Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1913-05-16
Ir WAS RAINING MD THE IRISH
DON'T FANCY SLEEPING our
OF DOORS.
Went TO SLEEP IN A CAK
sure lie Was Broke, without Home.
lie could Have Robbed "a Bank
Iiut Wen. What?
II was raining.

John Murphy is an IrIshman and
. he Irish don't like to sleep in the
: ain.
: Hut Murphy was broke. II soda
- )untain drinks were "A cent apiece he
2 )uldn't look at a straw.
lie couldn't go to a rooming house,
4'cause rooming houses are run to
lake money for their owners IIo-
tells are run to make money.
If "A fellow sits In the shelter Of a
depot too long policeman nabs him.
lie went to the Missouri House.
whore oftentlmes persons without
money are allowed to sleep on the
floor but Wednesday night all the
floor space, according to Murphy, was
occupied by negroes
The police said they saw Murphy
loafing around the Turf Exchange.
Murphy said II was about the only
place he could go, as all of the
churches were locked up. there wasn't
any Y. NJ. G. A.building, and the six
spare bed rooms at the Salvation
Army Citadel are for women only.
What would you have done?
Here's what Murphy did:
He went down to the Frisco yards
and there was a great big box car
that wasn't even owned by the Frisco,
but by some other road
Remember it was raining
What would you have done?
Murphy is a painter. He used to
be head painter at big packing plant
in oklahoma City. An accident oc-
CURED and Murphy is now wearing
his left hand in sling.
one hand in a sling. no money, no
place to sleep, raining. an empty box
car-what would you have done?
Wednesday afternoon Murphy saw
Charlie Page and asked him for
job-any kind of job would do. He
wanted work. If he couldn't get
some painting to do he would take
something else. He went out to the
park, but his wounded hand handl-
capped him. 1t was the first time
in Murphy's life that he had ever been
out of a job and broke In a strange
city. And Murphy is 40 years old
Now, of course this is Murphy's
story. Nobody has any right to deny
it. Nobody has denied it, All of the
facts In the case bear out Murphy's
statement He didn't deny he was
broke, he didn't deny he had no em-
ployment, he didn't deny having been
at the Turf and he didn't deny Sleep
ing in the box car.
And everybody knew it was raining
and pretty tough night out.
Murphy had registration certificates
in his pocket, showing that for three
years he had been a resident of Ok
lahoma City. The only thing Murphy
could do legally was to vote. Any
man running for office in the city Of
Tulsa would have told Murphy: Sure,
go down and vote for me, you're en-
titled to it,"
But it seems that Murphy wasn't
really entitled to anything else on
top of earth except to appear in police
court yesterday morning, charged
with vagrancy.
Murphy didn't say whether he was
guilty or not-he just told his story.
But the police said they had seen
him loafing at the Turf and had
found him sleeping in box car.
Murphy said it was all too true, that
he was sorry 1t had fallen to his lot
to be so unfortunate.
The court listened to Murphy's
story, which was the same story that
the policemen told The court said
that the laws were plain. that II
man was found sleeping In box car
and didn't have any money. it was a
violation Of the vagrancy ordinance.
He coud have 'mooched" but that.
too. was violation of the city laws,
and is extremely humiliating to a man
who has one speck of red blood in
his veins.
He could have done lots of things.
and lot of people would, but Murphy
didn't
Murphy slept in a box car