Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-11
LORD CLANRICARDE, THE
MEANEST MAN IN ENG
LAND" is DEAD
(By Omitted Press Association)

London, May 11.-LOrd Clanricarde
is dead, Lord Clanricarde The man
the British people called "the Mean
est Man In England" What the Lon
don papers did to his memory, even
before he was buried, was sufficient.
'The Meanest Man In England" For
half century he held that distinction.
Today, in glazing columns amidst the
war news, the London papers told the
story of Lord Clanricarde who drove
the Irish to America.
He was the meanest Irish landlord.
Clanricarde's grandfather was Can
ming, British prime minister in 1927.
His uncle was the first viceroy of In
dia. When he was young Clanricarde
got the idea that God made a few very
rich, fine and cultured people to be
human beings and that everybody who
wasn't rich, fine and cultured wasn't
human. Human rights, as he knew
them, were the rights of the rich.
Canadian soldiers in Hyde park, not
knowing their London, have looked
with wonder and pity on a little veaz-
ened up old man, in ragged, fifty-year-
old clothes who used to sit on the
public seats-the private seats cost
two cents-a hard, cold look in his
eyes. This was Lord Clanricarde,
owner of twenty square miles of land
In Ireland, with Irish peasants paying
him $150,000 year. This was Lord
Clanricarde, once the SWEETEST fop in
London, victim of the idea that God
made him to be a specially fine human
being, with special rights. In 1847 he
fell heir to the castle at Portumna,
one of the finest houses in Ireland, and
the estate Of 10000 acres. He thought
he had fallen heir to the lives and
souls of his tenants too. He paid one
visit to the estate in 1847. He never
returned. His tenants had demanded
certain improvements and rights. He
sent agents. More than one of them
was killed. There isn't an acre of the
land that hasn't its tragedy. Homes
were broken up by poverty because of
Lord Clanricarde's high rents. He de-
manded a large share of everything
the tenants grew; he would not spend
money for improving their pitiful
homes.
Blood was shed time and again,
while he was in London, pottering a.
round with antiques.
Irish landlords changed and became
human; Lord Clanricarde, never.
The government refused him police
aid in evicting tenants; he hired a.
gents to do the evicting.
Decent people began to leave him a.
lone. Of all the money he took in
from his tenants he is never known
to have spent cent for improve
ments. He stood pat on the idea that
human rights were the rights of the
rich.
The splendid castle fell into ruins.
Other Irish landlords began to sell
their land to the government, to be
distributed among the Irish peasants,
Clanricarde would not sell.
A special bill was introduced into |
the house of lords. expropriating his
estates. Though he was a lord and |
was entitled to sit in the house of |
lords and help in the government of |
his country, Lord Clanricarde never
until the chances of losing
his land arose
One day shabby, bent, hardfaced |
little old man appeared atthe door of |
the house Of lords, but when he at
tempted to enter the policemen stop |
ped him. 1t was Lord Clanricarde.
He protested in piping voice. He
talked of property rights. Property
had its duties as we'll as its rights,
said some one. Then he walked out of |
the place.
He became a solitary miser. He
spent money for antiquities only. His
ticles, Uttered about, carelessly. No
fire burned in his CRATE.
Antiquity dealers and the lawyers
he hired to try to prevent the govern
ment from taking his land were the
only human beings he knew.
Last year, the government won.
Today the Lord Clanricarde estate
IS being divided for sale to small
holders.
Lord Clanricarde was paid million
and half dollars by the government
and the day after his death, while he
rested in his rich mahogany casket,
ne got million and half dollars
worth of the bitterest advertisement
hat was ever given a human being. !