The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-07
OUR NEW YORK LETTER
JEREMIAH O'DoNovAN ROSA, SEAL
Err OF WEIGHTS AID MEASURES.
He Is Now Nearly Seventy and VIII Prob
ably Never he Prominent Again--Paul
Boyton. the Once Famous Aquatic Eek.


NEW YORK, July 7.-rSpecial. l-Jer
a miah O'Donovan, who calls himse
a Rosa" because there s another Jeremia
ODonovan, and used to be good (,
; columns of newspaper 'stuff" every fe'
days ten or n dozen years ago, has jus
bobbed up into such temporary and mine
prominence as to warrant three or fou
! printed lines by reason of being appointe
q city "sealer of weights and measures. -
O'Donovan must now be well on {
threescore and ten. He looks his age, toe
and has evidently long ago relinquishe,
most OF his ferocious designs upon oil,
England. His last public appearance O
any consequence, so far as 1 can remem
Der, was some time in May, 1895, when h
managed to make his way to the strangers
gallery of the British house of commons
whore 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 silenced and bundled out of the build.
ing.
Rosa In New York Politics.
No matter how O'Donovan's achieve
ments be regarded, it must be admitted
that his journey through this vale of tears
has been filled with sufficient variety to
spice Ii well. He came by his hatred of
England through the eviction of his father
at the instigation of a nonresident land
lord. and he worked so actively in the
campaign of force" as to earn imprison-
ment before he was 81 Being released
after q short time, he came to this country
and made an unsuccessful attempt to run
"a liquor store. Returning to England, he
managed TO keep out of Jail till 1865, when
he was jagged again and the cork put i'm
and kept there for five long years. When
released that time lin 1S70) he hied him.
self to America once more, got naturalized
Joined the 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 arc not generally successful in New |
York local politics. At all events he |
worked hard for Tammany last fall, and |
the Office now awarded to him is his com. |
pensation.
1t was not Tammanys fault that he
was not with them 20 years ago. for Tweed
sent a steam launch down the bay to meet
him on his arrival from England, and
offered him all sorts of good things If he |
would cast in his lot with the Hall" The
republican collector of customs was on
hand with steam launch too, on that
occasion, however, and Rosa no doubt
elt perfectly secure in resisting Tweed's
as well he might, for he
soon got n clerkship in the custom house,
which paid quite handsomely. Later he
ried his hand Mt a variety of business oc-
'upations, mono of which was profitable |
For some years his explosive newspaper.
The United Irishman, was what might
low be termed by the up to date as one of
he hottest babies in the anti British |
journalistic bunch
1t was in the office of O'Donovan's pa.
Der that Captain Phelan was so artistical.
y carved in 1885. There, too, it was that
fseult Dudley, the crazy English woman,
hot Rosa in the back and nearly wiped |
him out. Rosa was sure the shot was the |
esult OF British plot and naturally in
lignant thereat, but he was much more
wrought up, after all, over the course of |
he authorities in charge of the hospital to
which he was taken in putting him in the
anne ward as Phelan
There Is little probability that Mr.
Donovan will ever again make much of s
stir i'm tho world.
"A Forgotten Champion.
met man on Broadway this morning {
| whom the world hears little nowadays |
Tho was in his way as much of public
haracter in tho eighties as O'Donoyan
'as. This mans name is Boyton, not | s
'oynton, as it is sometimes spelled.
Ihcre was time, as many of my read /.
RS will remember, when Paul Boyton 7
cid half n dozen varieties of aquatic
His foats as swimmer
ere exploited in publications of every :
rade, from The Police Gazette TO Har- =
er's Weekly and editors everywhere s
'emcd almost to go mad i'm their attempts I
} find some new way of advertising him :
In those days he was one of the most c
picturesque yarn spinners that ever drew y
reath His best story had to do with a
Outh American war and was printed in
many versions, all fully authorized by .
mself, its chief parsonage, as to cause p
)ubts OF its strict truth in many quar- r.
rs am unable now to remember many | :,
the details, but in effect the story was p
he of great daring on Boyton's part and i,
cluded his heroically swimming out to a q
)stilc warship in South American har- y
'r towing torpedo with which he blew ..
10 ship into small fragments as he swan. a
@ always used to wind up the story with 81
sigh, accompanied by the declaration that ri
ere was only one thing he regretted CO
ld that was that he had never been able o.
serve Uncle Sam by blowing up an ene- a
US ship with a hand torpedo Yet he =,
S not offered to enlist in the present war a
far as any one knows. a
Boyton looked almost exactly today as
did when 1 last saw him more than ten
airs ago. He is n little fatter, maybe, but
curious looking eye is of the same m
uthful, shallow, painted. blue tint his a.
mustache is still entirely unbleached. III
ii likewise his hair, while his voice has n
It none of its old time uncertain full. e,
IS. Coney Island is his present head. he
arters, and no Is managing a certain r.
A.