Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-06-01
SAVED BOOTHS LIFE.
THE GREATAcToR ALMOST DROWNED,
I IN SACRAMENT 5RlvER. s

Pulled Out by q Starving Man Just
In Time to Cheat Death-Rieh Re- !
ward of Gold and Pleasure For Joe
Murphy When He Was Young. - 8.
If Joe Murphy, the actor, had not been .
hungry and homeless one night in 1853, :
Edwin Booth, Americas greatest TRACE ,
dian, would have met death upon the
very threshold of his career and the voice
which thrilled countless thousands in aft
CT years would have been hushed and
held in eternal silence by the, waters OF
the Sacramento river. >. -
In 1885," said Mr.. Murphy, Il was a :.
waiter in Sacramento hotel. l had
gone to California in the days when the
Golden" State was winning her sobri-
| quet, and, like the rest, quickly learned
| that all is not gold that glitters.' I
drifted from one thing to another until I
finally became a waiter-not one of these
present day attendants who sneers at
you in disdain when you ask for the bill
! Of fare instead Of the menu card;
serves you as if he were giving aims andi
flashes murder from his eye if you daret
to accept your rightful change, but a
good old tine hustler who worked from
| Stli! iSC uuIlf: al nuSSo aklAN SounlCO ulA-
self lucky if he wasn't sworn at or shot
at by the armorcd cruisers who patron
lied the hostelres Of the Pacific slope.
One day the hotel in which / was
working changed hands, and the new
proprietor Immediately discharged every
body from the steward to the bootbiack.
and of course l went with the, rest. For
| the next few weeks / attempted to secure
another place, but the town was crowded
with stranded humanity. and the supply
] of labor was far in excess Of the demand.
After eXpending every effort found
myself finally without money, home or
food.
Zone night, or rather one morning, for
it was three hours past midnight, wan
dered down to the Sacramento river.
There had been a flood, and | walked out
upon the levce and watched the trees and
sections of wrecked houses drifting by.
According to the bulletins given out that
night the river was rising at the rate of
one foot an hour.
| Il stood there alone, musing upon my
hard fate and thinking | might as well be
drifting by on the food, when suddenly
my attention was attracted by a dark OBJ
ject lying among some lriftwood that
had been entanGlcd with the edge Of the
; levee. At first l thought it was Il beast.
Then the thought struck me that perhaps
it might be human being. So l ap-
, preached and discovered it to be the body
of man.
''rhe entire body was under water save
one side of the head. Selling the body by
the shoulders, dragged it up on the
levee. a.he task was a most grewsome
one: picked the body up, but at. zonce
became so frightened that was tempted
to drop. it and take to my heels. Howev-
er, my nerve did not desert me, and I
made for the barroom of the Eagle hotel,
staggered in and laid the body on the
floor.
-Four or five men who had Just come
down stairs from the gambling room wereI
standing at the bar. The sight of a dead
or dying man was not extraordinary in
that locality, and so the party at the bar
paid no particular attention to me until
the drinks had been tossed off. Then
Colonel Lansing, great, six foot Hoo
/ SER, turned and looked at me.
'Shot": he asked laconically.
Z "'No; drowned l replied.
"'Anybody hereaboutsY
"'Never saw i'm before
Lansing left The bar and came over to
where l was standing beside the body,
e which was lying face downward. He
: turned it half way over with his foot and
: exposed the handsome profile to the light
On the instant he recoiled like one who
' had received a heavy blow.
5 why, that's Ned Booth" he cried. I
4 saw him play tonight
''At the word Booth tie other men
left their glasses upon the bar and hur-
l ried to the figure on the floor. In a mo-
nlent they had stripped their coats and
I
| and temples. \ whisky barrel was
brought out, and we rolled him upon it.
l. Then the hest bottle of brandy in the
I town was forced between the teeth and
+ we breathed moro freely when Booth be-
!! gan to show signs Of resuscitation.
/ AS soon as Colonel Lansing saw that
Booth was out Of danger he turned and
: looked at me- anticipated nice. short
eulogy and al invitation to the bar.
'Nhat were yo1 doin with Ned
+ Booth, you young scoundrel?' he asked
0 in angry tones. - =
: Imagine my surprise l Skunk back
|. from the giant boylike and hung my
t head. l was ashamed to tell them had
: been starving. =.
Lansing, however, seemed to impute
my silence 70 some other cause. :
S What were you doin, hoy Answer
e me! he Numbered, grasping my Shout
q ders. r.
= 80 You don't s'pose l was tryin to steal
e him? ? said 4. No, gentlemen. i'll had
l. had dollar OF even so cents tonight
e Booth would have been drowned by this
Il time, for I would have been .abed in !,
e sailors lodging house, ~
t'Then told my story, and Lansing
seized one Of my hands and examined it
to see if was telling the truth He was
: satisfied with the evidence Of my hand,
K whose appearance. denoted that i really
/ was workingman. Els eyes expressed
: pity, and lie looked at the others: -
3: " Gentlemen, he said, this boy has
saved q great young actors life tonight.
l, md he's hungry - :
It. Each man went down in his pocket
and brought out a $40 goldpiece,. while
It Lansing. passed the hat. He forced the
e money on ME: and gave ME his card
) When; called on him next day, another
Il position in a hotel, better than the one I
had lost, was found for me.
= w., - = SD,