The Irish standard., 1897-09-25
o'coAAoR. HEALY, DAvITT and BI6sAR.
HOW THEY ROSE FROM OBsCURlrY
AND LEAPED INTO FAME,
PEN PICTURES OF The CELEBRITIES.
ONE WHO KNEW THEM WELL NOTES
THEIR PECULIARITIES.

Thomas Power O'Connor, NJ. P. for
division of Liverpool, is the son Of
bllllard-room proprietor at Athlone,
Where he was born about AZ years ago.
'T. P.," as he is familiarly known in
literary and political circles, affords a
remarkable instance of how a young
man by his ability and his own exer-
ions can raise himself to the front
ranks OF pressmen and parliamentar-
! 1ans, says M. Gately in the Republic.
AS youth ''T. P" attended Summerhi,]
College, Athlone where he was regarded
by his sohoolmates as very stupid, very
careless and very untidy boy, which
earned for him the sobriquet of '"Tidy"
OConnor. He afterwards attended the
Queens College, Galway, where he dis
tinguished himself and took out his
degree of B. A. Before proceeding to
Galway he tried to get nomination to
be an excise man, but, fortunately for
himself, as he afterwards stated, he
failed to obtain the required influence.
At Galway he showed a taste for oratory
and manifested an interest in political
matters. Well do 1 remember his fell
low-students-a reckless, gay and dare
devil lot-many time hoisting him to
the top of a fish barrel in the Clad
dagh, where he was compelled to spout
nj nf i1n lnvy M
he went to Dublin, where he acted as
| reporter for Saunders Newsletter, an
old-fashioned newspaper which shortly
afterwards died. Being of an enter
prising nature, he went to the great
| world of London, where he found him.
self with only a few shilings in his
! pocket and with only one friend-a po-
liceman named Tierney-to whom he
| often after pathetically referred. Here
| he started on the precarious venture of
making a livelihood by his pen, and soon
| found employment and engaged on his
Life of Disraeli," which turned out
| but a partial financial success.
| Being now well-known writer and
a clever politician, he was returned TO
Parliament for the borough of Galway,
| the home Of his alma mater. Before
| he was long in Parliament, where he
acted as one of the able lieutenants Of
| as an able debater and good speaker
| He then started and became editor Of
the London Star, which took the great
| metropolis by storm, as 1t was run ON
the fetching and modern style of jour-
| nalism. 1t turned out great success,
and after it's sale "T. p" found him
self the possessor Of a considerable for
tune. He then started the Sunday Sun
newspaper, which was also very suc-
cessful. The eight front pages contain
every week from the pen of 'T. p" a
powerful review of some important
books of the day-probably the works
of Zola, Thomas Hardy, Besant, the
many biographers of Napoleon, or other
distinguished authors-all of which he
deals with in thorough and masterly
style. The reader Of those reviews
| grasps an idea of the book under con-
sideration, and very often finds that the
criticism and extracts satisfy him as
we'll as If he read the work himself,
for in those eight pages at p" shows
himself an intellectual spendthrift.
From his vast experience of books and
people, and the wealth of his brain, he
gives with generosity and extravaganza.
In the London newspapers and re-
views ready writer's and powerful rea-
soners, such as Stead. Labouchere and
young Massingham, stand in the fore
front, and T. B. O'Connor is regarded as
their peer in every way In pen-and-
ink portraiting of some celebrity he met
with, ct P" cannot be beaten, nor even
| equaled. For versatility he is incom-
parable. remember few years ago
being at Brighton when the late Sir
| Robert Peel contested one of the divis-
ions on the Home Rule ticket against
Lawder. "T. P" espoused the cause of
Sir Robert, and one night in the space
of four hours he made five speeches 70
the electors, each differing from the
other in every respect, but the trend
of them all being to heap ridicule on
the Balfourian regime in Ireland and
the oppression of the working classes in
England. Mr.. O'Connor is an indus
trious worker. He married, few years
ago, an American lady of literary note
Mr.. Tim Healy C"Tim the Terrible
as he is called commenced life on the
railway at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Hc
spent his spare time while there at the
Mechanics Institute or at his lodgings
where his landlady thought him "some.
what odd" as she did not know that
ne was plodding away at self-education
From Newcastle he went to London
where he did business at the carpet
warerooms Of Mr.. John Barry. The