The Irish standard., 1896-08-15
:He Tells in a Racy Way of the
Men and Women He Has rlet.
in His Career.
Worked Like Slave for rlany
Years Because He Was Cons
pelled to.
From Journalism 1t Was an Easy
Plunge Into Politics and
. He Took 1t. .. -.-
CONTINUED from last week. }

! CONTINUED from last week.
| Absorbed in journalism, knowing no
| human being for three years, in Lon
don, as in Dublin, lived without ever
thinking OF making a speech, and TAX
| ing very little interest in anybody who
did SO. 1t was not till was thrown out
Of steady work and went through sew
eral years of precarious employment
and infinite hardships that I was
| thrown in with that curious population
| tion sad and disappointed, often hungry
and very often brilliant, to whom for
tune mas not yet come or has already
deserted. At last, and for the first time
in my life, | was taken entirely out of
myself. I began to know life's realities
in their grimmest form, and I became
the fellow and companion and the
! friend Of the unhappy and the unfor-
| tunate. If [ today had power of un-
derstanding and a persistent desire to
! make the lot of the poor somewhat
brighter and happier, it comes from the
fact largely that there is scarcely sor-
| row OF theirs which J. have not known
| in my own person and in my own heart.
Among my acquaintances were sew
era habitnes of two houses in Fleet
street.-the Green Dragon and the
Coger's Hail. They weres discussion
forums and they still exist. There were
traditions of their having been the
early drill ground Of many of the men
who, in later life, became eminent
.members Of the bar or the house Of
Commons | did see a good many young
barristers and an occasional politician
in these places, but for the most part
they were freQuented by men whom
either misfortune or folly or both COM
bined, had broken down in life. Some
of the faces can call up from the
depths OF old and sad" memories and If
ever held the gospel that success is
inevitable to ability, my experience of
these men would have destroyed it.
Many of them were quite as brilliant
speakers as have ever heard; many of
them were we'll educated, and most of
them owed their poverty to i'll luck. 1t
is only the impudently self-confident or
the inexperienced who believe that
much of mems fate rests in their own
hands; they are, in the overwhelming
majority of cases, but the sport of chance
and the plaything of circumstances.
One of the great orators of these
rooms once played a prominent part for
an hour in the political life of London.
1t may be remembered that at the time
of the agitation over Mr.. Gladstone's s
proposal to reduce the franchise, and
when the ratings in Hyde Park were
broken down, Mr.. Gladstone received at
his house in Carlton House Terrace, a
deputaion the head Of which was a
n 1,,1, II; T;,,1@
after this James Finlen was charged
with neglecting his wife and children.
and I remember still the violent and
vehement attacks which were made
upon the poor agitator. AS matter Of
fact, there was another and tragic
side. to the story, and poor Finlen was
one of the kindest creatures have ever
ever known. OF course, he was an Irish
man. if not by birth at least by origin.
He was a rather small man with very
brilliant eyes, beautiful voice and
one Of the finest speakers I have ever
heard-eloquent and yet chaste, real
ly born orator. I remember seeing him
one day with his hands all stained, and
when I asked him what he had been do
Ling he told nre that he was French
polisher by trade and had been work
ing at his business that day-a thing,
he added, that gave him most OF the
little happiness he had in life. He went
to America, and I never heard of him
more.
There is another character from this
period of my life whom / must always
recall with sense of tenderness and
admiration. He was tiny little man,
very thin, with very small features-al-
most as delicate as those of chiId-a
queer rusty long beard. and small. dull
eyes. There never was a face so heav
lily and so thickly lined; he was not
40 years of age when I first met him;
he looked 1O0 Every line in the face
had been printed there by starvation!
Not once or twice in the course Of
his life, but periodically sand at
frequent intervals, he was days with
out food And yet a cheerfuller crea-
ture never met. In his tiny, worn,
rusty body there was an abundance of
courage, fortitude, gocd-heartednes
that nothing could subdue. He was an
Irishman, also; and had the weaknesses
Of his colntrymen and of his condition
He used to tell story of himself which
was much more characteristic of his
strange fearlessness and fndomitable
cheerfulness than he ever realized. He
attended q melting Of some kind in far
off Greenwich, and after the meeting he
was indulged with more than a fair
quantity Of drink. Walking home on
the long return journey to London, he
fell into a hole, the position of which he
did not either understand nor care
about, and slept on the peaceful sleep
of the just and the intoxicated. When
he woke in the morning he found him
self at the bottom of a grave that was
waiting to receive its tenant that day;
and when calmly he arose to the surface
and asked the mikman, who was pass:
ing, very cheerfu1ly what time it was:
the m'ilkman took to his heels and fled, :
affrighted, from what he thought to be
"a ghost. Il used to say OF this poor friend
5of mine that not only had he deiled
hunger. but that he had defied death it,
Self :. for he was knocked down by q
heavy omnibus, but after a few weeks
4in hospita he recovered and was back
at work again. This little man was the
son Of an Irish 1aborer one of the mill
lions whom the famine drove out Of Ire
land. I. He had very tie real education,
&c could pell, IA read Inn
ss