Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1878 — Affecting Incident at a Murphy Meeting. [ARTICLE]

Affecting Incident at a Murphy Meeting.

At one of Mr. Murphy’s meetings at Troy, N. Y., after the usual introductory exercises he brought before the audience a man well known to the people of Troy, and who had run through a good property and fair reputation by drink, but had now resolved he would endeavor to retrieve his character. He addressed the people in a very touching manner, and, to illustrate a sentiment in his brief discourse, he passed to the rear of the platform and brought forward a wretched, ragged, trembling victim, the very embodiment of rum’s ruin. This wreck of a man,' after a moment of silence, was recognized by many of the audience, and the simple recognition brought tears to the eyes of hundreds. Presently he endeavored to speak; his trembling limbs almost refused to support his body, and his words, feeble and broken, were indistinct and incoherent. But gathering himself by a strong effort, he gave a narrative of himself from his boyhood in that city; his refined and loving home; his college life; his marriage; his gradual decline; his dishonored parents; his dead wife; his disgraced children; his own utter degradation to a gutter drunkard; and there he stood, having been brought from the jail to tell this story, and then go back to complete his last term as a common drunkard. Mr. Murphy sprang to his feet as the poor fellow said this, and exclaimed: “He shall not go back!” and the audience instantly responded, "He shall not go back!” and in a minute the sum necessary for his release, by the payment of the fine, was raised, and the officer who had him in charge left him in the care of Mr. Murphy and those who were with him. The man belonged to one of the most respected of the families ih that city; was highly gifted and one of the most promising of the young men of his day. The scene was the more affecting, as hundreds knew the truth of his history. A whipsaw: Trouble drives a man to strong drink, and strong drink drives him into trouble.