The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-12-31
INTERESTING SKETCH OF A FAMOUS
IRISH JOURNALISM.
FoE1.srIToa OF THE BOSTON PILOT.
WHAT WALTER LECkY SAYS OF HIS
LATEST PUBLICATION.
ENTITLED "HER MAJESTY The KING. :"
THE BIOGRAPHER OF THE GIFTED
JOHN BOYLE O'RIELLY.


of the fastest work of James Jeffrey
Roche. 1t has been highly commended
by the reviewers. Writing of it, Walter
Lecky says:
lit is the work of Il man who has a
distinct vision before him of the follies
and foibles of his time, and, while with
sparkling wit he brings them home to U.S.
provoking our mirth by his manner of
setting he picrces them with Il poniard
OF satire that goes straight to their
hearts. That the book is good-natured
throughout does not in the least dctruct
from, but rather adds to- it's power. For
it gives you the feeling that your guide
is no worldbruiscd rcssimist, but a
hearty fellow who has eyes to see and
uses them for your delight, showing
you by the dcftest of methods that the
most of our gods are made OF common
mud, that much of our laudation is but
the badge of our ignorance. The book is
one thing will appeal to one reader
and something else to another, 1t is pre-
ferablc that readers buy it and do their
own quarreling l will not be astonsll-
ed if many of the bon-mots of this pass
into current speech, so applicable are
they to the condition of the times The
illustrator has caught Mr.. Roches mind
in his pictures, and If he is, as it is
h0 i,6 RI
from these remarkably clever drawings,
long remain so. The make of the book
is worthy of its contents. If you want To
give your friends Il Christmas gift here
is the book"
James Jeffrey Roche was born in the
pretty Quaker town of Mountmellcl1 in
Ireland, a scion of one of those mixed
Norman-1rish families who are moro
Irish than the Irish. He was but few
weeks old when his family removed to
Prince Edward Island, where the poet
grew to manhood, and where, in ST. Dun
stan's Jesuit College, he was educated.
While still young man he went to Bos-
ton, where for seventeen years he stuck
to trade and commerce, for which he
had a most profound distastc The sharp
practices Of the British agents of his
firm prccipitated his house in bank
ruptcy, gave literature a bright and will
ling follower, deprived trade of an lln-
willing servitor, and added n keencr
edge, if possible, to an inherited hatred
Of all things English. He entered the
editorial rooms of the Boston Pilot rs
assistant to the lamcntcd John Boyle
OReilly, where the quality of his work
soon made itself felt. So many poets
have blossomed in the editorial! rooms OF
the Pilot that one might fancy them the
saw them.
Mr.. Roche is essentially poet; even
his prose has a brilliancy and sparkle
that lift it out Of the prosaic. The blood
who fought with the SAVIOR of the salt
ocean in their nostris-still fingers like
fire in his veins. Their love of the
sea, of it's storms and battles, breaks out
his ballads of historic American sea
fights are among the best things in
American literature. An ardent Ameri-
can-an American not by the accident of
birlh but by love and choicc-he glorics
in their glorics.
""ro him the powers that formed him
brave,
A mighty gift of hatred gave
and this gift he lavishcs ,lnstintcdly up
| on the common enemy Of his mothcrland
and his adopted and-England
In the splendid poem, "I}abylon," quot
cd recently by the Illustrated Amcricn,
he lashcs the capital of British pharis-
asm with a scorn and hatred that are
positively magnificent In the poems Of
the same serious, strenuous nature, lie
has touched high lcvcl and he has
few equals in the higher verses of IL
satirical, witty quality which have the
Gaelic touch. '"rhe Vase which ap-
pcared originally in Life, is the best jcu
d'esprit of its kind, delicately, delight
fully satiric, but 1t is satire sans acldity.
But when all is said and done. IT. is not
too much to predict that it is by his bal
lads and songs Of the sea that his name
will endure in American literature, for
with the prcscencc that poet and
prophet have in common, he is singing
the heroic, the "IIomcric Age of the Re-
public" The Eight of the Armstrong
Jrivatcer" excited the bilious wrath Of
the London Saturday Review and stirred
the heart of every true American, record
ing as it does, in stirring verse, Il deed
that saved the young republic from her
eager foe, by giving Jackson the time
to prepare the men and way to destroy
Packenham's pcninsular veterans before
the cotton ramparts of New Orleans.
Those who love the lawlessly heroic