The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-01-11

while there was less plenty. Christina
cheer reigned over all.
But on the slope OF Cherry Hill. al
Nc, 20 Cherry street, in a tiny room or
that dark and n0isomc byway known as
Murphy's alley, the Sulliyans, father
mother and six youngsters, sat desc
late, respondent, with barely the half
OF a loaf between them and starvation
IL was an instance merely; not an eX-
ceptional case. The reporter could have
found thousand more equally wretch
ed families.
No fancy picture this. Merely an
actual story in simple and uneXagger-
ated detail OF what actually Is. The
photographs here reproduced were ia
ken with difficulty In this little room,
SO tiny that the photographer found 1t
almost impossible To focus the camera.
indeed even To set ii mp. Alone, almost
with the need OF hardly line OF letter
press, these photographs tell yiyidly
the story OF the hapless SulliVans.
You have seen at night time, out in
the open country, the headlight of a
locomotive far away, but growing
brighter and brighter as 1t swept on to-
wards you SO, for the past two years,
John Sullivan has had to stand pas
sively by and watch starvation creep
ing closer and closer to his little family.
when the World reporter stood before
him Christmas afternoon. the mans
heal was bent, and he sat crouched In u
owl chair, a figure OF despair itself
0hristmastide, 1895, was TO this
str4ng man a mockery. Able bodied,
Wiling, even keen. TO work. man
clea II limbed, who looked as IL he would
be prize to any one wanting a pair OF
GOD hands and clear head, he had yet
not "a cent in his pockets. and but little
mot than half loaf on the bare
lid yes that aid duty as a cupboard,
u to two years ago he was a pros
peH Us workman, sure Of 500 a month
and sometimes making a tribe over
thal Neither drink nor incompetence
haa brought this man down TO where
lei today. but simply the implacable
JuG gernaut OF Hard Luck.
Tnis was the picture presented in
The bone room OF John Sullivan, station
ary{engine fireman by trade. now long
shol eman by necessity, aud out Of work
a 81 od part Of the time. The room itself
va about II feet square. IL was on
theI ground floor Of the begrimed tene-
me- in the alley. just one step up from
theI broken, ill-kept pavement The
Zoo did not even open upon a hallway,
butI on the alley itself. One small win
doV lighted the low-ceilinged room
frdI p the courtyard. another opening
on IA dismal air-shaft.
this ill-ventilated. narrow room
Gig At people had to eat, live aud sleep.
llatdly the barest necessities OF life
we'd between these four walls. At the
bacl stood. end 20 end. two tumble
doW n bedsteads and a ramshackle crib.
Thdy had no sheets or pillowcases. and
The Dedspreads were ragged and worn
alml ,ost entirely through The mattress
IS Jyere of the coarsest straw.
Al small cheap pine table stood over
by THE window. "A cook stove by the
ma1 tel There were four wooden chairs
and, one old-fashioned rocker covered
in loorsehair. That was all VIVA,
scat 10 clothing the family posse ssed
savSu, what they were actually wearing
vas hung uD on nails Ia a little recess
A frew plates. cups and saucers were
scae Uttered in lonely way on the row Of
shefsves along by the mantel
UlcpOn one OF The wooden cnaIrs Sulli
ysn sat. his face buried in bis hands
On another chair, close by the stove