The Washington times., 1914-10-31

Church.
DR.. Murphy believes that chart
should be shorn of red tape an
He is willing at an
time of the day or night to propid
q home for a needy child.
By KENDRIcK scoFIELD.
Forty destitute children-boys and
girls-are living on big twenty-five
acre farm pust across the river in
Virginia, near Arlington.
A man who has an income Of only
500 a year has undertaken to find
ways and means Of feeding the forty
growing appetites and providing
shelter for them, for the children
are in no way financial assets-he
sends them to school.
The man is the Rev. Patrick Muir
ply. rector Of st. Michael's and All
Angels Church and city missionary
Of the Episcopal diocese of WASH
ington. and he has assumed the bur-
den OF providing food and shelter at
any time Of the day or night FOR a
needy child.
He calls the big farm 1.-The Wash
ington Emergency and Receiving
Home," and while he goes about his
daily task OF providing money for
the support Of his adopted family,
he dreams Of a great institution to
rise where now the farm stands, an
institution In which aid will be given
sand committees. His creed, he says,
Is to give assistance when and
where 1t Is needed.
Knows the Mining Camp.
Patrick Murphy. city missionary
and founder Of the emergency home.
is a man who rather stands out
from the crowd. His early life has
made of him a prototype Of Ralph
Connor's "Sky Pilot" He knew min
ing camps in the days when they
were peopled with Lives that We're
erring and aimless and deaths that
just hung by a hair" In rotation he
was q missionary in Belfast, Ireland,
his home: in Rock Spring, Wyo.,
where there were forty languages
spoken in the coal mines. and sa-
loon In the town for every language:
camps: in the sheep and cow camps
around Big Horn basin: in the rail-
road camps at Pocatello, Idaho: and
in the farming and fruit districts of
the Occur d'Alene, In Idaho. He
went into the undeveloped West in
1883. He left 1t only q few years
ago. when he came to Washington.
Il
Basin territory" he said, in remin-
iscence. 'it was a daily occurrence
in that section, as the Inhabitants
used to put it. to serve up a dead
man for breakfast, another for din
diner, and a third for supper In
Idaho City, just after 1 reached
there, II was no uncommon thing for
the porters in the hotels there to
winnow ten or twelve dollars day
ings Of the barroom floor.
Il well remember, too, the first
collection I took in that town. When
the basket was emptied. beside
quantity Of dust 1t contained a
check for a quantity of beer at the
Miners Brewery, another for two
loaves of bread at Orchards Bak-
cry. and a third good for a shine at
some Chicago hotel. the name Of
which / have forgotten"
In commenting upon the early
days In the Rock Spring coal camps,
he said: lone might get the idea
that in q town where forty nation
alfties were herded together, and
where forty saloons existed. there
would be no such thing as orderly
life. But in all the early day camps
I visited. Rock Spring was perhaps
the most orderly. The Irish went to
the saloon conducted by one Of their
own countrymen. The Austrians.
the English and so on through the
entire list did likewise, and race
ouarrels were the rarest thing in the
community"
Assistant At Epiphany.
When DR.. Murphy came to Wash
ington he was for a time installed
aS assistant rector of Epiphany
Church. but when the diocese deter
mined to establish a city missionary,
ba volunteered for the work. al
though the salary was but $4OO a
YEAR, He was also given the duty OF
re-establishing st. Michaels and Al!
Angels Church at Twenty-second
street and Virginia avenue north
weest, which had been closed Tor
three years.
"On taking up my work as city
missionary" said DR.. Murphy.
many claims were made upon me
involving the care of destitute chill
dren and | soon learned that the
institutions of the city were over
crowded although many OF them
were very kind to me in my work.
People In trouble came constantly
to me. wishing some provision made
for their little boys and girls. But
7 had no place to which they might
be sent.
Rents Arlington Farm.
$50 set to work. and through
friends I obtained a little house at
o17, New York avenue. at a reduced
rental and undertook to sustain it
out Of my owA resources. aided by
wHck I Gould get in contributions.
rSSSS vao Rnst January. and l started
~ nth about sixteen children. The
MA vCaifs for whom l was called to
care soon grew in numbers until
thew oyerflowed that house. and I
obtained another In the same block.
3ut when summer came on, and l had
demonstrated that there was a big
field for such work as I had under
taken 7 rented farm out near
Arlington, and sent the children
there. That place was sold and 1
finally interested some of my friends
and they made it possible for me to
undertake the purchase of a twenty
tvo-acre tract, on which stands a
ten-room house, barns, and outbuild-
fn0g