The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-07-07
Such Is the Opinion Expressed by T. P. o.
Connor NJ. P. Whose knowledge of the
Man Is Unquestioned.
The Deceased Patriot Says the Writer, Was
Possessed Of Nature Simple as
That of Child.

| London, June There is no use in
asking me today I" write or even to
think of any topic but Michael Davitt.
! Ireland has lost in him her greatest
and most picturesque figure; hut other
men will arise and continue his work
Those to whom his loss is irrcpar;,blc
are the friends and intimutcs who
loved him aud whom he loved: for
thing bright. inspiring lov;lblc. ncccs-
sary I" their enjoyment of life ana
| work: and all around them there is :,
solitude and II silence which will never
be filled again, writes L. p. O'Connnr.
NJ. F.. to the Chicago Record Herald.
You WILL by the time this letter ar
! papers about Daviu, and there is no
use in my going over what will be f;t-
nliar ground. What ! had better do is
to try ANA give an impression of how
Davitt appeared in private life to his
| friends. His public life is well known;
| every one of its cpocles has been de-
scribcd by his own pen as we'll as by
the pens of others. But we all know
there are two sides to every man:
/ there are two sides to every story:
the side of which the public know, the
side which only those who know the
man or the event from the inside re-
ally know. In the case of Dnvitt there
was this distinction-that the two
sides of the man were to all intcntS
and purposes the same.
There Is the story in his case of pub
lie protest, of patriotism, honesty and
kindliness. not private greed or ambi-
| ton or unkindncss. The most remark
able and outstanding feature of the
mans character is that to the very
last he was II transparent child He
was a child in his love of fun. in his
keen enjoyment, in his hOpcfulness. in
his simplicity, even in some of his III :
tie weaknesses ! dare say he thought
himself very shrewd. very secretive.
very wary, very sphinxlikc; he was To-
| the end the old cOnspir;ttOr who had to
battle policemen and infOrmers; and he
| therefore gave to himself qualities
which he did not possess. He was.
repeat, Il transparent child--frcsh from
mother earth; like her. naturally JOY
Gus. and ever ready to recover with
the first gleam of spring from even {,
prolonged winter of trouble, disappoin,-
mcnt and suffering.
| A good deal of Davitt could not be
understood unless you had known the
town of Haslingden In which his fam
lily found refuge after they had been
evicted from their little cabin ana
farm in County Mayo. It is in one OF
the valleys of Lancashire and has the
| typical Lancashire occupation and pop
ulation. Nearly cvcrybOdy--man and
woman. boy and girls employed in
the cotton mill. They are Il curious
race-these mill bands-vcry indc-
pendent. in receipt of good wages for
very hard work, and the most vora-
cious people of pleasure in all Eng
land.
For all the year they save up money
| till their funds reach some thousands
of pounds. and then they spend every
penny of it during IL week of summer
holidays. If they have a shilling lef,
when they reach the railway station
of their town they take a cab to the
house. though it be but q: few yards
off.
shire accent and his acquaintance
| with the English boys and girls in tho
days of his childhood accounted large-
ly for that curious combination in hin,
of passionate hatred for the English
government and the English empire
and equally passionate love for the
English masses.
Bitterly, irreconcilably, even narrow
ly Irish as Davitt was on one side Of
his character, he was on the other side
broad in sympathies and so optimistic
in creed that he might well be de-
scribed as more Of a cosmopolitan So
cialist than anything else. The man
who really Influenced Davitts politi-
cal philosophy most was Henry George
He believed in naturalization Of the