and Martin Muir
,'ny the good boy until lie began 10 drink is
in prison waiting TO be tried for killing his
mother.
In East Fourteentl-st In the nclghborhood OF
Avenue A-where Bridget Murphy lived, and
by hard days works made home for Martin
Murphy. her SON. and furnished ont Of her earn
ings money for Martin 20 spend in the purchase
OF drink, which made brute Of him and look
all pity out OF him and sent him home at night
ready to knock down and kick into shapeless
Jelly the best and probably the only real friend
he had on earth--therc are from three TO four
places In block where the poor man" can get
the drink which was the one necessity Of Martin
Murphy's life. The poor man. can get II at
every hour Of the day or night and, until Com
missioner Roosevelt began his bigh-handed in
reference with the liberties OF citizens by di-
recting the enforcement Of 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 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 Murphy's personal
liberty was infringed The poor mans clubs
three or four OF them 10 n block-where Martin
Murphy was accustomed TO spend his waking
hours diligently training himself 10 mental
and physical condition in which hc could go
home and beat his mother into nsensiblllty. were
shut up 10 him. Martin Murphy was doubtless
Angry. 30 dlsO WAS tHe ulSIllicF INTO whose
Golfers Martin Murphy's mothers money fell
And great political party is holding a con
yention at Syracuse today, at which burning
words will be pronounced Perry Belmont
poured out some Of them yesterday against the
unspeakabe outrage which has been perpetrated
upon Martin Murphy and other poor men" by
the enforcement OF a law which closes the poor
mems clubs" In East Fourteenih.si. for few
hours in each week. And the convention will
pass resolutions about il Just as though there
was nothing at stake except the interests Of tho
men into whose Golfers Martin Murphy poured
the little ril OF his mothers hard earnings for
seven days In the week all the year round Well
Bridget Murphy-dear charitable. kindly old
SOULS dead. 1t won't disturb her any more
whether they keep the poor mems clubs" open
all the year round or not And Martin Murphy,
who used to be good boy until he begaa to