The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-01-09
Always SILENT Clean of Life, Temperate,
Working Relentlesly for Himself
and His Friends
This Son Of Irish Peasant Farmers and Black
smiths Has Risen Inch by Inch to
Wealth and Power.

James Crcelman, in the New York
World, gives the following impartial
study OF the character OF the new
leader Of Tammany:
After next Friday at noon New
York, the second city OF the world,
with population approaching four
million persons and yearly budget
of more than hundred million dol
lars, will be governed by the brain
and will OF Charles Francis Murphy,
forty-five years old, the youngest and
most iron-willcd master Tammany
Hall has ever known.
The mayor of the metropolis will
be Mr.. Mcclellan, but he has publicly
committed himself in sweeping lam
guagc to the idea Of party responsible
ity for government, which means, in
plain English, that the leader OF Tam
many Hall will be the actual regent
OF New York. So that, whatever Of
good or evil is in store for the city
during the next two years depends
on the administrative capacity and
moral attitude Of Mr.. Murphy, a pri-
vatc citizen without official respon-
sibility.
Not only that, but Mr.. Murphy now
becomes the real leader of the Demo-
cratic party in New York state, with
out whose electoral vote no Demo-
crat can hope to be elected president
i'll the impending campaign for con-
troll of the nation. The leaders of the
Democracy in every part OF the coun-
try are just awakening to the extra
ordinary and far-rcaching power which
lies i'll the hands of" this young man.
His rise from poverty and obscurity
to wealth and authority not by a
sudden leap, but by steady progress,
in spite OF environment and training
is tale worth reading.
The new ruler of New York was
born here. His ancestors were born
in Ireland. Two miles from Athy, in
the county of Kildare, stands the lit
tie white-washcd stone farmhouse,
with its scarlet runners, gcraniums
and roses, which sheltered the Muir
phys for generations before the father
Of Tammany's young leader came to
America.
1t is green, fertile district, the
lcvclcst county in ireland, and for
hundreds Of years it has raised the
finest racing horses in the British
empire. What the blue grass region
OF Kentucky is to America, Kildare
is to Great Britain. In the days when
the Normans raided Kildare from the
Norman pale," at Dublin, the Irish
peasants were accustomed to fight the
armed marauders with scythe and
pitchfork.
In this keen atmosphere the blood
that is now to govern New York was
slowly nurtured. And by a strange
coincidence, the blood which has ceas-
ed to govern New York is to be found
in Kildare, where Richard Croker is
now training his horses. Charles F.
Murphy's grandfather was a tenant
farmer, with farm of about hun
dred and twenty-five acres-a shrewd,
silent, Industrious man, without am
bition above his fields, horses, cattle
and sheep. He was a man OF temper
ate habits, honest and self-respecting.
His son, the father of Tammany's S
leader, was born on this farm and
worked there until hard times induced
him to emigrate to New York in his
youth, long before the civil war.
He was short, squat, vigorous
man, with rosy face and little side
whiskcrs, who worked as laborer or
dock watchman all the days OF his life,
dying not long ago at the age of eigh-
ty-cight years. For twenty years be-
fore the veterans death his son
Charles tried to persuade him to give
up work, but the old man was too
proud to be dependent on any one.
He was an easy-going, contented
Irishman. without much education
and absolutely devoid of ambition. He
was q deyout Catholic attended all
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