The Irish standard., 1906-12-22

S01SA\A~S VA oNOk1 AINIM.
another occasion he picked up a pa
per containing his own name and that
OF the Nun Of Kenmare" in prominent
headlines. Quietly casting the paper
aside, he said in disgust: 1T were
much better for the Nun of Kenmare
and for Father Tom Burke, also, if the
papers had less to say about then,.''
1t has often been asked by those
who never heard him, what was the
secret OF Father Burke's success as an
orator, but there was no secret about
it. He succeeded because he was an
orator of the highest type. Nature
designed him for an orator and nothing
was done to spoil him in the making.
He possessed all Of the qualifications
Of a successful public speaker fine
presence, &; rich, melodious voice,
prodigious memory, vivid imagina-
ton, a vast and varied store of llnowl-
edge at his instant command, togeth ~
with a faultless delivery. When to
these Is added a keen and powerful
intellect trained in the best traditions
of scholastic philosophy and Thomistic
theology, there is, surely, no secret
about his oratortcal success. He COM
bined the Evolutionary excellence of
Murdoch, the vocal wealth Of Booth,
and the dramatic power Of McCul-
Tough. But the chief charm Of his de-
livery lay in, its perfect naturalness.
He was never accused Of affectation;
he never posed; he seemed to be Ut
terly free from self-consciousness. lie
never took a lesson in elocution, and
hence he was devoid of those little
tricks of the. trained elocutionist, who
rarely attains the art OF concealing art
fare est celare artem." Taking all
these things into consideration. we are
prepared for the extraordinary state
ment made by one Of his euloEists-
himself an authority on pulpit elo-
Quence-who declared that he consid-
cred Father Tom Burke "the greatest
preacher the Catholic Church ever
produced" Yet for all his eminence
he was the most approachable of men.
his greatness, he was so utterly I'M
conscious of himself. He possessed in
a remarkable degree that indefinable
something which we call personal
magnetism; there was not single re-
pellent quality about him. 1t was diff
ficult to tell whether one We're attract
ed towards him more by admiration
for his genius than by affection for his
person. His fund of hunor was In
exhaustihle. AT the Chapter of Client,
in 1871. he met Monsabre-the Tom
Burke Of F'rance-and between them
the Capitular Fathers did not lack en-
tertainnlent. But with all his love for
fun he never played a practical joke,
nor did he everaforget the prophecies
of his position. He might convulse
with laughter the priests in the sac
risty by his antics, but he never car
ried his merrilnent into the pulpit. The
very. moment he crossed the threshold
Of the sanctuary, he underwent q
Transformations the divine Presence;
and hence those who knew him we'll
could not credit Fitzpatrick's ridiculous
story-as lacking judgment as it was
unfounded. in fact-concerning the
opening sentence Of one of his sermons
in the Jesuit church in Dublin. Father
Burke was incapable Of any such a
performance. for he hated sensational
ism and despised clap-trap. Notwitn-
standing his exuberant spirits and his
innate love of fun and frolic, he was
always a thorough gentleman, a fer
vent religious, and an ideal priest.
Such was Father Tom Burke as we
knew him in America-the prince of
pulpit orators; the brilliant wit; the
irrepresible wag; the faithful, devoted
friend; the genial, whole-souled COM
panion whom to know was but to love
and admire. :"Take him for all in all,
we shall not look upon his like again.
/