KinSource - Tale of the Week - Two Ungrateful Sons In The Police Court

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, June 4, 1880, p. 2

Two Ungrateful Sons in the Police Court

When the immortal bard illustrated the sin of ingratitude by making King Lear cry out the famous anathema against a thankless child he must have copied the pitiful picture direct from nature. Well might the poor, shelterless, blind old king lift up his sealed gaze to heaven and exclaim, thrice more gentle in the serpent's fang than the tooth of the thankless child. The crime of ingratitude, quite as repulsive as that visited upon Lear was illustrated in the police court yesterday morning.

Day before yesterday a warrant was sworn out by John Murphy, senior, for the arrest of his two sons David and John Murphy, junior, on the charge of assault and battery. The parties were before Judge Flint yesterday morning. The complainant witness is an aged man whose sands of life are almost down to the brink of dissolution. His sons are now grown, in the prime of life and hardy with youth and strength.

As related by the witnesses the story is too sickening for detail, exposing as it does the horrid skeleton of a most wretched and unhappy home. The old man falteringly testified that night and day he is persistently persecuted by the boys, who have subjected him in every species of humilitation and threatened to take his life. The defendants attempted to justify their shameful conduct.

The defendant, John Murphy stated that there would be murder if they were compelled to live together, when the court ironically suggested that there was nothing to prevent them leaving the old man's residence and finding a home of their own. The parties were put under bail to keep the peace for six months in the sum of $100 each. The boys refused to sign the bail bond, when the court ordered their commitment which brought them to time.