Evening Star Newspaper, September 19, 1926, Page 81

Story of Hill 142 and of a Blazing Night in Wartime. in Ao firsr chamter the ou'hor told Aow the dar Barralion of ihe 5 Marines vas quariered ne.r Morigoy during the Frat pari of June 181X. when the com- mand "icansudieny seni up nomh o velieve the 15 Division. bearing the brunt of a_tida’ wwave 0! fierimans iust breaking through for a_grea’ ofiensive Om Tune & the 3k van in o bi'ter tgh' g in ihe viciniy of Chomp jon. For Rours they ‘vied 10 ous' “he Bocke fromn x sirongho d in he woods, ond suc coeded o indabin. bui a' greai cost Part of he 5k wrested Hiv 142 from the enewry i od here for The Ger. man coun's, offensive they rou'd see Forming. Wri's hew iay vepperng the Boche 'n deiachment of lut Lngineers rame her assisiance BY CAPT. JOHN W. THOMASON, Jr. | CHAPTER 11 | 3 Boche wanted Hill 142, He | -ame, and the rifles broke him, | and he came again. Al his | batteries were in action, and | always b machine guns scourged the place, but he could not make head against the rifles. Guns he could understand. He knew all about hombs and auto-rifies and ma- chine guns and trench mortars, but aimed, sustained rifle fire that comes | from nowhere in particular and picks off men—it brought the war home to the individual and demoralized him. Toward midday this 6th of June, 1918, the condition around Hill 142 slabilized. A small action, fought by battalions over a limited area of n special importance, it gave the Boche something new to think about, and it may be that people who write hi: tories will date an era from it. Between tacks the stretcher be: ers and the Red ( « men on both | the night there was a cides did their utmost for the | ziunt and one scream—"Boghe!" wounded who were scattered through |once the hill blazed into the wheat around the hill and who | weary men overspent. they fired into now, under the torture of stiffening |the dark until their pieces were hot. wounds and the hot sun, began to ery | out. As the afternoon advanced vou | heard pitiful voices, little and thin, | across the fields: “Ach, Himmel, hilf, | hilf! Brandighe! Liebs Gott, dighe! (“First aid—this way! aid, for the love of God!") | maps Late in the afternoon a_great up- | stronger attac roar arose to the right. There was |leau at dawn. more artillery up now, more machine | ing also to divisi guns, more of everything. The 3d | ualties severe Battalion of the 6th Marines and the | which to base 3d Battalion of the 5th attacked the | will he submitted as soon town called Bouresches and the wood [ jle. * = known as Bois de Belleau. They at- tacked across the open. losing hide ously. Platoons were shot down en- | tire Lieut. Rohinson got into Bouresches | with 20 men out of some 100 who started, threw the Boche out, and held it. They gained a footing in the rocky ladges at the edze of the Bois | de Relleau, suffering much from what was believed to a m: hine-gun nest At this point. They tried to leave it and go on with a contafning force to | watch it. They found that the whole wood was a machine-gun nest. Night descended over a tortured area of wheat and woodland, lit by flares and gun flashes, flalled by ma- chine guns, and in too many places pitiful with crying of wounded who had latn all the day untended fn a merciless sun. Stretcher bearers and cowbat patrols roamed over it in the dark. Water parties and ration par- ties groped back from forward posi- tions over unknown trails. There were dog fights all over the place. | wild alarms and hysterical outbreaks of rifle fire. Tt was the same with the Boche; he knew the ground better, and he was determined to repossess it. His people filtered back through the American strong points, for the PRUSSIANS IN + Fl Marines did not hold a continuous line: isolated positions were con- necied by patrols and machine guns ‘aid for interlocking five. At the southern angle »f Hill 142 [ the 49th Company put eit a listen- itk post—one man down the slope a iittle way to watch for visitors. 1In At ing post tellow, bayoneted. down the hil! a little 3 Not all the rifie fire had gone i st | framed orders for a on the Bols de Bel Brigade was wri v e . o figures on and * ok ok % T the crossroads beyond La Voie du Chatelle the replacements met the war. Behind them, crammed somehow into weeks. were Quantico, the trans. port, drest, & Fremch troop train Then there was the golden countr; around &t. Aignan, the “Saint Onion of Amerfcans. The war was represented moniac non-coms, instructo this and that. Bayonet drills—"Come on, now: lemme hear “\What wash our b in?—German blood!—Aw—sing out like you meant it, you dam’ replacements! I'll swear, it's a shame to feed animals like you to the Germaps———"" Gas mask drill— “Take moreW{nan five seconds an’ vour maw gets a gold star—now!—the gasalert position—Oh. for Gawd's sake., you guy, you wit' the two left feet” “But, sergeant, 1 find that I have a certain dificulty—-" Ser- geants also swear terribly. . . . There was every kind of drill, eight hours a day of it, and police work. Rumors of great battles in the north. Glum and sad civilians—they were glum and sad everywhere in France, that Spring of 1918—talking by de do we | i -ampling, a | placements debussed late of a June | road between exactly spaced poplars. And afterward they found the listen- | platoons And | empty road huddle of new | ! north | geant?” | gniding the column—a silent | for replacements |sausages yonder—observation balloons as possi- | ! dill dark.” | D AROUND THE BOIS DE BELLEAU. A PAGE CAPT. THOMASON'S SKETCH BOOK. in anxious groups after the town crier with his drum passed. Another troop train—maybe the same train that was carelessly left alongside a train containing the wine ration for some French division, the papers in which case are probably still accumu- jating. Camions after that. The re- iternnon and went up a great white column of in column of files, opposite sides of the At the crest of a slope You could see, marched firet in ds, then on They squ the column stopped. hanging above the sky-line to the and east, curious shapes— Look like a elephant's head, bows on. wit' his ears out, don't they, ser-| he tall non-com. who was | man— | observed to the replacement officer in | charge: “We'll stop her, sir. Boche | see the whole country. We'll wait The detachment was glad to fall out, off the road. The sun set after while, and the day drowsed into the | long twilight. Presently the ser- zeant said: “We can move now, sir.” The replacements moved, making no conversation. A little country road led them off the highway. The® passed a shat- tered farmhouse where a few s lounged In the dusk sir. Gets shelled a lot. don't expect von to report. body on the road to meet you. o A little group of officers rose out of the diich, vawning. They looked slack and tired. “Replacement col- umn? You in charge? Yes—assign- ments made back in brigade. You'll go to—Henry; your battalion gets a hundred and seventy. with five offi- cers. Take 'em off the head of the column—tell Maj. Turrill—" The detachment followed the officer called Henry, who set what they con- sidered an immoderate pace. He passed the word: “Don’t bunch up; if a plane comes over at it—he can see smokin’, an’ don't taik.” They went through a gap in a hedge and were at another crossroads. “Fall out here, an’ form combat our faces; no low, don’t look upYbox had dried prunes in it. the other | PENCIL SKETCHES MADE ON SCRA PS OF PAPER IN BELLEAU WOOD. Leave your stuft under the Take one blanket. Come on— quickly, now! An' don't bunch up The replacements formed combat | packs expertly, remembering Parris | Island _and Quantico. “Smartl Come by here, fill your pock-| ach _man take two boxes hard| bread. Where'll you carry them How in hell do I know? There!” Two goods boxes sat close together, and the men filed between them. One | packs. hedge. bread. Don't stop! Don't stop! Right down that road, an’ keep movin Out over the woods a sound started, | a new sound. It was a rumbling whine; it grew to a roar, and a 77 crashed down just beyond the cross- roads. A cloud blacker than the night leaped up, shot with red fire. “Lie down, all hands!" Another landed at once; the air was full of singing par- ticles. The men, flat on their faces. in the dark, waited numbly for next order. There werea dozen shells a1l around the place. The last one hit between the two goods boxes, where a man was lying. The boxes and the man vanished in a ruddy cloud—bet- ter than if he had gotten it in the belly and rolled around screaming. There were no more shells. “Say, you know, T saw a arm an’ a rifle | goin' up wit' that burst—I—who was he, anyway the | Replacements and Tragedy of a Ph. D. Among the First to Fight. 2 s ol OCHE A NEW TYPE OF DEADLY FIRE. that way—and he floundered to one side, cursing hysterically: “Quiet, back there—pass the word, no talkin, The files obediently passed the word. The column groped on in the dark. It came out of the woods into a ep quiet, there! vour feet—right down that road, officer ordered, and added to himself: “Dam’ it! Should have remembered they shell La Voie du Chatelle every night this time—but they acted fine « % e" A voice spoke up, excited, [pale stone town--Champillon. There McGee—any were no lights in the houses: the 3 pe | place had an air of death about it. PR HERE was a Ph. D. from Harvard amused: thing like tha down, you Bogt." They went down a wood road, black as a pocket. Just ahead ne bright h and a roar, and frag-|unhandy private, honnded habitually | ments ripped through the woods. and | hy sergeants, and troubled with indi- |they heard a lamentable crying. get-| gestion and patriotism. For all his ting weaker: “First aid! First aid!" | training. a pack was not at home on The column came to a dead mule and | his shoulders or a rifle casy in his the wreck of a cart lying athwart the| hands road, and a smoking hole, and a smell| He thought of the pleasant study of high explosive, and the sharp reek | hack Cambridge way. of the gold-and- | of blood. There was a struggling [ blue sergeant under the “First to group, somebody working swiftly in| Fight!" recruiting poster—“Your job, the dark, a whiteness of bandages,| too, fellal Come on an' help lick the and the white blur of a man's torso.| Hun! You don’t wanta wait to be “Lie still, damn_you!" “O, Ahhhh!| drafted, a big guy like you! We can Go easy, you.” “Hell, T know it hurts,| use you in the Marines."” guy, but T got to get this bandage on,| A hearty, red.necked ruffian—ex- haven't 17 Come on—quit kickin'.” | tremely competent in his vocation, no Passing around the mule, a man|doubt. Good enough chaps. Yes stepped on something neither hard|. . . but . . . tea by a sea-coal nor soft—nothing else on earth feels| fire in the New England twilight, weating file, a_big. pale. | |and clever talk of art and philosophi~ anarchism—one wrote fastidious es saye on such things for the more diseriminating reviews scholar ly abstractions . Of all the stupl ized things, a war phrase, civilized warfare? no such thing' Here, most civilized country on earth . . | The neighborhood of Chateau-Thierry |. . . Montaigne's town. wasn't it? | ignorant. uncivil Who coined that There was in the The Kings of France had a chatean | near it. once. And yet it was always |a cockpit . since Aetins rollad | back Attila in the batile of the nations at Chalons-Napoleon fought Champ Aubert and Montmirail around here. | always war— | The column was through Champil | ton, dipping into a black hollow. More shell-holex in the .road here . . . All at once there was a new shell-hole and the doctor of phMosophy, some. tinw private of Marines, lay heside it. very neatly heheaded, with the rifie that had been such a bore to keep clean across his knees and dried prunes spilling out of the pockets that | he never had learned to button. The column went on. At dawn a naval medico attached to the Marine Bri- gade, with a staff officer, passed that way. d. the wounds yon see." oh. served the naval man, professionally | interested, He looked enrionsly 1 | couldn’t have dene a neater decapita |tion than that myself. Wonder who | took his identification tags with it. T see. Replacement. by his nniform——* | (For the 5th and 1 Regiments had |long since waor their forester green Marine uniform and were wearing Army khaki, while the re placements came in new green cloth l'ing) The staff officer picked up the rifle, snapped hack the holt and squinted exper down the bore “Dis stin',” he said e ke was o replacement. You never catch an old timer with hore like that-filthy! Bet there hasn't been a rag through |in a week. You know. surgeon, I was looking at some of the rifles of that bunch of machine.gunners lying in the brush just across from battalion: they were beautiful. Never saw better keni pleces. Fine soldiers in a lot of ways these Boche! * * " Meantime the column had passe into heavier woods, and haited whe the rifles ahead sounded very near They saw dugouts, betrayed by the thread of candielight around the edges of the blankets that cloake thelr entrances. One was a dressin< station. by the sound and the smell f it. The officer named Henry ducked !into the other. There a stocky majo | sat up on the floor and rolled a elg" [ rette, which he lighted at a gutterin | candle. ““Replacements fn? Well, wha* do they look like” | “Same men 1 {area last month {old-time Marines | saw In the trainin: sir. A sprinkling o Sorgt. MeGee, tha ‘\\n broke for something or other f: Panama, 1s with 'em —and the rest o them are young college lads and bo: |off the farm—fine material, sir. No: | much drill, but they probably know ;hv v to shoot, they take orders, an: i they don’t scare w orth a cent! Shelle coming In, at Voie du Chatelle, an: some more this side of Champillon | several casualties; no confusion nothing like a panic—laid down an waited for orders-—did exactly as th { were told —fine men, sir! | (Copyright. 19 (Continued in Next Sunday's S‘a Rambler Offers Picture of an American It may not be 1 read the following editorial New York Herald, May 2, after John Morrissey OHN MORRISSEY, New York, | extraordinary man. twice a_ Congressman. twi | wonrmanic State Senator and istin- | \ guished and notorious man for |ASK you to 30 vears, had been a mill work. | from the er. deck hand on a Hudson steamboat, | 1878, the d : o | death gangster in Troy, longshoreman in | deatt . L " o New York. prize fighter in California, e anws of Me. SOETIAE s Canada and New York, saloon keeper, | Will make a deep impression, not professional gambler and politician, | merely on the classes of this city with Tie held the confidence of a very large [ Whom he has been most accustomed number of the lower and higher | l0associate but on politicians in every Classcs of men. A remarkable man. | Part of the State. He was widely " | known by public men, and it is cred- In the second story of Henry Wirz | ftable to- his character that, in spite the Rambler gave the names of at-|of his pursuits, he gained the respect tendants at the Grant and Colfax In- | of those who were best acquainted auzural ball in the Treasury, March | (ith him. There is perhaps no other . and among the guests Was | example in our history of a man hav- n Morrissey. After that name | jng risen to such political distinction and in parentheses the Rambler Wrote: | aginst - such formidable obstacles. There's a chance for a story about | Gur country has furnished innumer- John Mor born in Tipperary. | able instances of men, born in poverty prize fighter, allaround sport and a |and deprived of education, struggling very good Congressman. |into political distinction; but there is In the Biogral Congressional | no other example of a man who first Divectory is this: “John Morrissey. a me noted as a prize fighter and Tepresentative from New Yor born nced by a not unnatural progress in County Tipperary, Ireland, Feb. 12, | to be the keeper of gaming establish- 1831: came to the United Siates in | ments, making a not discreditable fig- 1833 and located in South Troy, N. Y. | ure in the public life of the country. attended the public schouls; moved to | We suppose this could have been pos- New York in 1545: went to California | sible only with a New York constitu- in 1851; returned to New York: pro- | ency. The marvel is not so great that prietor of gambling houses in New 'z man of Mr isser tecad JOHN MORRISSEY. and pursuits could secure el Congress and to the New York Sen: from certain districts in that by a steady growih of confidence % and Saratoga: purchased the con- olling interest in the Saratoga Race i 8 electe a » the Fortieth and presses (March 4. 1867-) eiected to the State Senate in 1 477 died In Saratoga Springs May |one of the most wealthy, respectable, 3. 1878.” | moral and refined districts in the mi The Rambler will try to bring out | tropolis without renouncing the h tocy of this | nesg by which he gained his property ¥ 1 « d 1 in an Instructive the | judge | when he has s | was appreciated | came to regard him | rather ordinary: his fault This is, on the whole, the most sin- | gular phencmenon of our political and | social life. | “The qualities by which this strange | success was achieved came to be very fully acknowledged in the election last Autumn when his competitor for the suffrage of a wealthy district was a well known citizen of the highest standing. His signal victory over such an opponent in such a district proved that Mr. Morrissey was no ordinary and vulgar keeper of places for mak- ing or losing money on games of chance. It may seem paradoxical tc mention honesty as the strongest at.| tribute of such a man, but we think it would be the general verdict of those who knew him best that con- fidence in his honesty was the chief ground of his political success. Mr. Morrissey was a man who never for- feited his word, who never sold his vote, who never trafficked in_legisla- tion, who was unapproachable not merely by bribe but by any kind of improper influence. “Considering his education and as- sociation, that is saying a great deal. It implies that he was a man of strong | character as well as honorable im- pulses. It must be added that he was possessed of sense and penetration, which made it impossibie for the shrewdest minds to practice upon him and use him withoui his knowing it. He was pre-eminently endowed with the qu ‘horse sense’ of ¢ few pr t motives | must have him dur a Spring. t hiruself to be it his life | 1 character ore of the most select constituencies of this metro- politan cit) Mr. Morrissey was a re. markable character and ‘take him all in all we shall not look upon his like again." " he had been a ing the at the point was spared unt * koK K OW, T want you to read an edi- torial on Morrissey in the New York Tribune, May 2, 1878. It is with- in a few lines of a column’s length and I have made extracts which show the tenor of the whole. Ycu may read: “There are many men like John Morrissey in the lower ranks of Amer- jcan life, but =o few have stood like him in the strong light of public office | and political notorfety that New York a pher He was not that: his character and v were of a common kind: his & * were not high nor stra ‘were coar: o | ing | somehow to get a living out o , public treasur | gress—though nothing in his i to money matter workingmen—with wh whatever in crude id m he had noth common—ought f the | . As a member of Con-' not the | tional cipher n the only unlearned ni 4 mere Legislature—he wa | He exercised no influence, joined in n: i had had no views and sensibly present none. . . . Ht common sense, which | debates. tried to a rough | was often better than the sagacity ol better trained men, in estimating pop- | ular tendencies and judging how vo- iitical plans would work. He | | was above petty grudges in politics o1 | | | would always go a long di in life. Where his friendship was | given it could always be counted on | and in any ordinary matter the kind | ness of his disposition could be trustad for fair and even generous action. H: tance an out of ay to do a good deed T} are qualites which all| classes appreciate and in spite of the fearful cdds which his past career in his integrity and ability he at last | laid upon him they gave him a cer achieved the honor of an election from | tain popularity and very considerable influence, even among the better classes of the citv. More than once he had the active support of doctors of divinity. Yet, after all, hi= politics | veloping its ori SAMUEL J. | ousht somehow to get a Iiving out of . TILDEN. was the ward politics of New York. . . . He never accomplished any- thing in politics. He was always the tool of shrewder politicians, who used him to serve their own purposes and | who_thought it did not matter that the Metropolis of America was repre- | sented in its Senate by the keeper oi | walks of American life"; a gambiing hell, provided theh wretched little schemes were pro moted by electing him.” I call that editorial unfair., It says a good word for Morrissey and then stabs him. If “there were many men like John Morrissey in the lower it “his faults 7OR hundreds of years mariners in the tropic seas have from time to time gathered lumps of a curious sub- stance often found floating on the surface of the witer. This substance i « extremely and opaque, waxy | and of a gray vellowish color, mot- | tled with black. At first the sailors | were ignorant of its origin and, in| (helr superstition, concluded, by rea-| <on of its scarcity and the mystery en- | zin., that it must con- stitute some remedy for human ills.] It was not long, however, before itN‘ real value was determined. [ Ambergris burns with a rather | pleasant, pungent odor, and from time | tmmemorial has been used in sacerdo- | tal rites and ceremonies. Mixed with aromatic gums, it was burned in the palaces of kings, as well as in temples. | Finally, in cutting up the carcasses | of sperm whales, lumps of this curious | gray substance were found in the in-| testines of the mammal. So the mys- ! tery was at last cleared up, and those | who had been swallowing the little | gray pills for various #ilments knew what they had been takine. | Then the chemists began to examine | ambergris. They found that it pos-| sessed certain qualities quite unique. | Its outstanding characteristic is a | pungent, penetrating odor, unlike any | other odor in the world and one that | has never yet been successfully imitat- ed. A fortune s said to await the' | became generally ‘| ABOUT THE VALUE OF AMBERGRIS. chemist who can evolve a scent exact- 1y like that of ambergris, but the prob- ability is that it will never be found. There is incentive enough, however, to keep the chemists busy in this rela tion, since the queer substance is worth its weight in gold twice over. So when a sperm whale is taken and di: posed of, the first thing the crew of the whaler does is to cut open the stomach of the whale to determine whether their prize was healthy or | not, as is indicated by the presence or absence of the lumps of gray mat. ter with black marblings. When it known that the sperm whale might be carrying around hidden in the recesses of its stomach the equivalent of a bundle of high- grade bonds or stocks, a wild rush was made for its haunts. That hunt has resulted in a fearful lessening of the numbers of sperm whales. Since ambergris possesses the strange power of holding or “binding” any scent with which it is mixed, it s now used almost exclusively by man. ufacturers of costly perfumes. It is first dissolved in alcohod. then mingled with the particular substance, giving the desired fragrance, and it becomes permanent to the last drop. The cost and value of a perfume depends on the amount of ambergris it contains The word “ambergri is derived from the French and means “gray am. ber,” as at first it was supposed some to be relaled Lo aniber, Popular With All Classes | forter around his neck and a well worn fur covered his head. He was a perfect pleture of a herculean hackwoodsman. Calling for whisky, he poured a drink that would hav sufficed for two ordinary men. In the meantime McCann and some of his friends were making sarcastic re- marks touching the rusticity of the stranger. Finally the rough-looking man faced around. Morrissey,’ he said. ‘and T am looking for a man named Tom MeCann.’ “The words were scarcelw spoken when McCann was on him like a tiger. The onslaught was so sudden and de- termined that Morrissey was thrown to the floor on his back. McCann over him, hammering his face like a demon. The heavy overcoat hampered Mor rissey, and after striking a few in- effectual blows he deliberately pro- ceeded to get rid of it. McCann kept pounding Morrissey's face from which the blood spurted at every blow. At 15 it necessary that a man shall |ty (¢ overcoat swing a plck himself fn order to want | o his antagonist and Sprang 1o his { just treatment for men who do sWIng | feet, The overcoat was hurled among picks? Might not a_politiclan have | (he ciittering aray of glassware be. wanted to improve by laws the state | hing the bar and the first blow that jof workingmen without taking the | yjcCann received knocked him and the i money out of the treasury, but by get stove to the floor. Zain the | ting it out of employers? it o HEE A S MG * k% & down, scattering live coals from the L. well, let us on with our |Stove in every direction. When M- Knitting, 1 have a leter from | CAND regained his feet the two |y oid friend Charfie Harris, the race 1 writer, which goes with this | T will let you read it: ‘Quoting from vour suggestion | s a chance for a good story of Morrissey’ in your ramble of st 15, [ comply with a yarn of | o early career of the old hero of the | ving and_the congressional chamber. | Among the landmarks of New York ity was the basement saloon on the | southwest _corner Broadway and | Houston street, opened in the early | 40s by a man namecd Florence. Its linterior resembled the ordinary well | fitted up drinking place—a quadrangle | about 30 feet wide and 50 feet deep. paved checker pattern with black and | white marble squares. Entrances were on Broadway and Hous | street, On_the lefihand side from | the Broadway entrance stretched a {long and highly polished mahogany bar, which was ga nished by several heavy silver water pitchers. At the | | vear ‘of the room was an oyster coun- | ter, .the floor being otherwise unob- | structed, except in cold weather, when | | large, old-fashioned coal stove occu—’ | |and vices were of a common kind’ | and “his virtues coarse and che: why wr itorial on his | the ward | “he was politi man, with Horace CGreeley Iden, fought William Tweed and the Tweed ring. Mor rissey was expelled from membership {in the Tammany Society by John Kelly, leader of Tammany, ran for the State Senate as an independent Democrat_in a Tammany district and beat the Tammany nominee. *He had | crude idea that workingmen—with hom he had nothing in common— | e a column e > fis politics of New the tool and shrewder W the public treasu Morrissey wen to work in a pvall-paper factory at years old, worked in a stove foundry for $2.50 a week, was a deck hand on | a steamboat and carried trunks on | his back and then became a long- shoreman before going into the pri | ring. pied the center. “As Florence kept only the best heverages, the place became the re- sort of the higher class of sporting men, who are proverbially good livers. There gathered such men as Ben Pool, ‘Yankee' Sullivan, ‘Toppy’ Mec- | Guire, Tom Hyer, William Dancer, | Johnny Ling and other men uboul’ town. After some years Florence sold out and opened a roadhouse at | Macombs Dam Bridge, and his suc cessor at the Broadway place wi Cale Mitchell. During Mitchell's oc | cupancy of the place, still known as | Florence's, there took place a num- | ber of terrible vough-and-tumble | fight: . 1 “About that time the fame of John | i Morrissey as a hard and desperate | fighter had come down the river to| . New York. Among the proprietors of stands in Washington and Fulton | Markets were a number of men noted | for their prowess as rough fighters. The ‘ace’ of this pack was Tom Mc HORACE ‘My name is John | ve Marrissey threw | who saw the combat described it as pitiful when Morrissey began opera tions on McCann's features. The blows sounded like spatting the sid¢ | of a beef with a broadax. MeCann | made a gallant defense, but there was | no withstanding the sledge hammer | smashes of the Troy man, and Mc Cann had to say ‘enough.’ “The market man was lald up for several weeks, but bore no grudge | becoming one of Morrissey's best | friends. Like John L., John Morris | sey redeemed himself. His great ob. ject in life was to leave an honorable name for his only child, his son John | who died from consumption. | “Morrisse; manly speech upon | his fisst appearance in Congres« ! gained him a legion of friends, and he served his constituents with an un | tarnished record | " Thank you, ¢ lle; it's a good let | ter. Here's a letter from my friend Miss R Mordecal, dated Loufse Home, August 15~ ‘Mrs. John Morrissey among the guests at Grant's inauguration ball” { Was she "the wife of the ‘Benicia Tloy'? When my father was in com mand of the Watervliet Arsenal, West | Troy, In 1857, his father (John Morris sey’s) was foreman of the blacksmith shop, and John was one of the stok ers. He was sent to Benicla Arsenal, California, where he trained in prize fighting, returning in a couple of years GREELY. Photographed by Handy. Cann. Morrissey's reputation as a Knight of the Fives' excited jealousy among the market men and word was | clinched. They were well matched as sent to Troyy through the skipper of | t0 weight, and as they struggled to river boat that if {he iron worker 2nd fro they knocked down every man they bumped into. u wowld come to the city he would meet his master. Not long after, on a bit-| “People rushed in from the street {ter Winter night. a burly young man | to see the battle and the place fairly with ruddy features and curly red hair | sweltered with excited spectators. At stepped up to the Florence bar. He |length the two went to the floor, Mor- wore 2 heavy, closely buttoned over- | rissey on top. Then it was McCann's coat, cowhids booie & woolen com- turn to take a pounding. Old-timers ” - ' !a distinguished fighter. I don't know anything about his wife. Hoping this may interest vou, “Sincerely your “ROSA MORDECAL" | The Rambler has collected a bale of matter bearing on John Morrissey. | and he hopes to gin ft. spin it and weave it inte a story which he will warrant »