The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-11-24
BIC TINS talk
TO the BOWERy
Senator SuIlivan's Denial Of
White Slave Traffic Charges,
VIRTUE OF WOMEN.

MANY NEW York MayoraIty Cam.
paiqn Statements as Crual Lies.
Former Congressman Timothy ..
Sullivan Of New York, now state sena.
tor, who is known in his Bowery dis
trict as big Tim," stood before aa
enthusiastic crowd Of his constituents
in Miners Bowery theater the othsr
night and, with tears running down Ills
big face at times, answered the
charges that were made in New York's
recent mayoralty campaign against the
methods Of the Sullivan clan. Of which
he is the leader, and. with his voice
shaking with emotion, denied that be
eve had knowledge of. much less
c~ountenanced, such a thing as is knowk
al the white slave traffic. He said:
1.-The trouble with the reformers IA
that they don't know our traditions
down here. That's why they think be-
cause I've got a little money there
must be something wrong, that l must
be getting money in some crooked way
or I wouldn't stay here. I'll tell you
why l stay here.
81 was born in poverty. one Of six
children, four boys and two girls. The
boys used to sleep in a three-quarters
bed, not big enough for two, and the
girls in a shakedown on the floor.
Some nights there was enough to eat
and some nights there wasn't. And
our old mother used to sing to us at
night, and maybe it would be next day
before we would think that she had
been singing, but that she had gone to
bed without anything to eat.
Thieves From Necessity.
"That's the kind of people we come
from, and that is the kind Of mothers
help some boy or some father to an
other chance we are going to give it
to them. The thieves we have down
here amt thieves from choice. They
are thieves from necessity, and neces-
sity don't know any law. They steal
because they need a doctor for some
dying n or they steal because there
amt any bread in the house for the
children.
"There's something here written by
a gentleman named Turner. He's not
50 bad. even if he has been writing
horrible stuff, but l can't say as much
for the people who have been paying
him. I've been looking Turner up.
He's got three children and a wife,
and they might have been starving,
and a man who has children starving
will do anything.
Nov we come to the last of all
the white slave talk. My God. They
have put me in between thieves. and
I'm not the first man who has been
pilloried between thieves! I've been
living here all my life. and l never
knew a man engaged in this business,
aud l won't stand for this. l am not
going to say anything, but this man
Turner had better keep out of this
district.
Advises Mr.. Whitman.
"1've never professed to be more
than the average man. l don't want
you to think I'm very good. for I've
done a lot OF wrong things. I'm just
al average man. but I've told you OF
that old mother of mine, what she did
for me, and l want to say here before
you all that there is no man on earth
who believes in the virtue of women
Ore than | do.
whitman says he believes in these
things. and he says that when he is
elected district attorney be is going to
start IN office OF the east side. He
don't have to do that. He'd better
start Il up by the Union League club
and get after the people who's trying
to form blind pools and who meet
there to shove up the price of a
cent or two a pound.
How He Began to Give Away Shoes.
I'VE do enough bad things, and
when we do good things they hadn't
ought to be distorted so they will
seem bad. Fourteen years ago l be-
gan giving Christmas dinners and
shoes away to the poor. Some one has
said the S%ullivans give the people a
little turkey and a pair of shoes and
rob them the rest of the year. AS
I'm the Sullivan that does this they
must mean me, and I'm going to tell
you how l got that idea Of giving
away shoes.
1T was way back in 1873, and a boy
named Sullivan vas going to the Elm
street school. and there was a Miss
Murphy who was a teacher. This
boy had an old pair of shoes, and one
day she asked the how tn stav after
school. He thought some other boy
had done something and put it up to
him. and he was going to stand for it.
So he said. Miss Murphy. If I've done
anything let me know. because | want
to get away and sell papers, and she
told h boy he hadn't done nothing
and gave him an order. That order
was to Timothy Brennan. brother of
a big Tammany leader. and he gave
me an order for a pair Of shoes. /
needed them shoes then. and I though,
E Y 1905.