FlamingText

Molly B'Dam: Part I

   For an Irish girl stepping off the boat in New York in 1873 there weren’t a lot of options. Across the sea it may have been billed as the Land of Opportunity and from afar maybe that’s how it appeared, but the truth of the matter is Maggie Hall would almost certainly have had a far less trying life if she’d stayed in Dublin and married a nice local lad. Her parents were well-off enough to provide her with a decent education, and she was by all acounts whip-smart, possessed of boundless enthusiasm and flat-out stunning to boot. There’s every reason to believe that had she stayed she could have enjoyed a comfortable life there, but of course such speculation is neither here nor there; If she’d stayed her story would never have made its way into history and the legendary Molly B’Dam would have never existed at all.

   Successive waves of immigration filled the boroughs of New York with great teeming throngs from the Isles as well as the continent, and the overwhelming majority of the newcomers shared a common experience; Namely, that the gold-paved avenues in the Land of Opportunity, tales of which had drawn them there from the four corners, were in short supply in New York City. What they found instead was a forbidding new home that treated its newest arrivals with a mix of xenophobic suspicion and open contempt and relegated them to only the most menial of positions. The Irish were commonly regarded as sub-human and shunted into squalid immigrant ghettoes. So it’s likely that the relentlessly optimistic adventurer Maggie Hall anticipated a more auspicious welcome than she in fact received. But even so she was prepared to adapt to her new circumstances --after all, brains, looks and talent can take a girl far. Or so it is often said. In her case they took her to a place where countless other bright, talented young women had preceded her: Serving drinks in a crowded barroom. Making the rounds in a rough Manhattan drinking establishment she nightly received marriage proposals from her inebriated customers which she shrugged off with charm and aplomb, as well as innumerable less seemly proposals which received a noticeably chillier reception. But when one night a handsome upper class gentleman by the name of Burdan walked into her barroom and took an immediate shine to her, she was smitten.

   Burdan had all the makings of a Prince Charming, a storybook ending to Maggie’s bold sojourn to the New World to seek her fortune, and after three meetings he proposed and Maggie said yes. All her dreams fulfilled! Practically fresh off the boat and Maggie had married her way into the upper classes. A lifetime of love and moneyed contentment beckoned. The sky burst forth with sunbeams and rainbows as a host of adorable pink-cheeked cherubs unfurled a bright red banner emblazoned with “And they lived happily ever after….”

   However when for some reason her husband insisted on a simple civil ceremony performed by a justice of the peace, Maggie was disappointed. She had always pictured a big, grand wedding held in a Catholic church, but even so her disappointment did not dim her love for the man who had rescued her from a life of drudgery serving ale to drunken laborers. When her husband requested she change her name from the conspicously Irish Maggie to the more respectable Molly she did so without complaint. When he shortly thereafter explained that in order for him to continue receiving a regular allowance from Father it would be necessary to keep their marriage a secret, she began to suspect that something might be amiss with her newly-minted marriage, but still she resolved to follow the Church’s dictates and remain obedient to her husband’s wishes, entrusting her fate to him and to Providence. And when it became clear that Burdan had no intention of changing his habit of drinking and gambling late into the night and wee hours of the morning she didn’t question. After all, the wealthy have odd ways, and what wife doesn't put up with some annoying behavior?

   A few months later his parents discovered their son’s secret marriage to an Irish barmaid and summarily cut him off. This was to be the first signal of the troubles that lay in store for Maggie Hall. In spite of the fact that he was no longer technically rich Burdan showed no signs of slackening his spendthrift ways, and within a few months he had run up some large gambling debts and was in imminent danger of having his legs broken by large, unfriendly men. Having never worked a day in his life, Burdan began casting around for alternative sources of income, and after several of his wealthy poker buddies to whom he was indebted began to comment with growing insistency on how appealing they found his blonde, buxom wife the solution came to him as if in a vision. When at last he shared his vision with his young wife it may well be that tears were shed, but if so then tears did not dissuade him.

   And here Maggie found herself in a severe quandary, because being a devout Catholic it was her sworn duty to defer to her husband’s judgment in all matters, yet it was also clear that what he was asking of her constituted a grave sin within her faith. Still, she eventually relented and upon so doing her husband began a new career as her pimp. He still had many wealthy friends and his young wife was very lovely, so it proved to be a lucrative undertaking and Burdan was able to continue unabated in two of his favorite pastimes: Playing cards and walking without crutches.

   Like many a troubled soul before her Maggie sought solace and guidance in the arms of the church, but upon hearing her tale of woe her shocked confessor delivered her an ultimatum: There could be no forgiveness for a sin as grievous as this, and she must discontinue her whoring and repent of it at once or face excommunication. But of course divorce was also not an option and there was that matter of the wife’s obedience to the husband, who was in all matters decreed by God to be the head of the household. So to the balance of her dilemma she could now add the disposition of her immortal soul. And yet there didn’t seem to be any way out. Without any means of escaping or ameliorating the situation she returned to her husband and continued to accede to his wishes, and on her next trip to the confessional she found herself excommunicated from the Church.

Read Molly B'Dam Pt II

Posted by flamingbanjo at August 17, 2006 10:42 PM