The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-03-02
JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY
Sketch Of the Distinguished Poet
and Journalist.
a MOST ROMANTIC STORY.
A Career SURPRISING the widest FiieAss
Of Fancy-ro visit Seattle During
the Current Mensh.

fARTlm fatners tnat ner people mad been
erecting for thirty years. The ceremony
VAS magnificent. distinguished and Illus
trious men had gathered from far and
near. state and national governments were
represented. and the chief magistrate of
the United States graced ii by his pres
ence. The siiver-songued orator OF the
South, Breckenridge. of Kentucky. was
chosen to deliver and did deliver . panegyric
on the Fathers worthy Of them and worthy
of America The occasion was q memoir
able one. and when New England looked
around for . great poet 10 build the lofty
rhyme and to sing IN imperishahle verse
the giories of its heroic founders she saw
one man fitted beyond all others for the
task and that man was John Boyle
0'Reilly. 0sReiiiy was born in land for
which the Pilgrim Fathers nourished .
feeling Of pity if no. contempt Over his
head was still hanging the sentence OF the
British court, which twenty-four years be-
fore consigned him to . felon's grave. In
creed and caste he was the antithesis of
the men whose praises be was asked to
sing. and the people of New England knew
it. But they trusted him. and it was well :.
for o Reilly has enshrincd the praises OF
the Fathers in an ode OF wondrous beauty.
strength and power. and has built them
the most enduring monument that has set
been raised to the memory OF New Eng
lands iiiustrious prosenitors.
Dumas in his widest flight of fancy
story of O. Reiliy's liie Still in the very
prime OF lie, of superb physique, and Of
robust health, the handsome, facinating
-
Tor another ideal Dumas. The dark light
Of those strange. iustrous eyes. and the
tones Of that rich, melodious voice draw to
O'Reilly the hearts of men.
John Boyle O'Riellv was born in June.
ls44. on the banks of the Boyne. in Ireland.
His name 10 indicative of his Celtic origin.
and those that viii judge him as a poet and
q man must go back to his childhood for
the well-spring of his genius and his ad-
venturous career. Born in . country as
lovely ~ poets dream, beside a river
whose shores were lined with monuments
OF Ireland's giories, wreck and ruin. In his
childhood o Reilly breathed an atmosphere
charged with overwhelming hatred for
the oppressors of his native land. The ivy
clad ruins of schools and churches spoke
70 him Of the far times when the great Bede
painted Ireland as the home OF sages and
scholars; of those distant ages when the
Sax0A and the Frank and the German
made pilgrimages TO Ireland in pursuit Of
knowledge. and obtained it
The dilapidated Roman castles and the
monument to the Dutchman Scomberg,
beside the spot where William of Orange
whipped the last Stewart king. told him Of
that long night of wrong and oppression
which . strong people committed against .
weaker. The ruined walls and the market
square OF the neighboring town of Droghe-
da recalled the terrible crime of Cromwell
when he babe his soldiers outrage and kill
defenscless Irish maidens. and thanked
God when his monstrous followers spitted
the Irish children upon their bsyonets.
We live in an age and . country where
such things are impossible. where fanati.
cism and race hatred are happily dying. in
q land where Celt and Saxon and Frank
and Teuton have met and co-mingled, and
where their children have loved and
welded. but O'Reilly was born
and nurtured in land where
the biighting curse OF medieval
feudalism was in full swing. His earliest
years were narrowed with the groans Of
nuHuISuA III tuOuSdu0S WuO Alcu nukl-
ger in land as fruitful ~ q mothers love.
The cabins around him were deserted. for
the people were flying TO foreign shores
from plague-stricken Ireland, and the
graveyards we're growing fat with the
corpses of those that could not fee. He
was told. too. how MephistopheIes, like the
English press. gloated over the ruin which
English policy had brought about, and the
natural sweetness and nobility of that
young heart Was turned into gall and bit
tsrness. In recalling such things IL Is not
my object 70 revive bitter memories. Race
prejudice has long since died in me, killed
by long study and worldwide experience,
and pity those Who are slaves TO it just Is
grieye for disease In Q friend. But want
10 place o Reilly in his true light l want
to have him viewed through the influences
that shaped and fashioned the bent Of his
genius and the current OF his life. want
10 tell the whole truth. and when have
told il do not suppose that there is true
American who reads this sketch but viii
share the admiration which feel for John
Bowie O'Reilly. His school DAYS we're
spent under an Irish village schoolmaster.
one OF those rare compounds described by
Goldsmith and Carleton IL was from his
father. In his own home. that O'Reiiy im-
bibed a taste for literature His father.
however. had not the means 70 promote
bis intellectual bent and young Reilly
had to embrace the trade OF type-setter 10
procure livelihood and 70 obtain means
OF self-improvemens Having worked In
the composing room of the Drogheda Arvss,
be secured work in the Trssh Tim<s ONCE, OF
Dublin. whence he went to England Dur
ing this time he had improved his literary
knowledge considerably. and be soon OBJ
tained work as . reporter. He Was not yet
~ when events occurred that made him
live a lifetime in q lev years The
American civil war had Just con-
Guided and over hundred thou
sani veteran Irish soldiers we're thinking
of some means by which TO Transport them
selves TO Ireland and ~ one stroke break
TIE chain that he'd their birth-land u
slavery. The young men OF Ireland. 81
most 10 q man. were handed together IN
rrepzraiion for some great nnA struggle
for liberty and o Reilly shared n their en-
tAussasslc hopes. A sudten inpaise seized
him, be would don the uniform OF ise
English soldier and learn N the ranks The
art OF war that be might Afterwards use u
against the heredifarv enemy Ct his race
He icsnei the Tenth Enrrars. com msnted
be CooaeI Baker, and IN few months he
became the hero aad idol OF one Of the
crack cavalrv regiments OF Crest Britain
BGz the gay, leht-nsa<tei facznating young
trooper was ~ the same sssne q dark Goa
suirztc- and he soon enrolled every irisa-
man in TIE regiment ~ enthusiastic fsai-
En~ a.. raryzxx-s In thss nsFxr no