Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-01

The well-known department clerk with
the Latin-Irish name of Douatus O'Brien
has been 'carding" the daily press and is
suing circulars by the peck "Douatus" is
all right if he is not taken seriously. He
belongs 70 that eminently genteel class Of
reduced Irish gentlemen who release the
family silver from the pawnshop on Satur-
day to exhibit it at Sunday dinners, only to
be returned to mine uncle" bright and
early Monday morning This class, sad to
state, Is a numerous colony in the decaying
cities of Ireland. Keeping up appearances
is their life study and sole ambition. Our
friend Donatus is, however, an exception.
He gave up and came to the land of the
free and buckled down like little man to
the hard but honest drudgery of a depart
ment clerk. Donatus is an Irish patriot
sans beNre ct sans yebr0che, but he becomes
mixed sometimes in his convictions. That
is to say, like Tommy Moore. Donatus
dearly loves lord, and while with one
hand he writes cards to the daily papers
roasting" DR.. Stafford for advocating con-
stitutional measures only to secure Justice
for Vaug-l Ireland, he extends the other to
that reprobate scion of Irish aristocracy,
House of Waterford This House Of Water
ford has produced more blackguards than
even their cousins of Queensbury. Lord
Charles is a British admiral and like our
own Bobby Evans is six days of the week
spelling for fight" But, strange as it
may strike the American reader, Lord
Charles wants to 6ght as a British loyalist
not as an Irish patriot In fact nothing
would please him SO much as 10 initiate his
forefathers and wade knee deep in Irish
gehel gore
How do we reconcile Donatus O'Brien's
friendship, association, and Fellowship with
this British fire eater? We do not reconcile
it, We leave that to Donatus as a subject
for another card. while we proceed to tell
an interesting little tale illustrative Of
how Donatus loves a lord"
When Lord Charles Beresford visited
Washington in the interests of his scheme
to extend British commerce, Donatus con-
ceived the extraordinary project of giving
him reception at the hands Of Irish Home
Rulers, on the theory that Lord Charles
was Home Ruler and believed the Irish
people should have local parliament under
the British crown. Precisely the very thing
Donatus criticised Dr. Stafford for-constitu-
tional measures as contradistinguished from
the revolutionary or physical force plan
he commended the British aristocrat and
determined to get up reception in his
honor
Donatus took up his little pen aud re-
sorted 20 his Circular" racket and he
speedily had several well known and
prominent Irish Americans, ht subjects for
St. Elizabeth They we're amazed at FIRST
and finally became so ratified that they hid
from each other aud several Of them took
trips to Alexandria aud Arlington instead
of to their accustomed places of business.
But Donatus went right on organizing his
Committee of Reception" The eventful
evening came. Donatus informed the lead
ing Irish Americans, of Washington, that
he had made "a date" with Lord Charles
for their reception and the date was at hand.
He sent out minute instructions for full
dress suits, etc. He had his speech ready
extending to Lord Charles on behalf of the
Irish race in America their greetings Of
friendship, admiration, ETC., ETC., etc,
Each leader of rival or rather sister Irish
societies, who received these invitations
looked upon his fellow leaders as either
"daffy or traitorous, not suspecting for a
moment that Donat-s was the whole COM
rnittee, and that neither leader nor selfre-
specting aud sane Irishman had thought for
one moment of paying his respects to Beres-
ford.
Donatus went right on as stated, and not
withstanding that he was turned down by
every prominent Irishman he appealed to.
and admonished of the absurdity, TO use a
mild expression Of the intended reception,
Donatus persevered and saw Lord Charles
at the Arlington He came, he saw, he
couqueredw BeresfOrd was so thunder
struck at the novelty Of the situation that
he listened without interruption TO the
Donatus harangue and actually took poor
Douatus seriously
From that hour until Donatus saw him
aboard his ship the scion of the House Of
Waterford was practically a hostage Of
THE O'Brien of Munster" Donatus wound
up the comedy by presenting Lord Charles
with a horal harp and a farewell speech Of
great eloquence into which he worked the
usual number of poetic verses. Then Doua-
tus resumed his huui-drum daily life of de-
partment drudge enlivened by Pickwickan
threats Of some practical iokers among his
countrymen Of being "dyuamited" or dag
gered" as a British spy Donatus lived in
fear for some time until the joke got stale,
and his countrymen got tired of laughing
at the whole ridiculous affair
Since then Donatus has been compare
lively quiet. The recent visit of the ENJOYS
Messrs Redmond and Devlin, however,
awakened him to another sublime effort and
the committee having the matter IN charge
are still wrestling with the tangle Donatus
managed, somehow or other, to get tue
whole outfit in And Donatus had no more
TO do with the affair than Peck's bad boy