Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-11-18
BIG TINS talk
TO The BOWERY
Senator SulIiVan's Denial Of
White Slave Traffic Charges.
DEFENDS VIRTUE OF WOMEN.
Popular Leader In Speech to His Con-
stituents Henounces With Emotion
Many New York Mayoralty Cam
Paisn Statements as Cruel Lies.


tor, who is known in his Bowery dis
trict as big Tim," stood before an
enthusiastic crowd of his constituents
in Miners Bowery theater the other
night and, with tears running down his
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 he
ever had knowledge of. much less
countenanced, such Il thing as is known
as the white slave traffic. He said:
The trouble with the reformers is
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 | must
be getting money in some crooked way
or | wouldn't stay here. I'll tell you
why | stay here.
Il 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 shalledown 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
that bore US down here. If we can
help some boy or some father to an
other chance we are going to give ii
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 one or they steal because there
amt any bread in the house for the
children
There's something here written by
n gentleman named Turner He's not
so bad, even if be has been writing
horrible stuff but | can't say as much
him. I've been looking Turner up.
He's got three children and wife.
and they might have been starving.
and a man who has children starving
will do anything.
Now 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 thievesl I've been
living here all my life, and | never
knew man engaged in this business,
aud l won't stand for this. / am not
going to say anything, but this man
Turner had better keep out of this
district.
Advises MIR. Whitman.
I've never professed to be more
than the average man. | don't want
you to think I'm very good, for I've
done a lot of wrong things Pm just
an average man. but I've told you of
that old mother of mine. what she did |
for me, and ! want to say here before
you all that there is no man on earth /
who believes in the virtue of women !
more than | do.
Whitman says he believes in these !
things, and he says that when he is |
elected district attorney ne is going TO !
start an Office on the east side He |
don't have To do that. He'd better |
start one 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 meat a
cent or two n pound. I
How Ho 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 be
gan giving Christmas dinners and
shoes away to the poor. Some one has
said the Sullivans give the people a
little turkey and 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 was going to the Elm
street school. and there was Miss
Murphy who was a teacher. This
boy had an old pair of shoes, and one
day she asked the boy to stay 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 the 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 thought
II ever got any money l would give
shoes to people who needed them,
and I'm going to buy shoes for people
Just as long as live. And all tho
people on earth can't stop me from
doing what l think is right by calling