a rascal with a nice name

[George Thompson]

        [Edward Gallagher, about 50, recently sent to the Pen for stealing, dies there; "a famous depredator in a small way, and withal a great wag"]
        Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, April 28, 1843, p. 2, col. 4; New York Herald, April 27, 1843, p. 2, col. 3;
        On Wednesday, while the Coroner was holding an inquest at Blackwell's Island on the body of Ned Dougherty [sic], known as "Poverty parts friends,". . . .
        NY Herald, April 28, 1843, p. 1, col. 6;
        ***  The deceased, who had assumed the soubriquet of “Poverty Parts Good Company,” was somewhat distinguished in his day as a drunkard, a wit, and occasionally as a thief upon a small scale. . . .  ***
        New-York Daily Tribune, April 28, 1843, p. 2, col. 6

Poor Ned. There were worse people in New York in his day.  I surmise that he was an Irish rascal, and wonder whether the discrepancy as to his soubriquet arose from it having been in fact in Irish.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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