The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-03-09
PORTRAIT OF A PATRIOT.
Pen and InI, Sketch of John Mitchell by
John Augustus Shea, in Dublin
Freeman.
He PAINTED FOR ACTION
And Rejoiced in the Shock and Flame Of
Combat His Sincerity and Uncom-
promising Love Of Country.


promising Love Of Country.
It il difficult to give such D personal
description Of John Mitche! as will set
him before the reader in recognizable
silniltude. The faculty of rendering a
vivid and faithful portrait in a few bold
touches is rare and restricted to writer's
OF genius like Ruskin or Michelet. A.
stroke OF the Informed pencil is worth
e. labored page with ths pen. He was
tall, gaunt. and dark as five men out OF
every lf;Y may be, and in bis saturnine
face there was nc peculiarity that
would fix Itself, o,I the memory. There
are some faces which once seen can
nevere he forgotten, Not 50 his. 1t
had to be studied before assurance
couid be felt that one could Identify it
again in q crowd. Eyes grey and pjerc-
ing, features buny aud sal !Ow, coated
With q faint ur'ber from exposure,
checks high, chin determined. Whiskers
short and grjZZ'ed> moustache thick
slch are the ,lasty notes find by ma of
al attempt at a photograph Of the man
as l SEW him. In his youth he must
have bean powerful Of physique, and
even then, worn as be WAS by durarce
and sorrow and q most awful malady~
nnne can realize what the agonies as
thrna axe but those that have experience
ed then-he had the appearance OF one
whom it would not be Safe TO insult. q
tough antagonist, deficient neither in
biceps or pluck. But though strong ne
was not quarrelsome. / never saw him
out OF tenper---I should not have liked
TO see him SO. fIe spoke slowly and
with q precise enunciation, bringing
ont his words with Az nnden!ab|e Uls-
tel emphasis, yet act SO marked that
aNyucdy but 3 born Irishlnan would
distinguish it, Ills e-~and the
nose is q trait not TO be overlooked
YVES of the straight, long strenuou
shape, but WAS diSfiguret to the extent
of being put slightly awry by a bow
received in falling timber in Tennessee
before he had picked out the gift Of
welding an ga Still, though no sd
diticn to his presence in q picture, it
did ns>t l|t.tract from his commanding,
dignilied countenance, foot 10 foot.
did anything great. There are excep-
tions OF course, but as general rr1le
those With thin noses are crue! or grip
ing. and those with cooked noses are
pe:ulnnt or conceitad. When reading,
Mitchell looked close]y at the paper, as
Il short sighted; but about this there
was "a peculiarity Of which Mr.. William
Dillon in has excellent biography seems
to have been ignorant. With his right
eye he read. with his left he scanned
distant objects; he had one for the
closet ant: one FOR society, for the sim
pie and very good reason that they were
CT different fnei. There was a fanatic
astronomer once--Was it Lap|ace ?--wh0
reserved one Of bis eyes for the obser-
vation Of the starry bodies, and with
the other discharged his sublunar con-
cerns; and 1t has sometimes struck me
that it it were possible for an enterpris-
ing opticlan to register some patent OF
visual formation Of the kind, without
the disagree, able hint of strabismus
it would be ahappg consummation, and
for the patentee a perfect mine Of
wealth. tt WAS not easy to excite
Mitche!'s risiule organs; the joke HAD
need be genuine and quick that reused
his laugh, and when he did laugh, what
q laugh it was Rather might have it
been termed a savage but more enjoy
able chuckle than any conventional
form OF gutfaw, q laugh all to himself,
after the fashion OF the Red Indians.
When he frowned u1der the penthouse
of his brows, there was an awful brood
ing electric force. One could divine
that it would soon leap from cloud
blackness to burning, blazing activity
in his charged and murky mood of pas
sion.
am shy to essay observations, least
of all critical observations, on Mitchel;s
literary style-it would be merest inn
pertinence on my part--and, besides,
the best way to frame an opinion on
great writer is not to- take it cut and
dry from self appointed connoisseurs,
who may be incompetent or enyious,
but to search}f out in his volumes.
Therearetea tasters and winetasters; but
it should not be forgotten that there are
such things as pa!ates-and they vary.
On some the m0staromatic flavor would
be lost. Like the dissipated car driver,
they relish only the hisky that clutch
;;essthem by the throat as it, goes down
AND herily assert Itselff: % stud dying