The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-16
DEATH STILLS THE SHARP TONGUE OF PADDY 0'C0RMA AN
Picturesque Old Pauper's Early Life Yelled in
 Mystery.
LIVED ON BRIDGEPORT FOR MANY LONG YEARS
Was Omnivorous Reader, But Destroyed Books That
 Referred to Work.

Patrick German or O'Gorman, for 25 years an inmate of the Bridgeport almshouse, died there Thursday and is buried in Potter's Field. He was 84 years old. Although he was ap- parently an abled-bodied man when he first became a public charge, it was his pride and boast that he had never did a days work in his life and he never did any work all the time he was cared for in the almshouse.
 For many years he was the bane of the existence of every official connect ed with the charities department and a more vigorous or persistent fault finder never came under their 'ohser- vation. Years ago, when allowed to leave the almshouse on furlough, it was his hobby to visit the newspaper offices with weird stories of cruelty and mismanagement at the home. Michael Logan and Merle Cowles, for mer superintendent of the almshouse, Joseph Brennan, former superiptend- ent of the charities department and other officials in the charities depart ment were all objects of his accusa- tions./ At f1r~t German was accepted seriously by the newspapers and pub lie spirited citizens. Later, when in vestigations disclosed that his com plaints were without foundation and that he was chronic fault finder, he found few willing to lend an ear to his stories. Of late years he was nearly blind and this affliction coupled with the infirmities of old age pre- vented his leaving the Hillside home very often or offering objection to what he considered ma1treatment. N
 Paddy" German, as he was known, was one of the many unique charac- ters Bridgeport has known. Who he was or where he came from no one connected with the charities depart ment knows. He never talked about himself except to boast that he had been an inmate of every town farm in the country" and of all he had seen, that of Bridgeport was ''the. worst" If he had any relatives here or elsewhere he never spoke of them. He had no confidant among his fel- low inmates at the home.
 The charities department has no record as to where he came from or how he came to be admitted to be public charge here. He was an inmate of the almshouse long before any one
  remember. When the charities de- partment removed from Middle street to the present building in Fairfield avenue many of the records of in mates of the almshouse were acciden- tally destroyed and it is belis@ed Gro- mans record was among them.
 Of the officials of the charities de- partment with whom he was thrown 1oy was the only one for whom he had good word and to him alone he once made a brief statement of his history. IA the story is true it is strange one and in keeping with the eccentric conduct and character of the man. From this and the other stories it is generally accepted that German was born in Ireland and in his youth was thrifty and a worker with a desire for education which because of the pov- 'erty of his people he was denied. New ertheless he learned to read and write and he acquired some knowledge of mathematics He worked as a farm hand and saved his money with, the a ambition that some day he would go "up to Dublin" and there acquire an education His ambition was never to be realized. Crops failed one year and hard times came to the farmer folk of Ireland. Many Irishmen. dis couraged by the struggle against tickle nature and heavy government tax ation, emigrated to America. The in dustrious agents of transportation companies urged on those who. hesi- tated with tales of the ease with which people lived in the New World where money might be picked up in Nthe streets"
 Finding Himself out of employment for there was no crop to harvest and the farmer with whom he lived had no money to pay him, German wandered