The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-02-06

There are still hundreds in every
city who have vivid recollection Of
the fervor that was aroused in the
sos when O'Brien and Dillon and their
colleagues used to visit this country
in connection with the agitation for
Home Rule. Home Rule was then, ap-
parently, goal almost gained, and the
young spellbinders whom Parnell sent
over from time to time could create a
tempest of national passion with a
word, says the New York Sun.
There were many winning, lovable
fellows among these Home Rule emis-
.saries-many more genial, more at
tractive in personality than O'Brien,
though none was in a general way
more popular or effective. People saw
in him first-class fighting man and
liked him for it. Every ounce Of his
frail body was potentially hundred
weight Of pugnacify. Perhaps It was
the contrast between what he looked
and what he was that drew admiration
to him. Never was Nature less gen
erous in physical equipment for war;
fare than she was to William O'Brien,
and never did she put more un-
conquerable spirit into a fragile form.
He was still young man, only 35,
when he first arrived in New York,
and folks here remember him as slen-
der and delicate, sharp featured, sharp
eyed, spectacled and thinly red beard
ed. The matter Of his speaking was
much better than the manner. His
voice was rather hoarse and not power.
full, but his sentences were keen, clean
cut, bitter, uncompromising- stuff
that Irishmen wanted to hear. 1t was
the kind of talk that provolles hatred
in those at whom it is directed. The
opponents of Home Rule always itch
ed to get their hands on William
O'Brien. In Parliament and out he
had the faculty of engendering fierce
personal resentment. 1t was in May,
1887, that O'Brien began his first
tour of America. He plunged at once
into the strongholds of the Canadian
Orangemen, and let loose all the devils
in the political devil box. AS he was
leaving a skating rink in Kingston on
the night of May 20 bowling, curs-
ing mob barred his way. Presently
the air was full of cobblestones. One
hit O'Brien in the neck and left an
ugly bruise; another broke his hat A
companion changed hats with him,
and his little bodyguard hustled him
off in a hurry. In the confusion the
party became separated, and for sew
eral hours most of O'Briens friends
were looking for him apprehensively.
Wherever they showed themselves
they were put to fight. The mob also
broke the windows Of a hotel in which
they enormously supposed that
O'Brien was sheltered and pelted it
with overripe eggs. Late in the night
the O'Brien party got together and
found it's chief, battered but smiling.
He rather liked the excitement. Three
days afterward the opposition resorted
to still more desperate tactics.
O'Brien had been speaking in another
rink, this time in Hamilton. 1t was
the eve of the Queens Birthday, and
the usual celebration was going on.
Fireworks were popping and blank
cartridges exploding, and nobody
seemed to be looking for trouble. AS
O'Brien and his friends drove away
from the rink in q carriage a bullet
; whistled by the head of one of them.
A minute later another bullet struck
the driver in the wrist. After O'Brien
had reached his hotel and gone inside
they found two bullet marks in a pan
ell of the carriage door. When O'Brien
got home to Ireland the Coercion act
was wide open for him, and it wasn't
long before he walked into it. The
police arrested him on Sept II for
using seditious language at NIitchels-
town. That was the first of four ar
rests which he underwent during the
life Of that famous bit of legislation.
He has been prosecuted nine times for
political offences and has served more