George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 184 George & A Tribute To Mr Murphy And The Blue Ribbon Army

Anyone interested in George and his carefully stage-managed web of relationships will wonder what the heck was going on when he hooked up with Eduard Bertz, his German man-wife and long-time correspondent. It is worth starting out with the knowledge that they met after Eduard placed a lonely hearts ad in a newspaper and George saw it and responded. It was 1879 - George was 22, Bertz was four years older and in exile from his native Germany for being a political activist for the wrong side. Though there seems to be no written record of either the ad or the correspondence it elicited, this is how a similar fictional account is depicted in 'The Unclassed' (1883/4) as a device for bringing together Osmund Waymark (Man of the World) and Julian Casti (Ingénue):

'Wanted, human companionship. A young man of four-and-twenty wishes to find a congenial associate of about his own age. He is a student of ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a lover of art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism. Would like to correspond in the first instance. Address O. W., City News Rooms, W.C.' (Note: WC means a West Central London district, not a water closet!)

Of course, Eduard’s ad was probably cloaked in similar faux intellectual claptrap about lonely single man seeks intellectual equals to discuss Socialism and similar nerdy stuff, but Eduard was a closet gay man at a time when the contributory bases responsible for gender were being explored, and there were few ways for gay men to meet similar types in a place where a man could be tripped up over failings in his knowledge of the social mores of the new country. 

by Tom of Finland

Morley Roberts, that most unreliable of memoirists and sometime contributor to the creation of George’s legend (there are quite a few of those haha), claimed Marianne aka Nell didn’t much like Bertz, and resented the friendship between the two men, but as Roberts never met Nell in person, his views are invalid; after all, how could he possibly know what she thought about anything if he had never discussed events with her? Maybe she was one of those women gifted with the infamous sense known as ‘gaydar’ – the ability to spot a gay man at a thousand paces – and knew dopey George would not have worked it out himself; perhaps she sensed something in George that might have wholeheartedly responded positively to homosexual advances, and she feared for her marriage, and, by extension, her financial security. Perhaps Eduard treated her like an inferior and made her feel uncomfortable. Maybe she just didn’t like him. Maybe she and Eduard got on like a house on fire and George got so jealous he told Morley Roberts a lie about what she thought of the German, as an act of revenge. Who knows? The story of it is usually told by biographers to make it look like Nell was a jealous fiend who ruined all George’s chances of socialising, even of making a Man Friend, so make your own judgement.

Pledge designed by Walter Crane ( 1845-1915)

Incapable of what might be seen as intimate relationships – that is, liaisons that brought him emotional closeness – George maintained his friendship with Eduard for over twenty years, mainly because they spent very little of that time actually enjoying face-to-face contact. Theirs was a love match shared in the many letters in which George presents his most reasoned and rational persona, but also his most anodyne, and most censored one. No confessions of wife abuse, offspring abandoning, syphilis, or the torment he visited upon his second wife. No talk of the cruel abandoning of his first wife, or his shameless exploitation of his third or the hate campaign he conducted towards his second. Nothing but carefully edited highlights reflecting well on George in his role of the put upon husband, undiscovered literary national treasure and all-round martyr. 

Francis Murphy cabinet card

It would be easy to misread the length of their friendship as a sign of a meeting of equals, or even of a meeting of minds, but George told Gabrielle Fleury that Bertz did not understand him, and that he did not feel their relationship was particularly close or simpatico. Of course, George never said this to Eduard's face, and the letters they wrote each other give no indication that George did not welcome and value feedback from his German friend, or ask for that dreaded catnip he was so addicted to – sympathy – which Eduard gave freely, always offering consolation to George for some complained of annoyance or setback. George returned the favour and encouraged the somewhat depressive Bertz when life got him down, and praised his endeavours and achievements. 

Cheers!

One interesting chapter in Eduard's life occurred not long after his June 1883 return to London from the Rugby Settlement (see See Commonplace 8 for more on this). In a letter to his brother Algernon (September 2nd 1883) George writes: I could tell a sad story about poor Bertz. To my amazement he has drifted over to the religious revivalists, has joined Blue Ribbon Army, Young Men's Christian Association, and I know not what. He spends his days & nights at Salvation Army meetings, & the like. Whether this means weakening of the brain, I can't say; I stand & marvel but protest has been in vain. 

So, who do we have to thank for The Blue Ribbon Army? Francis Murphy (1836-1907), that's who. He was an Irish immigrant to the US who started his own Evangelical Temperance Movement taking the blue ribbon motif from a verse in the Old Testament Bible: Numbers 15:38-39: Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them. He toured extensively in the States, Australia and Europe, and maybe Eduard went to a Temperance meeting when he lived in the Rugby Colony in Tennessee from 1881-3. 

Meetings of the BRA generally included food and hot beverages (such as tea from packets as above at 6d a quarter pound), whilst providing a community focal point with opportunities to socialise and give and receive support, with all areas of life covered by a web of helpers and enablers. There was also a chance to worship in the Evangelical tradition, with singing and prayer added to well-received testaments to sobriety. Here is a taster of what was on offer: 

THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE IN DUNDEE

Last night a farewell tea meeting was held with Mr Francis Murphy, the American Apostle of Temperance, who has during the last five weeks, in conjunction with the temperance party, carried on a gospel temperance crusade in Dundee. The meeting was held in the drill hall, where upwards of 3000 persons partook of tea. A choir of over 100 voices led the singing of hymns. Provost Moncur occupied the chair, and on the platform were many clergymen and others. Mr Murphy leaves Dundee for Manchester, where he is to begin a crusade. In the course of his address, the Provost, on behalf of the Executive Council, presented Mr Murphy with an address, expressing their deep sense of indebtedness to God for having directed Mr Murphy to Dundee, and their gratitude to Mr Murphy for his extraordinary labours, which had bean unparalleled in result. The committee also recorded that during the campaign of a month, 32,000 persons had taken the pledge of abstinence, and at least 40,000 had donned the “blue ribbon” badge of union in the work. Mr Murphy, in acknowledging the address, expressed his sincere gratitude for the manner in which he had been assisted in his work, and for the very great kindness he had experienced . He promised, if spared, to return to Dundee after his work in Manchester was finished, and to carry on the work until it was finished. Speeches were delivered by various gentlemen.

A Dundee Newspaper, 30th January 1882

Eduard may have made use of the wider remit of the Blue Ribbon lot offering beds for the homeless, which would be invaluable to a man with few contacts and friends returning to London from the States. He didn't stay in England for long. After a brief spell of real poverty, he eventually found work at the British Library (he'd worked in the Rugby settlement as a librarian) which provided him with the means to try his hand at children's fiction, producing 'The French Prisoners: A Story For Boys', published in 1884 and available here for free click. Bertz finally returned to Germany in early 1884, when it was safe to come home from exile, and remained there until his death in Potsdam in 1931. 

To find out more about The Blue Ribbon Army click

The Blue Ribbon Army is celebrated in the memorable poem by the mighty William McGonagall:

A Tribute to Mr Murphy and the Blue Ribbon Army

All hail to Mr Murphy, he is a hero brave,
That has crossed the mighty Atlantic wave,
For what purpose let me pause and think-
I answer, to warn the people not to taste strong drink.

And, I’m sure, if they take his advice, they never will rue
The day they joined the Blue Ribbon Army in the year 1882;
And I hope to their colours they will always prove true,
And shout, Hurrah ! for Mr Murphy and the Ribbon of Blue.

What is strong drink? Let me think– I answer ’tis a thing
From whence the majority of evils spring,
And causes many a fireside with boisterous talk to ring,
And leaves behind it a deadly sting.

Some people do say it is good when taken in moderation,
But, when taken to excess, it leads to tribulation,
Also to starvation and loss of reputation,
Likewise your eternal soul’s damnation.

The drunkard, he says he can’t give it up,
For I must confess temptation’s in the cup;
But he wishes to God it was banished from the land,
While he holds the cup in his trembling hand.

And he exclaims in the agony of his soul –
Oh, God, I cannot myself control
From this most accurs’d cup!
Oh, help me, God, to give it up!

Strong drink to the body can do no good;
It defiles the blood, likewise the food,
And causes the drunkard with pain to groan,
Because it extracts the marrow from the bone:

And hastens him on to a premature grave,
Because to the cup he is bound a slave;
For the temptation is hard to thole,
And by it he will lose his immortal soul.

The more’s the pity, I must say,
That so many men and women are by it led astray,
And decoyed from the paths of virtue and led on to vice
By drinking too much alcohol and acting unwise.

Good people all, of every degree,
I pray, ye all be warned by me:
I advise ye all to pause and think,
And never more to taste strong drink.

Because the drunkard shall never inherit the kingdom of God
And whosoever God loves he chastens with his rod:
Therefore, be warned, and think in time,
And don’t drink any more whisky, rum, or wine.

But go at once– make no delay,
And join the Blue Ribbon Army without dismay,
And rally round Mr Murphy, and make a bold stand,
And help to drive the Bane of Society from our land.

I wish Mr Murphy every success,
Hoping he will make rapid progress;
And to the Blue Ribbon Army may he always prove true,
And adhere to his colours– the beautiful blue.