The Irish standard., 1889-06-01
HIS VARYING APPEARANCE.
Graphic Description OF the Great Irish
Leader, Charles Stewart
Parnell.
HIS DRESS AT VARIOUS PERIODS

M1nutely Described-aow He Appeare
As He Stood in the Witness
Under date of May l, Mr.. T.P. O'Con
nor, Nj. F., wrote the following letter Il
the New York World, which printed il
in its issue Of May 13:
have been for the last two DAYS il
the commission court listening to the
examination of Mr. Parnell. The oc
casion was intensely interesting, and |
dare say your readers will like to have
a description of its chief incidents
Parnell is a man whose appearance
changes very frequently. There are
times when he looks positively old and
shrunken, shabby and slovenly. He is
usually very careless about his clothes.
There are those who remember him
when he entered the Irish party only
fourteen years ago as a young man OF
fashion. Butt he eyer began that way
he soon left it off.
He had not been in the house of com
mons long when he began the policy of
obstruction, and that policy required
study by day and stopping up all night,
andAnder the pressure Of that terrible
bard work care for dress had to disap-
pear. remember once seeing him in
London during this period, and I was
very much struck with the extraordin-
ary character Of his attire. He had a
short shooting jacket made of coarse
Irish frieze. and he carried big black
! thorn stick III his hand. He looked for
all the world like a young and innocent
farmer from the country, who had
strayed into London, ,and who would fall
an easy victim to the first confidence
trick man that tempted him. This era
passed away aud he took to wearing
the long frock coat which nearly every
member of parliament wears in Eng
land. These coats he has ever since
worn. and nearly always till they were
tbreadbare even to shininess. His hats,
too, have competed with those OF Mr.
Biggar as being the most napless and
shapeless in the house Of commons. OF
recent years this tendency to bad clothes
has increased, and especially since his
illness. Mr.. Parnell has taken to an
attire that represented the timid anxi-
ETY. of old age for comfortable as distin'
guished from neat artire. Especially
has this been the case with his waist
coats, which are Of some fluffy material
like the skin of some animal, or have
been made Of rough brown worsted,
and always are two inches too long.
You would scarcely recognize the man
who stepped into the box yesterday as
the person whom have just faithfully
described. In the first place, he was
dressed with extreme care-in frock
coat beautifully made, Citing tightly to
the body, and evidently fresh from the
tailor's hands. He had on broad black
satin tie, and in this tie was pearl pin.
a pin that Mr.. Parnell has worn for
years. He had one ring on his finger
a signet ring-having discarded a large
cats eye which he used to wear some
time ago. His hair was short; bis beard
was carefully trimmed, and altogether
he looked smart, crisp and we'll groomed.
Bot his physical condition was even
more changed. The body is still very
slight i'll comparison with what it used
to be, and the tight-dtting coat brought
out the sliehtness still more. The
cheeks, too. had not the tullness of for
mer years. But, on the other hand,
there was none Of the hollowness Of a
few months ago. The color was sub
dued, as it always has been, but it was
healthy, and, above all, there was that
III his eye which showed returning, if
not returned, health, and still more
high spirits and complete self conf
dence. The face of Mr.. Parnell Is, next
to Mr.. Gladstone's tine, most striking
and handsome in the House Of Com
mons. All the features are beautifully
chiseled, especially the mouth. The
forehead is also singularly beautiful. 1t
is almost perfectly round; its lines are
very delicate: there are just one or two
wrinkles, sufficient to Indicate life Of
thought and anxiety, but not sufficient
to detract from the smoothness OF its
perfect symm etry; and the thinness of
the hair adds to it's height and impress
siveness. It is very like the head of
Napoleon when ne was young, and be-
fore his face, like the rest Of him, had
become podgy.
An even more striking feature of Mr..
Parnell's face is his eyes. They are not
very large, but there is a strange gilt
ter in them that would make the face
noticeable and uuforgeGtable wherever
seen. TneY are of a color it is rather
hard to describe or classify. / once