Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-06
FORTUNE FOR PAUPER
Big WindfaII Came Too Late
for Victim of Disease.
DIED ABOUT Fl MONTHS AGO
Was Charge Upon Philadelphia for
Eighteen Years.
PATHETIC STORY OF SUFFERING
PATHETIC STORY OF SUFFERING
Stoutly Refused to Pity Himself or
Accept Sympathy-Heir to $780,
OOO@Saved Funeral Money.

PHILADELPHIA, August Getty po-
lice authorities were asked Sunday night
to inform James Murray. formerly OF
Spuyten Duyvil, New York city. that he
had fallen heir to g. fortune Of 100000.
The news came too late, for James Muir
ray died November %, 1905. in the tuber-
cular department of the Philadelphia Hos
pital. For eighteen years he had been
there as charge upon the city.
A life filled with misery and suffering,
dragged out In the somber shadow of the
almshouse and dark with the daily strug-
gle against lingering and certain death
had not been long enough to bring him
cheerful conditions.
There is much that is pitiful. but there
is. too, a great deal that is fine and cour-
ageous in the meager story of this pauper
over whom a golden avalanche hung sus-
pended for so many years.
Broken in Spirit.
He came to the hospital wrecked In
body and broken in spirit. He had been
a sailor, but had been forced to abandon
his calling years before because of his
slight physique and Of a deformity OF the
SPINE For q time he made a living by
selling patent medicines. but after he left
his New York home in 1885 his health and
his fortune both deserted him.
He was brought to the hospital In the
patrol wagon of the police station at
4th and De Lancey streets February II,
1888. He was then suffering acutely from
asthma and other diseases. He gave his
age as forty-three years. The only per-
son whom he named as reference was
Id {vrv
in Front street.
Dying Slowly From Disease.
He was discharged in April. but re-
turned five days later and was again ad-
mitted, when it was found that he had
become Tuberculosis Throughout his long
stay in the hospital he was dying slowly
from this disease. and other maladies
which attacked his broken body often
made his suffering intense An anection ron
of the heart threatened to cause his
death at any time, and during the last
four years cataract which Lad de-
veloped in his right eye made him partly
blind.
A man in his condition might well be
excused for growing sullen and down
hearted. But that was not his way. He
stoutly refused to pity himself or let
others pity him, and in the intervals OF
his many sicknesses he helped the at
ward. His courage and CHEEKY patience
won their esteem. and when he fell into
his last sickness he was nursed with care
and tenderness.
Saved $35 for Funeral Expenses.
Early in November. 1905. he summoned
the Rev. A. L. Millet the Episcopal chap
lain of the almshouse. To him he turned
over $35, which somehow he had been
able to scrape together during his eight
cen years in the ~lace. This. he said.
was to be used toward paying the ex-
penses of his burial.
At the end of the month he died. There
was funeral service in the almshouse
chapel, and the clergyman followed the
body to the grave and read the burial
service to the grave diggers there. BY
q coincidence, which is not uncommon in
such cases, the bill of the undertaken
was precisely $35, and the shame Of
pauper burial was avoided. There was
no money to buy a marker, and 1t is
only in the records Of the cec-.etery that
James Murray's grave is commemorated
as mo. Z. lot Ill, Silverbrook section
Nearly two years after the mans death
the news of the good fortune which he
missed has reached the place where he
died. ]. M. Rowan, representing the rela
tives, now living in Spuyten Duyvil, Sun
day notified the police of his search for
the pauper. who was to have inherited a
fortune, and has since heard Of the
futility of his search.