The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-03-04
MCCARTHY.
Character Sketch of the Irish
Parliamentary Leader by one
Of His Colleagues.
HIS CAREER IN LITERATURE.

He Detests Afectation or Manner
ism, and is One Of the Easiest
Of Modern Writers.
II have often won lered," said Mr.. Nc
Carthy to Sir George Trevelyan when
that exquisite writer and good hearted
and kind f. low was dogged by detectives
in the heart Of the Irish storm, "why you
have ever bothered yourself with politi-
cal Hfo." "Do you know" replied Sir
Ga"rge Trevelyan, "that's question /
often aek myself about you?"
! Justin Mccarthy is a litterateur to his
finger tips, says T. P. O'Connor in the
Westminster Gazette. His happiest
hours are those which he spends at his
Remington typewriter, especially if the
work he is engaged i'll be fiction. had
occasion to visit him last Christmas Day
and as l approached his study heard
the click of the machine. ''And this,'' I
said, "is how you are spending your
Christmas Dayv' "And not bad way
either" replied that cheerful writer.
There are many well-read men in the
House of Commons; doubt if there is
one who has read so various]y as MIR.
MCCARTHY. Unlike other men of creative
fancy, he has an extraordinary memory
for what others have written. If in the
course of preparing your impromptus
against malignant minister, some faint
recollection comes back to your mind of
a quotation that might be apt, you have
only to so to Justin MCCARTHY, and from
out the infinite depths of his extraerdin-
ary memory that passage comes up inn
mediately- to the last syllable
He has good reading acquaintance with
| four or five languages; at one time he
never passed day without reading
Greek for half an hour Or so and even
ROW, after all the distractions of the last
few years, he can read it probably as we'll
as Mr.. Gladstone.
And yet even in literature Mr. McCar-
thy has not done as he would have done.
The eternal drive of journalistic life first
left him but the odds and ends of time
to write his works of fiction; and then
came the storm and stress of public life
to still further curtail his opportunities,
with the result that he has sometimes
longed for good years vacation in
which he might write a book after his
own heart, which might not be just what
the publishers wanted, but which would
answer bis highest ideals. As it is known,
I am not a great believer in slow work
the glow and excitement of rapid compo-
sition often make up for what is lacking
in polish and smoothness; and some of
the things Mr.. Mccarthy has written in
the very storm and fury of work are as
good, I believe, as he can do. For in
stance, t'the Comet of Season" in my
opinion, the very best of his works Of fic-
tion up to the present, was written at a
time when he was pressed with labor of
all kinds from all sides.
! He has had a life of hard struggle al
nost from the start. There is homely
proverb which gives each province what
is supposed to be it's especial character
istic; and Munster, the province of JUS
tin Mccarthy, gets credit for learning.
It is certain that Cork always has made
specially excellent schools, particularly
for the study of the classics; and though
Justin MCCARTHY came from people who
were not rich, he came from cultivated
family that gave him full opportunities
of an excellent education. He had to
start at the lowest rung of the ladder as
a shorthand writer. He learned some
good old system that belongs to the pre-
phonetic days, but it was good system,
and he has maintained it so we'll that
even now he takes down nightly on the
margin OF his order paper any critical
| passage in Ministerial statement which
it is desirable to remember in writing
his leading article. Liverpool was really
his first training ground, and there he
might have permanently remained If he
had not had the enormous luck Of mar
rying early in life a bright, brave woman,
who was always urging him on and
cheering nim up, and telling him Whist
great things there we're in him sym
pathetic companion, to whom he owes
all the happiness Of his life, and who
then-just after he had entered Parlia-
ment and become universally known
died and left him forever desolate.
Justin Mccarthy is not only romantic
in his books. but in his thoughts and
acts. He had q .gl0 note, or perhaps a
couple Of them, when be came to Lon
don, and the first thing he did his small
house was il the trackless wilds Of Bat