Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-07-28
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
All About the Metropolitan Dis
trict of "HelPs Kitchen"


New YORK, July 27.-[Special 1-Hell's
Kitchen, as that portion of this city
which is bounded by Thirtieth and Eff.
tieth streets, Tenth avenue and the Hud-
son river is known, must be mentioned
often enough in the public prints to make
out of town readers curious regarding it
and the cause of its name. OF late it
has been specially prominent because of
collisions between the whites and blacks
dwelling there.
The locality deserves the title il ever
a locality did, though not 1 in 10000
even among New Workers has the least
notion as to the application thereof.
Time was, probably, when all Hell's
Kitchen knew about it, but now most of
them even have forgotten that the orig
inal Helfs Kitchen was house and not
the entire territory in the midst of which
it stands.
The King of HeITs Kitchen.
This house is at the foot of West
Thirty ninth street. Its owner and oc-
cupant, when it received the name, was
Martin Morrison. 1t was called Hell's
Kitchen because of the devilish doings
within its walls. He, its master, was
dubbed the king of Hells Kitchen and
bore the title right proudly for a long
term of years. But Morrison has abdi-
Gated. absquatulatcd. got out of the
neighhorhood, and the original Hcll's
Kitchen is today as peaceable a dwelling
as can he found anywhere.
Though Hells Kitcheners generally
will not admit the locality ever deserved
its title, all agree that King Morrison
came rightfully by his, but there are
some among the older residents who de-
clare he wasn't all bad. They say his
worst days began after the death of his
wife, whom he worshiped, and they tell
how he worked and shaved to earn his
property when young man, mainly for
the love he bore the woman.
Morrison was born across the sea. He
came to this country more than 40 years
ago He went to work driving a cart at
80 cents a day and settled down in the
locality of which he was afterward to
be called the king. 1t was sparsely pop
ulated then, and he got building spot
cheap and paid for it with what he could
save, by extremely meager living, out
of his scanty wages After awhile he
peddled vegetables daytimes and worked
in a slaughter house nights, earning S19
a week He gave all his money to his
wife, and she saved Il lot-S500 in one
year, Hell's Kitchen traditions say-and
out of their savings Martin bought more
land. But it was rough land, all COW
cred with rock, and to make il valuable
the rock had to be blasted away Nor
rison couldu afford to hire this done and
so, after pedding vegetables all day,
he'd 90 to work on the lot. This was
before the introduction OF steam drills,
and Morrison did his drilling by hand,
depending on lamp for his light. When
he could work no longer, he'd lie down
by the drill and sleep TIL time to begin
his nights wOrksin the slaughter house.
For seven years he drilled whenever the
weather would let him, and he was proud
that he had burned up 10 kegs of powder
in the blasting. He used to say that he
did it AL for the Ould woman's sake"
and she died the year he ceased drilling
and paid for the place, and after her
death he became restless and reckless.
The Kings Former Palace.
You might, suppose that having dub
bed Martin Morrison a king Of the
Kitcheners would also have termed his
residence a palace, and they never did
that: they called and still call the house
"Old Helrs Kitchen" to distinguish it
from the entire neighborhood.
The house at the lind o the strate" is
a little two story structure that has seen
its best days. though it presents "A much
more respectable appearance than it did
in King Morrison's time for the present
occupant has patched it up with a neat
hand. When the writer asked this
tenant about the former monarch, the old
man looked anxious for a moment, gazed
undecidedly into the intruder's face
and said brusquely:
Mart Morrison? What's in the wind,
1 wonder? Why, he's over in Jersey
now, not far from Englewood. But he
comes back to the old town once in
awhile just TO find out how things is gon
on in Hells Kitchen. Why did he go?
| Well. the Kitchen got too hot to hold
| him an he jes nachelly lit out"
A MOnnrch's AbdicatIon.
"You see he was all the time a-ightin,
Mart was, with his mouth and Yith his
fists both, and when he wasn't a-6ghtin
he was a-sleepin off jags. When he'd
holler, it wasn't like no gentle beatin of
a lamb but his voice would come out in
big, deep rumbles, at first like faraway
t'under, and then, all of a suddin, ker
bang! it would split off an go rippin
round the hull house an out in the street.
Folks round here could always tell dead
easy wen Mart woke up from d jag,
easy wen Mart woke up from a jag.
"Well, Mart had a married son and
his wife livin with him long o. the 9TH
err Morrison gals and boys, and when the
old man got mad-and he was mad bout
all the time-he'd swear like the worst
pirate that ever as,-and he didn't give
a hang who he sweared at either. His
sons wife, she'd be down stairs a-mindin
her own biz, and the old man, he'd be up
stairs a-yellin down at her as loud as he
could. Well, she said she didn't mind
the yellin at her so longs it was jest
plain yellin, but when it come to cussin
her, why, she jest wouldn't stand for it.
So she tells the old man that if he cusses
her any more she'll have him jagged
Then he gives a horse laugh and begins
to swear at her bluer streak than ever
"Then she gifts together and sees q
lawyer to have her daddy-in-law pinch
ed. The lawyer he goes an gifts the kip
pers onto Mart, and when the old mar
hears this he has the blue shakes. fel
If they's anything he hates it's bein sent
to the island. So, 'thout talkin t.
anybody about it, he sneaks, softlike, Il
Teller he knows wot owned a waggir
and had him cart his furniture over Il
Hoboken that same night. He goes will
1t himself too, and the next day ships i
out in the country and sends back wore
to the kipper wot's lookin to arrest hin
to go to blazes. That's the reason Mar
Morrison amt king o. Hell's Kitchen NJ
more"
One of the Morrison sons is a respecta