The Irish standard., 1896-08-08
! J OF l'AY 4 PAY.
He Tells i'm Raaacsy1 of the
X s ssss ssss4 s4s 'fs,
Men and Women He Has :rlet
in His Career
Worked Like a Slave for Many
Years Because He Was Com
5 .s.1 PEELED to.
How He Managed to Get the rlon-
ey to Pay His Election
Expenses.

How little we know where the very
least Of our actions may lead us! 1
sho.d probably never have been a poll
tician if it had not. been for the very
slight, though at the time very daring,
act of mine on an evening more than
thirty years ago, writes T. P. O'Connor.
M. p, in sketch of his life. was, as! is
known, educated at the Queens College,
Galway. The college, as is usually the
case, had students debating society. It
was known, if I remember rightly, as
the Literary and Scientific Society. 1t
held debates both in private and in pub
lic-those to which only members Of the
society were admitted, and those to
which the larger public of the town and
the other students were admitted. It's
public debates were announced on a
board on one of the college walls, and I
remember to this day the awe with
which I read the names of the men who
we're daring enough thus to face the pub
| lie with so extraordinary thing as a
speech.
After had been a. year or two STU
dent Of the college the idea came into
my head that / would try to make a
speech At this period Of my life I had
leven more than the ordinary amount .of
shyness and self -distrust, and'I cast this
thought away from my mind many times
as something too daring and too immod-
est. for me to attempt. However. screwed
UP my courage on particular evening,
when the subject under discussion was
the merits Of the great Civil War, which
was then being fought between the North
and the South in America. America had
given back to Galway some OF it's t1otsam
and jetsam. In the Ireland Of my boy
hood the returned Irish-American was
not unfamiliar, and, I must add, not Alto
gether a popular character. :s.a.
In Galway there was, however, a re-
turned irish American who was a spopl-
lar and q highly entertaining figure. He
was a very tall. man. He wore, what then
was not as usual ais now, a long flowing
beard. He was q bold, daring, pictur-
esuue face and carriage The marvels he
had seen in the United States lost nothing
in his ;story Of them. No travellers tales
were ever more wonderful than those the
strange figure had to tell Of his exploits.
He had loved after the fashion of the
heroes of Captain Mayne Reid. He had
fought, bled, slain men with the gay and
reckless carnage of one of Rider Hag-
CARDS Zulu champions. He had seen
marvels such as at once excited exultalt
hopes and cold shivers in the youths to
whom he told them. This Yankee car
ried into the equalid and rather dull life
Of Galway something of the wild fierce
ness and excess and the more bofsterous
vicicusness of the great country IN which
he had seen such strange things.
! He was one of my early friends and ad-
vibrations, and from him: dare say, 1
had sgot the very few and vague ideas /
had of the merits Of: the great American
struggle. Having lived most Of his life
in the Southern states, he had brought
from them that intense love Of the South
ern people which they, like the Irish, are
always able to exercise on every stranger
who dwells among them. was not one
OF the speakers set down to- conduct the
debate, but it was rule that when the set
sneakers had concluded their speeches,
any student in the general audience had
"a right to get up and speak. I can see
myself even yet, as rose, very unexpect-
eily and, I thought, to the horror and
disgust Of everybody in the room, startled
and .enraged by the sight Of such impu-
dence.
/ felt every drop of blood in my body
suddenly come to, my face. MY voice
sounded to me like a thin affrighted
treble, and gasped between my words.
/ should never have got to the end OF the
few remarks I made without fainfing or
breaking down If it had not been for this
Wild friend of mine from the South. The
burden OF my remarks, / remember, was
that after all, what the South was fight
ing: for was the same cause as that OF the
Irish people-the cause Of self-govern-
ment, the right to choose it's own rulers.
Ny friend uttered loud and fierce cheer
ais / uttered these words, and never to the
uarched lips of the traveller Of the desert
was the water of the oasis more welcome
than these signs Of approval from my SOL
ftary friend and hacker tn.that vast audi
enc vast to me then, though probably
1t consisted of not more than couple OF
hundred people.
NY first appearance was not then much
of assuccess, but: 1t had the advantage of
breaking the ice, and 1 felt more conf
dent on my second occasion. In my third
year I had two real successes. The first
was a mere piece Of high flown rhetoric,
the kind OF thing that always goes down
with boys i believe it Was on the then
very fresh and ever p0pllla snhleet
Poland. Ny second SUCCESS esY, ,sas. q. 81 more
sworthily obtained. The war ~ 1856 had
lust concluded and ] rememb ber Y VI sttohsid
erable portion of:my speech consisted Of
references drawn from that conflict and
no p1reft silccess of the Prussiany arms. i
had taken the trouble to write out most
ofs my speech Even now, though Sc have
no doubt the speech was grest nonsense
81 canaremember that IT had tl1smerit of
being we'll constructed and careful srea-
soned out s .s r ,55 & e T
An this took place between my If.
teenth and nineteenfh years. We begin
earl lier IN Ireland than they do ID this
i Eeo,,I1tr When I see young fellows en-,
ferifag III Universities IL this q: country at
/ twenty years Of asye, look back with
some sufnriseSto Sto the fact that 4 was
teen when maj llatssi uni iyersity
E6ull and that SWslssl ei eighteen
@whensi sfook ia became
after