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Show "SILENT CHARLEY" MURPHY'S RISE . FROM- CAR DRIVER TO DICTATOR Sketch of Career of Tammany's New Boss. TT7ITH the accession to power of YY Charles Francis Murphy, the leader of Tammany Hall, who was chosen by the Sullivan-Croker fac-tio fac-tio by a vote of 27 to 9, comes an increased in-creased interest in the personality of the man who today steps into Richard Rich-ard Croker's shoes and begins his boss-ship boss-ship of the wigwam. One of the triumvirs,' who for a space ruled Tammany and designated by "Big Chief I?every as "Sport" Charles F. Murphy, has made himself felt in the councils of his organization. organiza-tion. Like Blchard Croker, he fought his way up to' the top from the bottom. bot-tom. Beginning as a boy in a shipyard ship-yard and later as a street car driver, he is today the head of perhaps the most powerful political organization in the whole country. Mr. Murphy is one of a family of eight children. His father, Dennis Murphy, died recently at the advanced age of 88. The elder Murphy, it is said, took great pride in the fact that he had never been idle- a day in all his life. The younger 'Murphy, now a leader, also believes in work. "Plenty of work and little talk" is his announced motto as leader of Tammany Hall. Dennis, who became a policeman. He is now dead. Charles was the second son, born in 1S38. The third child was Katherine, who came in time to be known from one end of the Eighteenth district to the other as "Aunt Kate." The fourth child was William, known as "Genial Billy," and was one of the most popular men in the Eighteenth district until death took him away. Following him. came Margaret, who is now the wife of Police Captain Patrick Pat-rick Cray. John J. Murphy, formerly a councilman, now the keeper of a saloon at Twenty-first street and First avenue, and Thomas Murphy, who is dead, completed the family. Dennis Murphy sent his children to school until they had acquired the rudiments of an education. Charley Murphy went to work in Roach's shipyard at Ninth street and the East river. It was his ambition to become a first class ship caulker. The Roach yard was then considered a training school for many a boy who became famous later in east side politics. pol-itics. He got to the boy leadership of the shipyard as he got to the top of Tammany Tam-many Hall by fighting. One by one he whipped the boys who worked with him, and when there were no more to whip he beat them swimming and rowing and running foot races. When he was 17 years old he organized organ-ized the Sylvian Social club, the nucleus nu-cleus of the Tammany Hall organization organ-ization of the district as it now stands. The members of the Sylvian club were I boys from 15 to 20 years of age, and as organizer Charles F. Murphy was j made the leader. Out of the Sylvian club membership Murphy organized a baseball club called the Senators. He was catcher j and captain, the best player on the team. Another member of the team was Edward Hagan, afterward Tammany Tam-many leader of the Eighteenth dis trict, who passed the leadership to Murphy when he died. Murphy was a remarkable ball player. play-er. Under his leadership his team beat the best amateur teams in this section. Crowds of 5,000 to 10,000 gathered on the big lot on Sunday afternoons to see the Senators play. The games were generally for $100 a side, and it was seldom that the Senators lost. During the Centennial year 1876 Murphy took his team on a tour of the state, playing the prominent clubs in a score of cities. The trophies won on that trip are on exhibition to this day in the Senate saloon, at Twentieth street and Second avenue. Among them is a loving cup, presented to Murphy personally by the Syracuse club. The little saloon was known as "Charley's." Street car drivers and conductors, employes of the shipyard and the gas works, gutta percha workers, work-ers, dock laborers, clerks, politicians and business men of the neighborhood drank at the little bar. i The street car lines of the city were parts of the Tammany machine in those days. District leaders bestirred themselves to get their constituents places as drivers and conductors, and ' it came to pass that Charles F. Murphy, Mur-phy, through political influence, got a job on the. front, platform of a Blue Line car, running from Twenty-third street ferry, down Avenue A, across Eighteenth street, down Broadway and across Fourteenth street to the Ho- J boken ferry. j It was about that time that Murphy became known as "Silent Charley." When other men talked he listened intently. in-tently. He is still "Silent Charley," for that matter, retaining one of his early chief characteristics to this day. He illustrated illus-trated this when he was asked about his election to the leadership. "I won't do much talking," he said. "The vote speaks for itself. I will be at Tammany Hall every day, and spend the hours between 3 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon at work. There is plenty plen-ty of work to be done and the less talking .the better." In 1S79 Charley Murphy rented a little lit-tle two-story building on the north side of Nineteenth street, a few doors east of Avenue A. It had one window and a narrow door. The bar and fixtures fix-tures were bought at second-hand. Upstairs were installed the headquarters headquar-ters of the Slyvian club and the Senators' Sen-ators' Baseball club. For 5 cents the hustling proprietor served a glass of fresh beer and a large bowl of soup. Murphy had not engaged in politics previously, save as other young men of the district had attending meetings and marching in parades for Tammany Hall. In 18S0 the realization came to the young saloonkeeper that his Sylvian club had grown to be a powerful organization, or-ganization, that he had hundreds of friends and that a life in politics was open to him. Maurice Power was the leader of the County Democracy in the Eighteenth district. Francis B. Spinola was the Tammany leader. One of his lieutenants lieuten-ants was Edward Hagan, who was Murphy's closest friend. Murphy and Hagan allied themselves with the Tammany Tam-many organization, to which Murphy turned over his Sylvian Social club. Hagan, on the strength of winning a hard fight for the assembly, gathered power in the district. By this time Murphy had started another an-other saloon a far different place from the humble little "Charley's" in Nineteenth Nine-teenth street. It was at the corner of Twenty-third street and Avenue A, and the lavishness of its appointments made the east side stare. It was the most pretentious liquor store in that part of the city. ; ' The outlook was extremely black for ' - lift - . - ! 4 ski? 1 f;v:.jir Tammany Hall in 1S86. In the Eighteenth Eight-eenth district the laboring vote appeared ap-peared to have flopped to Henry George. It was a situation for a resourceful re-sourceful politician to face and conquer, con-quer, and "Silent Charley" Murphy faced it. The fight centered in the Eighteenth and contiguous districts around the nomination for congress. Spinola got the Tammany nomination. His opponent op-ponent was Allen Thorndike Rice, from the silk stocking Fifth avenue neighborhood. neigh-borhood. Mr.. Rice had the Republican nomination, and being himself a politician poli-tician of no mean ability, on the eve of the election he secured the indorsement indorse-ment of the Henry George party. Spinola won by 174 votes The Republicans Repub-licans claimed that ballots headed by the name of Spinola but carrying the rest of the Republican candidates were being voted in the Eighteenth. This was said to be the political coup that made Charley Murphy. Previous to this campaign Murphy had opened another saloon this one at Nineteenth street and First avenue. Shortly afterward he opened a saloon at Twentieth street and Second avenue, which is the headquarters of the Ana-wanda Ana-wanda club, the district Tammany organization. or-ganization. Then he sold out the little-place little-place he started business in and opened a saloon at the northwest corner of First avenue and Twenty-third street. In 1890 he was running four saloons in the district. Murphy had no ambition to hold office of-fice until Van Wyck was elected. Then he accepted a place as dock commissioner. commis-sioner. Upon taking office he gave his four saloons away to relatives and close friends. When "Silent. Charley" went into the dock board he, is reputed to have been worth probably $400,000. He is now said to be worth a million. After the Tammany ticket was beaten last year Murphy went after the Tammany leaders in earnest. Through his close connection and friendliness with the east side leaders he got a good start. He is an intimate friend of Tim Sullivan, and Tim Sullivan helped him. When he came out in the open in his fight for the leadership his enemies accused ac-cused him of showing favoritism in awarding contracts while he was dock commissioner and of sharing in the profits. He issued a denial and complains com-plains that the newspapers did- not print it. He admits that he showed favoritism fa-voritism in awarding contracts and asks "Why not?" Mr. Murphy is a religious man, t communicant of Epiphany Roman Catholic church. He goes to mass every Sunday and donates liberally to the finances of the church. In all his career ca-reer as a saloonkeeper and some of his saloons are in neighborhoods where the practice is general he never allowed al-lowed a woman In one of his places of business. He had no wine rooms for women and would not tolerate them. So far as is known, Murphy has little real estate. One of the proudest moments mo-ments of his life was. when he was enabled en-abled to buy the little property at 324 East Twenty-first street for his father and mother. It had been their home for years, they loved it and they died in it, happy in the consciousness that it was their own. This property was bought a short time after he embarked in the saloon business. After a few years he bought the house at : 309 East Seventeenth street, where he lives now with the wife he married a few months ago. ' During the blizzard' of 1888 the Tammany Tam-many general committee of the district, at his suggestion, voted $4,000 for the relief of the poor, and a large part of it came from his own pocket. Of this sum $1,500 was given to Dr. Rains-ford's Rains-ford's mission for distribution. This moved Dr. Ralnsford to say from the pulpit of St. George's that if all the Tammany leaders were like the leader of the Eighteenth district Tammany would be an admirable organization. Dr. Rainsford and Charley Murphy and great friends. In his projects for the betterment of the poor the preacher often consults the Tammany leeder. When his brother, "Genial Bili," died 1 he left four children Charley Murphy Mur-phy 4ook those children and he has reared them as though they were his own. The eldest boy, John J., is a cadet at West Point and will be graduated gradu-ated next June. |