The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-07

scssed or Many Good Qualities.
 Now and then through an arrest a
 suicide or some other somber happening
 the world comes to learn the life story
 Of one of those derelict human beings
 who are to be observed every day
 barely floating above the waves of
 crime, sin and tragedy in this city
 When such tale is related it is usual-
 ly full of romance, laden with sadness,
 suffused with fateful disappolntments.
 The history of Mary Largo, the Beg
 gars' Queen" is such a story, only it is
 out of the ordinary to an uncommon de-
 gree This poor girl, who is twenty
 six years old, still bright and spirited,
 notwithstanding the dlssipations of her
 life was sent to Bedford reformatory
 several years ago, there to remain three
 years. She was arrested in a magis-
 trates court room, where she had gone
 to witness the hearing accorded the
 members of the Fake Beggars associa-
 tion her friends. It was because they
 were her friends that she went there.
 Her loyalty is one of her strong points.
 When policeman arrested Andrew
 Anderson, James Sullivan and others
 who used crutches for which they had
 no need and wore bandages which were
 superfiuous, it was found that there
 was large society of such imposters
 whose methods were extraordinarily
 clever and resourceful. Further inves-
 tigation reveals the fact that Mary
 Largo was the directing influence, the
 organizing brains of the combination,
 and that to this strange woman was
 largely due the long continued success
 of the society For ten years Mary
 Largo had been frequent visitor to the drinking resorts on the lower Bow cry. Her friends were the criminals and renegades of that region. And yet, so much of woman was she that the men who knew her, men from whom nearly all human spirit had departed, found spirit enough left to fight and even to offer to die for her. Her hus- band was the very prodigal son of a good family in Saratoga, and it so came about that this girl made a serious ef- fort to reform that scion of parents who would fain have made him better man themselves It was because there was so much good in her that she was sent to a reformatory.
 Mary Largos father was a Spaniard "a Spanish sailor, one of the old Cape ! Cod, and opened sailors lodging and ! they were fairly happy together in the | rough-and ready life of the settlement. | Little Mary was the first child. Old | man Largo was mixture of good and | evil with more evil than good, it is said | by those who knew him. He moved to | New York soon after Mary was born, | and settled in the old Cherry Flll dis trict The section was frequented by | men from the clipper ships in those days, and with the worst of them old Jose Largo associated. He brought them to his home, and in the midst of their roughness, uncouthnes5 and wick edness the little girl grew to her teens. |
 Meanwhile the child increased in ! comeliness, but her associations were having their effect, and she, too, came to care little for the better side of life. When she was fourteen years old the Gerry society took charge of her and sent her to the House of the Good Shep- ard. But she was soon back again at her home and among the wretched asso- citations of her father. Her home was no place where a girl of life and spirit 1 could stay, however, so she drifted out into the world living here, there and everywhere. She was making living by whatever means she could devise. But she came to feel a terrible hatred of her father, and when he died in 1894 the daughter gained admission to the house and plundered the dead body of its rings and jewels. After the manner of sailors in those days, Jose Largo wore jeweled rings in his ears and many of them on his hands.
 Mary was now completely at the fner- y of the world. She left home, and her mother lost sight of her. Her brother Frank went to sea on Spanish sailing vessel Her mother took In washing rom sailors boarding houses and made l living About two years ago Mary became acquainted with & young man lamed Kempton, alias Earl Williams. Ienpton was raised In good home, l ut drinking habits did their worst with him, and in time he drifted down he Bowery. He and Mary Largo be- anne great friends She really fell in ove with him, and they became hus- and and wife. But Kempton was azy. To make living, therefore, he nd his wife hit upon plan to get to- ether a coterie of beggars and dead eats and organize them into a society, f which they would be the head of those profits they were to enjoy por- ion without any work on their own art.
 Their plan was to take a double fur ished room in one of those buildings n Allen, Hamilton, Eldridge and hryste streets where beggars, crimi- als and "grafters" of all kinds congre- ate. There they could get two rooms [ three dollars and a half week. and
 would serve as meeting place for 1e band. The plan was carried out. here were from ten to twenty men in ,e combination. They met at the empton place every night, where +ary cooked dinner for them, After inner they sat around, played cards nd drank The drinking was the main ature of the day with them. When ley came in every night, they had to vide their money with Kempton and S wife. They supplied the crutches, ,lints, discordant organs and other ne- ssary paraphernalia and they eXacted