The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-06-02
MICHAEL DAVITT.

The cable has just announced the
death in Dublin of Michael Davitt.
Michael Davitt was perhaps, all things
considered, the most able living Irish
has remained out of Parliament voiun-
tnrily, nevertheless his influence with
the Irish Party and With the Irish
people has remained greater than that
of any other one person. He knew the
story of Irish oppression from actual
experience. He was born in the ham,
let of Strai,le in the County of Mayo
in the year 1916 in the very darkest
days of his nations agony. He curly
received a bitter and dreadful lesson
in the wrongs that the Irish tenants
were compelled to suffer. When
child of seven years he witnessed his
father and mother and two sisters
flung out on the roadside by the land
lord and the humble cottage that they
had called home burned to the ground
mis- latHef WIS an IuteiiSCi'l i"i ?"
working tenant who had anaged
somehow to keep his family alive
through the famine years only to be
utterly ruined by the rent laws. Tie
evicted tenant and his family left Ire
land and settled in Lancashire, Eng
land. The boy Michael early Went to
work in Il mill where his arm was so
injured by being caught in the ma
chinery that it had to be amrutatea.
doubt, in a large measure for chang
ing the course of his life. No longer
able To work at manual labor he was
forced to supplement his scnnty edNcn-
ton by hard and continued study and
he soon gained Il reputation in litera-
ture and politics. At the age of cigh-
teen he was contributing poetry to the
official organ of the Fenian movement:
the Irish People" His activity made
him IL marked man for the government
informcrs. He escaped until the year
1870 when he was arrested in London,
charged with being an agent for the
exploded l'enian movement. That
movement had long ceased to exist
but Davitt was convicted and SEN
fenced to fifteen years penal scrvitude.
For seven years he endured the horrors
of the prisons of that day and was
compelled to associate With criminals
Of the most hardened and loathsone
character. In 1878 he was pardoned
with the understanding that lie should
leave the country. that being the usual
condition of amnesty for political pris>
oners of that day. On his arrival In
Dublin more than q hundred thou
sand people with bands and banners
turned out to meet him. Even that
joyous occasion brought bitterness to
Davitt for his comrade. Mccarthy.
who had served with him in prison.
overcome with the joy OF freedom sud
denly died. Davitt then paid short
visit to his native country and soon
left for the United States where his
mother and sister then resided. He
was met in this country with an en-
thusiastic greeting. The leaders Of the
old Fenian movement crowded about
him. They had divided into factions
but they all held Davitt in high es-
TEEN and We're anxious to know what
course he would take.
Davitt. although an aggressive
fighter. was always a practical lead
er. He possessed all the brilliancy of
other Irish leaders,. but in addition
thereto he possessed more poise than
most of them. Davitt clearly saw that
Fenianism had failed. He realized that
Home Rule as an abstract question
could bring no immediate relief to his