Omaha daily bee., 1894-12-17
JOHN BURNS OF BATTERSEA
Noted Englishman Who Will Address
Omaha Workingmen this Evening,
SOMETHING OF HIS LIFE AND WORK
Man Who Played In the Mud Puddics
OF London Becomes the Leader of
the Laborers OF tho Civil
lied World.

John Burns, NJ. Pa name to conjure
with-wlll address the working men Of
/ Omaha tcnight at Washington hall. Speak
! ing will commence at s o'clock, and admis-
sion to the hall will be free. Mr. Burns be-
gins today to fill a program Of public speeches
! laid out for him by the meeting CT the
American Federation Ct Labor, now in ses-
sion at Denver. He comes to Omaha this
morning, according to this dispatch sent out
by the Associated press last night:
| DENVER. Dec. 16.-John Burns the
| English labor leader and member of Parlia-
ment, left tonight at II 30 for Omaha, where
he is booked for a speech.
During the day Mr.. Burns will be in the
hands of a committee of the Central Labor
uni N. which W II show him the points of in
terest in Omaha and South Omaha. In
carriages the committee will escort the guest
of the workingmen Of Omaha about the town
and point out to him the hives in which the
bees that make the city great buzz by day
and night. From Omaha the distinguished
| champ on of labors cause goes rast.
or all the men who have posed as leaders
Of the cause of the common people, none
have preserved more distinct and powerful
individuality than John Burns NJ. p, who
will arrive in Omaha this morning on his
way east from the convention of Federated
Labor at Denver. Endowed with all the
qualities than go TO constitute a leader, he
has risen from the dust and CRIME of the
workshop into the confidence of the proudest
peers Of England, and has carried with him
into this oftier sphere the love and conf
dence Of all who labor, or are oppressed.
Like all men who have attained distnc-
tinp oil oh tIni,
Lurns is man CT conspicuous and peculiar
personality. A man who dares to violate
the most reverenced institutions Of the king
dom when they antagonize his peculiar faith; ;
a man who Is alike ready to present the
cause of labor before the peers of the realm
or to preach his economic religion from the
curbstcne, and who has testified to his cour-
age and devotion through the hardships of a
convcts cell, it is not wonderful that he
has come to be one of the greatest leaders
that labor has ever offered to the world
That in few short years one who waved
the red flag at the head of lawless ribald
mobs, set the laws of his government at
defiance and lay in prison. publicly con-
demned as reckless agitator and danger
GUS enemy to order and good government
should become part CT the government he
sought to dethrone and the idol of hundreds
of thousands of men and women, who speak
HuIit Win dliIUSC as muCn reverence
that Of the Creator, is without a parellel in
history. That such a man is not cast in an
ordinary mould Is self evident, and no citi-
zen of Omaha should miss the opportunity
to see and hear this remarkable man, the
most striking and significant product of the
SOCIAL fermentation of the century
BURNS AS A BOY.
John Burns is a typical Londoner, not a
type of the cockney known to variety stage
fame, but a Londoner with ali that its cos
mopolitan appellation signifies. He has lived
in London since he first saw light through
the smoky and bacteria-laden atmosphere OF
II Battersea, with the cry Of the coster ringing
in his. ears and the smell OF decaying vega-
table matter seeking ingress through his
tiny nasal organ. Battersea was his home
when, as toddling boy. he lodged around
the vegetable-laden, donkey drawn carts of
its narrow, ill-lghted streets. 1t was his
home when he stood at boohstaiis in the
busy London thoroughfare, stealing chances
to read portions Of magazine article bearing
on then existing social and economic cond.-
tons. and then walking perhaps a mile to
get another chance to read the concluding
portion OF the stcry he had commenced an
hour before. .f'
Batterssa Is Burns home today but it is
weil-ghted precinct with public libraries,
educational institutions and all the modern
facilities which progression demands and the
needs of the people exact. To no man more
ton due. His genius planned it, his great
will power carried 1t through to victory.
John Burns was born in 1858. His OPP
portunlties for education and intelligent
knowledge were few, but his ambition to
know men and conditions through books
nerved him, through his early vicssitudas,
TO learn to read. and having accomplished
this essential he sought more extended fields,
until the iliterate boy Of dozen years was
at IS an olnnivorious devourer of everything
et,,1A -
sast in his desire to reform the social evil.
2 and. with scme, a dreamer and visionary
after the impossible. But the dreamer had
: practical ideas behind all his presumably
! Utopian notions and the consistent exposi-
l ton of these ideas and those notions gradu-
, ally forced him into a position where he was
! looked to as a man OF strength, Of perse-
verence and of great will power. The trusm
hat the child is father to the man. was
; verified in Burns case, and the boy who left
the mud puddles OF London streets to learn
: the alphabet of the Saxon tongue. was in the
: man the same figure only ena ged physically
and mentally.
, At the time when Mr.. Burns passed through
, , Omaha on his way to Denver he was inter-
viewed by Bee reporter, and discussed his
hopes and ideas at some length. At that
time the story Of his political ascension was
briefly told. How he had first claimed atten-
tion as the leader of the mobs at West End
and Trafalgar Square, and after serving a
elected to the London common council and
after inaugurating series Of municipal re-
forms that alone sufficient to endeat
d him to all future generations. became mem
: ber of the House of Commons and one Of the
G mist commanding figures in the kingdom.
y At this time the local public may be inter
n ested in reading the story of his life, as told
by himself to an English interviewer, In
e which he more particularly refers to matters
y that aIe peculiarly personal to himself. He
o said
TELLS OF HIS LIFE.
d II was born in Battersea. London, Novem.
r ber, 1858. My dear old mother brought us al
e up Ike Spartan soldiers. l was educated al
e Chri-t Church school in tbs very district which
: | now represent on the London county council
It and Parliament. When | left school, | wen
k as a tiger in top hat and top boots to
gentleman In Hampstead. and when | ef
him, having outgrown my uniform, ] went al
A potboy to the Wlnstanley Arms, but
= never drank.
II became an apprentice to firm of de
. sgners. and then my political troubles began
y / used TO address meetings in the country
I, | and this coming to the ears OF my supsrloTl
| was discharged. However. the head OF thi
9 firm, knowing ! did my work we'll, insisted
e on my return. A year two after that
y got into trouble for addressing a meeting oil
u Clapham comhion and was taken before tn.