The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-07-06
NEARLY 70 YEARS OLD,
Boyton, the Once Famous Aquatic
Expert Now Z Has Been.
HELD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIP.


''Rossa" because there's another Jeremiah
O'Donovan, and used to be good for
columns Of newspaper "stuff" every few
days ten or dozen years ago, has just
bobbed up into such temporary and minor
prominence as to warrant three or four
printed lines by reason of being appointed
q city "sealer of weights and measures"
O'Donovan must now be we'll on to
thrcescore and ten. He looks his age too,
and has evidently long ago rclinquished
most of his ferocious designs upon old
England. His last public appearance Of
any consequence, SO far as I can remem-
ber, was some time In May, 1895, when he
managed to make his way to the strangers
gallery Of the British house of commons,
where he attempted to address the legis-
lators He had been trying for some days
to get an opportunity to 'vindicate" him.
self of Henry Labouchere's charge that he
had been In the pay Of the English gov
ernment while posing as an Irish patriot.
Most of the Irish members to whom he
had applied for assistance to enter the
house had refused help, however, and the
member from Cork, who finally got him
In, had an interesting quarter Of an hour
with his colleagues after O'Donovan had
been silencod and bundled out of the build
ing.
Rosa In New York Politics.
No matter how O'Donovan's achieve
ments be regarded, it must DO admitted
that his journey through this vale Of tears
has been filed with sufficient variety to
spice It well. He came by his hatred of
England through the eviction of his father
at tho instigation Of q nonresident land
lord. and ho worked 30 actively in the
campaign of force" as to earn imprison-
ment before he was 27. Being released
after a short time, he came to this country
and made an unsuccessful attempt to run
o liquor store. Returning to England, he
managed to keep out of jail till 1865, when
no was jugged again and the cork put in
and kept there for five long years. When
released that time Tin 1870) he hicd him.
self to America once more, got naturalized,
Joined tho reform Democrats and ran,
without success, for the state senate
against one William M. Tweed, whose
glittering career Of municipal domination
Is now memory. Perhaps that defeat
taught him the lesson that anti -Tammany
men are not generally successful in New
York local politics. At all events b.
worked hard for Tammany last fall, and
the Office now awarded to him Is his CON-
pensation.
1t was not Tammany's fault that he
was not with them 2S years ago, for Tweed
sent q steam launch down the bay to meet
him on his arrival from England, and
offered him all sorts Of good things IL he
would cast in his lot with the Hall" The
Republican collector of customs was on
hand with a steam launch, too, on that
occasion, however, and Rossa no doubt
felt perfectly secure In resisting Tweed's
Establishments, as well he might, for he
soon got clerkship in the custom house,
which paid quite handsomely. Later he
tried his hand at variety of business oc-
cupations, none of which was profitable.
For some years his explosive newspaper,
The United Irishman, was what might
now be termed by the up to date as one Of
tho hottest babies in the anti-British
journalistic bunch"
It was in the Office of O'Donovan's pa
per that Captain Phelan was SO artistical-
ly carved In 1885. There, too, 1t was that
Yseult Dudley, the crazy English woman,
shot Rossa In the back and nearly wiped
him out. Rossa was sure the shot was the
result of a British plot and naturally in
dignant thereat, but he was much moro
wrought up, after all, over the course of
IL
which ne was taken In putting him in the
same ward as Phelan.
There Is little probability that Mr..
O'Donovan will ever again mako much OF
q stir in the world.
A forgotten Champion.
met man on Broadway this morning
of whom the world hears little nowadays
who was in his way as much Of public
~ TT
was. This mans name is Boyton, not
Boynton, as 1t is sometimes spelled.
There was time, as many of my read
ers will remember, when Paul Boyton
held half a dozen varieties of aquatic
championships. His fcats as swimmer
were exploited in publications of every
grade, from The Police Gazette to Har-
per's Weekly, and editors everywhere
seemed almost to go mad in their attempts
to find some new way of advertising him.
In those days hc was one of tho most
picturesque yarn spinners that ever drew
breath. His best story had to do with
South American war and was printed in
so many versions, all fully authorized by
himself, its chief parsonage, as to cause
doubts Of its strict truth in many quar-
tcrs. am unable now TO remember many
of the details, but i'm effect the story was
one of great daring on Boyton's part and
included his heroically swimming out to a
hostile warship In n South American har-
Dor towing torpedo with which he blew
tho ship into small fragments as he swan.
Hc always used to wind up the story with
q sigh, accompanied by the declaration that
there was only ono thing he regretted
and that was that he had never been able
TO serve Uncle Sam by blowing mp an ene-