National Republican., 1883-03-26
THE MAN ON THE AVENUE.
Small Talk About Men and Measure,

THE MAN ON THE AVENUE.
Small Talk About Men and Measures.
Representative John +. Finerty, the latest
addition to the dynamite brigade, stands six
feet two inches in his stocking feet, and
weighs 230 pounds, having gained forty
pounds since his election to congress. "He is
ono of the most perfect specimens of physical
manhood l ever saw" writes one who knows
him WELL "and ono Of the finest takers in tho
land. He is not garrulous; on the contrary,
being rather slow TO get started, but his
tongue once loosencd, IL is treat to listen to
him, either in social way or in a public
speech. Strange as it may seem, his closest
friend is an Englishman, fellow journalist,
by the name of Samuel Vernon Steele. They
have been intimate for years, and are warmly
attached to one another after careless, Bo-
hemian fashion. Tho Englishman takes
malicious delight once in while in goading
Finerty into furious rage to SEQ him storm.
"You are magnificent when you are in that
mood, me boy" he will say, after regarding
him admiringly during one of his passionate
outbursts, much as an artist studies a terrific
thunder storm, You are superb at times
Keep it up, me boy And Finerty will retort
with half angry, half laughing remark about
the 'dom'd Saxons,' and the waters so recently
lashed into fury will resume their normal
placidity.
"Fincrty, when mere boy, ran away from
Ireland to escape the consequences of some
revolutionary enterprise in which he had
engaged, and after. serving through the
war of the rebellion, and trying, in
company with several other Fenians,
TO wrest Canada from England's
clutch, embarked in the newspaper business.
From the first he had horror of routine
work. apprentice work, as he termed it, and
never missed an opportunity of soldering.
He was sent out one night to do the hotels,
then an important assignment OH the Chicago
papers, but duty he heartily despised. Ho
J met good company and didn't turn up at tho
office until about 2 o'clock in the morning.
Where are those personals, john anx-
iously asked the city editor, as the tall form
of the blood descendent of Irish kings cast a
shadow across his vision.
"' Personals! What personals, sir?
"'The hotel personals you went out after
four or five hours ago?'
Tic nuu lOlROUJcu dDOuU Ine nhUeu nOtel
assignment and the summary way it was re-
called to his memory angered him. Turning
| to the city editor he strai ightened himself up
and with great dignity, said, Nobody came
to town to-day, SIR With that astonishing
declaration he turned ON his heel, and in a
| few days obtained employment on another
paper.
| Finerty went through severalsInd cam
paigns and exposed himself to great personal
danger with the most reckless bravery
When his frontier exploits were referred to
afterward in his presence he would hasten
to explain that the front Of the fight was al
ways the safest place to be in during battle
with Indians, and that he went to the front
to get out of danger.
90
Conversing with friend one day ex-Gov
MagofIn, of Kentucky, said of Tom Marshall
"He was brilliant man, but not the genius
that many have been led to believe him. His
most splendid bursts Of eloquence, which
nearly everybody thought were entirely
spontaneous, were in fact prepared with the
greatest care and rehearsed for days and
weeks. Something would occur to him as
/
bearing OH tho subject he could lay
his hands on and carry them out to hi
mothers farm near Georgetown. There ht
would stay for one, two, or three weeks, ant
perhaps longer, preparing one of his orations
He would saturate himself with facts ant
during long rambles over the fields woult
arrange his Speech going over and over il
with tho greatest care, striking out a sen
tence here adding one there, rounding off {
phrase and polishing up the whole until il
suited him. Then he would drive into Lex
ington and have time with the boys. il
would soon be noised about that Tom Mar
shall was in town and that his friends wer,
trying to persuade him to make speech. HI
would pretend to be very hilarious wher
in point of fact he would be al
most entirely sober, and keenly alive
to the development of tho harmless
little intrigues that was working up for his
benefit. Finally he would find his way into
the courthouse square, and mounting an i'm
provised platform would give rein to his tongue
and deliver an Grafton that would astonisl
and delight the most cultivated audience
in Christendom, an grafton at once beautiful
in language, grand in sentiment, and bearing
evidence in every word and every sentence o
wonderful historical and literary research 4,
those not in the secret these speeches mus
have seemed little less than marvellous, deliv
cred, as they appeared to be, under tho in
spiration of the moment. Not many peopl,
know of this eccentrcity of Marshall's, ant
those who did never cared to break the illusion
by talking of it much during his lifetime
Poor Tom, If he had lived he might hay,
| sInadled down and mnle n grant man