Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-04
The BOulogne Meeting Held in Rotel Not
Calculated to Withstand the Icy
Blasts of Winter, and
eBRIEN BLAMED IN CONSEQUENCE.
Be Also Charged With Deception snd Is Said to Hsvs
Proved Plsything in the Hands
Of Psrnsn
TEE LATTER SHOWS his AsTUTENEss
tBr CABLE TO THE DISPATCH

LONDON, JAN 3.-[Copyrighted. 1.-THE
vacancy in the representation Of Hartlepool,
caused BY the death Of the Unionist mem
Der, Richardson, will be keenly contested
by both parties. The result will be of ex-
ceptional Importance. as 1t will prove in
what degree Parnell's conduct and the Irish
dissensions have affected the English cleo
torate. The Bassetlaw election afforded no
year of the home rule split in the Liberal
party. Richardson was elected In 1885 as q
Liberal, by majority of over 1000. In
1856 he deserted Gladstone, but was re-
elected BY tbs help of the Tories and of ], 200
Liberal seceders, of whom about half voted
for him and the other half kept away from
the polls.
Judged by experience, had this election
taken place before the O'Shea divorce trial,
the conversion of the d;ssentient Liberals
would have secured the defeat of the Tories,
probably by 200 majority. A Liberal VIC.
tory now seems to be out of the question,
and speculation is confined to the,Tory-
Unionist majority, which is variously esti-
mated at from 800 to 200. In 1886 1t was
el2.
A Frigid Place of Meeting.
Why O'Brien and Parnell chose Bou-
logne as the place of conference regarding
the leadership of the Irish party it is Diff
. y
desolate rendezvous can be imagined. On
the day of the conference the thermometer
was near zero, and as the Hotel du Louvre,
where the two leaders met, is, like all other
Boulogne hotels, constructed with refer
ence to summer occupation, it was real
hardship to remain so long as "a hours.
The water froze in the pitchers in all the
bedrooms, end the patriots were compelled
10 pile overcoats, travelling rugs and even
their dav clothes upon the BEDS in order to
be comfortable at night At breakfast it
was necessary to move the tables up to the
fireplace in the coffee room that warmth
might thaw the numbness in their fingers
sufficiently to ply knives and forks.
The same day a mail carrier on the
opposite side of the channel, where the cold
was no more severe, froze TO death while
driving between Canterbury and Dover.
O'Brien's conduct with regard to the place
OF the conference has not been calculated to
popularize him with the newspaper men. IF
lying for ones country is diplomacy; he is a
diplomat
O,Rrien Cbaroed With Donbla- Da,r;,r
On Sunday he said, at the residence of
Hermann Raffalovitch, 0'Brien's father-in-
law, in the presence of 7. P. Gill, that he
would keep the reporters in nformed as to the
time and place of the conference. "Don't
worry about it at all, " he said in his most
genial manner; 'I will let you know in
plenty OF time SO that you shall be informed
about it"
On Tuesday afternoon he was met about
6 o'clock in the Boulevard des Capucenes,
walking with Mrs. O'Brien and his fidus
achates, Gill. Nothing has been settled
about the conference as vel" be said; "but
shall inform you in plenty of time to
obtain the result" The same evening at
o'clock he and Gill left Paris for Boulogne
to meet Parnell.
O'Brien has told the same thing to all the
horde of English and American newspaper
men in Paris. He had even made appoint
ments with several for the next day, in order
TO throw them off the track. The concierge
al the Rafalovitch mansion on Wednesday
told the reporters who called various stories.
To some she said O'Brien was sick in bed;
to others that he was engaged in writing
letters, and to some that he was driving in
the Bois.
A Reporter Sounds the Alarm.
One English reporter, however. knew
o'Brien of old, and waited at the Care du
NOrd to see if he would leave Paris. The
reporter caught him leaving with Gill at 8
O'Clock Tuesday night and promptly spread
the alarm, so that the journalistic profession
was in it at Boulogne when O'Brien and
Parnell met. O'Brien proved himself a
baby in ParnelI's hands, and ParneU
showed all his old astuteness and general
ship. In the first place he tickled his
vanity and half won him over to his side at
the outset.
The mere fact of negotiations between
O'Brien ami Parnell is bewiIdering TO the
Irish voter, who has been told SO repeatedly
OF late that peace with Parnell is impossible
under any conditions. Then Parnell's offer
to retire if O'Brien were appointed leader.
was clever move. O'Brien took it as a
compliment to his own abilities, but Parnell
knew that ii O'Brien or his friends put this
forward, ii would only still further divide
the McCarthyites