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Show A Tammany Chieftain's Charity. rp AMMANY has brought before the J public eye many able men; Tammany Tam-many has also nourished a few crooked men. Let that go, for there are artful deceivers in every political politi-cal society. It is much more pleasant to turn back to the clays of John Kelly, its most noted sachem, about twenty years ago, and follow up the line of succession, by picking out some of its free-handed, charitable men, whose hearts beat responsive to the common people, and whose wealth spreads itself lavishly toward relieving the distress of New York's poor. One of such men is William Devery. better known as Big Bill Devery of the Ninth Assembly district. Mr. Devery has only dimes where Mr. Carnegie has dollars; therefore this Tammany leader's mind does not run to church organs in Scotland, or giving away fortunes to establish libraries for half-starved workingmen who cannot eat books. When the weather gets hot in New York, the sun beats down in that Ninth district like flames from a blast furnace. Crowded into tenements in that Ninth district, vainly seeking a breath of air, poor women with babes and small children hanging to their skirts, pace up and down the corridors, biding the time when little Patsy will come home with the pennies earned through selling newspapers; biding the time when the father may return from his ill-requited labor, with' a herring for supper. Oh, the torture endured by patient women in these tenements! The criminal in state's prison fares better, for he is not denied God's fresh air. Big Bill Devery thought of all this one hot day last week, and the thought was probably born while aboard a steamboat for Coney Island, to escape the heat of the great city. The thought .broadened ntr s P'".. ni that rl5 no sooner- matured than it was put into speedy action. ' It comprehended comprehend-ed a free excursion to every woman and child In the Ninth district. That means more w omen - than Salt Lake contains. An account of the affair says that six big steamers and barges with a carrying capacity of 14,000 people were well loaded and on each was a band of musicians, while a small army of actors and vaudeville performers and singers entertained on the boats. No men were permitted to attend, except ex-cept the committees and two physicians physi-cians for each boat. Trained nurses were also in attendance. Of course there was a feast prepared for these poor women which no barbecue bar-becue of olden times could parallel. One day at least of their miserable lives had been spent as they spent it when children, before the emigrant Ships carried them to poverty and hunger in a land flowing with milk and honey. Up from those tenements that night ascended silent prayers of gratitude grati-tude to Him who warms the hearts of some rich men to the afflictions of the common people. And the consciousness of that one act will give Bill Devery more genuine happiness than King Edward Ed-ward will feel over the coronation and his dinner to the London poor paid for out of the British treasury. |
