The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-12
FRANCIS MURPHY.

| Time was when the name of Francs
Murphy appeared daily in all the leaf
ling newspapers of the United States
and the record of his journeyings and
speeches employed a corps Of busy cor
respondents. He began to be famous
in 1875 or 1876, in connection with the
blue ribbon temperance crusade or the
Murphy movement" as it was called,
and the crowds that f1ocked to him
were as large as those which, in earlier
days, gathered to hear the Finney re-
yivalists. We recall his appearance be-
| fore a vast audience at Worcester,
Massachusetts, in the spring of 1873.
The most spacious auditorium in that
city did not suffice for the multitude
that wanted to hear, and when the
stout man with the heavy dark NOUS
tache and grazing hair walked to the
edge of the platform he was welcomed
with applause that came from the
hearts of a people already profoundly
moved by the knowledge of the, benefi-
cent work he had done for the cause
of right-living.
Mr. Murphy's address on that day
was inspiring. Seated about him on
the platform were prim New England
ministers, some of them belonging to
sects which distrust the province OF the
emotions in religious or moral work
and to whom temperance cruSadeS do
not always appeal. But the visible
sincerity of Francis Murphy, his earn
estness in doing good, his manly,
wholesome ways, brought a response
from these cold theologians almost as
soon as it did from the enthusiastic
laity and in the end the great audi
ence, theologians and all, was swept
into the ranks of the crusade and
when it dispersed almost every man,
woman and child wore the blue rib
bon of the Murphy brotherhood.
In time fashions changed in the field
of temperance labor as they do in
everything, and Mr.. Murphy no longer
held the first column of the first page
of the metropolitan paper. 1t was with
him as it was with Dwight L. Moody
in revival work and with Joseph Cook
in those efforts to make science and
theology agree which put him in the
foremost rank of Christian proponents.
Other men and other causes came to
be talked about more than they
and theirs; yet at that time
of partial eclipse all three of
them were ADLER, more experienced,
more eloquent and convincing than
they had been in the days of their early
vogue. They were simply little out
of the public eye; but they kept at
their work and wherever their infiu-
ence watered the land the sweet
grasses were sure to grow.
Francis Murphy now comes to Homo
luul, a quarter of a century after ms
name became a household word, a
stronger and more useful temperance
worker than he was in his more con-
spicuous days. 1t will be a pleasure
to him to know that he is needed here
Though Honolulu is in it's historic as
poets a missionary town, it has been
strangely deficient in the revival spirit.
We do not recall general awaken
ing of the white inhabitants such as
and Finney and Earle and
Moody used to produce in the field of
religious labor and as Francis Murphy
so often occasioned in his own sphere.
Things active and spirited are hard to
get started in the tropics; and the CHI
mate, which dulls the crusading mood,
is productive. of evils that it needs
such a mood to grapple with. Speak
Ing only of the curse of drink, let us
say that the tipping habit, for climatic
reasons, is very firmly rooted here. |
Hawaii is a thirsty place; the clink of
the ice in the long, thin glasses of am
Der liquid is alluring as might not be !
he case in northern climates; and the i
cool depths of the beer glass are eager /
y drained. Yet nowhere in the north |
will spirits and malt liquors do so |
much harm to the human system as |
lnder the vertical sun. Let Mr.. Muir |
ply, then, make the most of his oppor- |
.unities for moral suasion. Around |
him is a race of dying aborigines,
whose decline. is coincident with it's
of the white mans fire
water; he will find large white popu-
alton which uses some form of alco-
lol for social enlivenment; and he will
,e among another large class which,
as he does, has yet permitted
hings to drift. Yet the languid class
$ full of potential energy in moral un-
ertakings. All it needs is to be awak-
ned and drawn out. If Francis Muir
Thy turns it's lethargy into ZEAL he will
ave achieved success comparable to
he best of those which marked his
arlier day.