The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-09-15

One day about forty five years ago.
a seven-year-oid Kid was walking up
the Bowery on his way TO school. an
alert Irish younRster with eyes that
took in everything along the humming
street. In front of a saloon mar
Grand street a shaggy individual was
p!liBg UP empty beer kegs for the
brewery wagon to haul away. The
boy saw something that made his
eyes pop.
He dropped the battered 'r-t---s<s
tic that was swinging from a strap
waited I'LL the roustahout had slouchad
back into the saloon. rapidly peeled
from one of the kegs the green reve-
nue. stamp, and ran like scared
rabbit He hardly stopped till he got
20 school. His desk was near a win
dow where the sunlight streamed in
and he laid the wet stamp on tho
desk top, smoothing II very carefully.
The teacher had seen him,
Jimmy" he said Sharply. what
are you doing?"
"Dryin' dollar, sir" said the
boy.
And for years and years afterwards
the man who became the absolute
boss Of Manhattan below Fourteenth
street was known to friends and foes
as DRY Dollar sullivan" The nick
name stuck 10 him while he was In
school and IL was yelled after him
by the boys in the streets. when h
went 10 work selling papers and hust-
/ ling fer his widowed mother
In Printing House square the boys
used 70 yell. Hey. Dry Dollar. gimme
change for a nickel" and often when
they were imperilling the hats Of
pedestrians by playing bail, and a
policeman doomed mp swinging his
stick. you could have heard II you
had been ,hore. the shrill cries of
warning, Cheese 1t. Dry Dollar, here's
tn cop"
1t was always Dry Dollar Sullivan
on the Rowery until Tim got to be
slx-footer. and wide in the shoulders.
and so powerful in Tammany hall. and
in racing and theatrical affairs, that
only one nickname really .,tted Big
Tim" Now and then in recent years.
the oldtimers would hail him as
DRY Dollar" but most of the time he
was known simply as Big Tim" and
II was title that carried around the
world.
Inherited Politics.
Timothy y. Sullivan's father was
Daniel sullivan, who got into politics
here about ls45. He organized a po-
li,ical club in the old Fourth ward.
and while he never held political
job. he managed to get plenty of them
for his friends. He died leaving a
wife. two sons. and a daughter. Paddy
was the elder of the sons and Tim,
who was born on July %. 1862. was
only four years old when his father
died They had mighty little to get
along with. but Mrs. Sullivan sent Tim
to school as long as she could afford
1t. He quit school when he was eight
years old, and went TO work He
sold newspapers in Printing House
square. at Fulton ferry. and wherever
his shrewdness and his fists could find
an opening
Tim got his first real Job In the
distributing room of the Commercial
Advertiser. He was a pretty handy
sort of boy, and 1t wasn't long I'M
til he went to the Daily Graphic, at
a larger salary, He held Jobs later In
the press rooms of the Graphic, the
Standard, and the Dial. and when the
latter went out of business young Sui
Ivan was already getting actively into
politics. He made up his mind when
he was boy that he would never take
drink, or smoke. and he kept to that
resolution all his life.
He had come to be a power In the
Second assembly district by the time
he was twenty-one years old. Always
good -natured and smiling. ready with
joke and even reader with his fists
If real trouble started in his vicinity,
young Timothy y. Sullivan had be-
gun to attract the notice OF the big
politicians. When the county De-
mocracy wanted likely young fellow
to run>for the assembly from the Sec
ond. Tins name was suggested as a
good man to put up fight against
Tammaay. Tine went into the fight
with both feet and both hands. He
was elected by vote that surprised
even his friends. He was twenty
three years old when he first went to
Albany.
Friend of Cookers.
Tom Foley was close friend of
Tim then. as he remained through
out both of their political careers. It
was Big Tom who first suggested to
Big Tim that he get out OF the county
Democracy and line up with Tam
many. The idea looked good to Tim
He turned his district over to Tam
many by crooktng = fore1nger. Rich