The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-04-05
dynamite Johnny"
O'Brien NOlU BattLino
With Last Enen,u

scrapper whose first glimpse of ~.
world came through a forest q.
masts from every port a shi9 mako.
or sailor dreams of, the sort of Graz.
that rose and fell on the tide of tbo
East river, 80 years ago. Fo. Cam
Unafraid was born near the foot 80
East Tenth street
They weren't none of your sancv
ocean greyhounds, says the iittIo
old man who made playfellows with
tempests. They was trading sb;os
and tramp ships, pirate ships and
ships nobody asked questions about
They was manned by capt3ips
who feared nothing and nobody but
Almighty God, and crews as tough 90
pine knots and fuller of fight than
wildcats. That was the sort of fell
lows I took with me on my first dr.
Mantle cruise to Cuba.
1--WE made 40 such trips since
then. But I've never violated ony
law except the one against filibuster.
ing, mad I've never lied except when
the truth would have defeated right.
eousness.
Il regard the law against filibus-
tering as an immoral instrument. #
seeks to destroy liberty. 1t pro-
nounces perjury. I'm for the under
Filibuster and daredevil, hero of
a hundred hairbreadth escapes and
passionate lover of the sea, Captain
O'Brien C|Dynamite Johnny is in
"a darned ticklish position"
Dynamite Johnny" lacks but two
winters of being so. Propped with
pillows and tended by pretty Irish
nurse, in a New York hotel, the dear.
crusty old fellow is doing battle with
the one dread enemy that none of Us
escape, writes correspondent of the
Washington Post
Started the War With Spain.
Dynamite Johnny O'Brien is the
man who started the Spanish-Ameri-
can war. He is the man who ''made"
General Funston from a newspaper
reporter into a human gatling gun.
He got his picturesque soubrfQuet
from carrying sixty tons of the ex-
plosive to Scion in 'SS in the waist
of a sea-going yacht.
With I;thTa
myself as small as possible at the
foot of his bed and heard a tale to
make a million movies of.
dog. I'm for Cuba and ireland and
all the countries and all the people
that are oppressed and tyrannized
over. That's why l took those sixty
tons of dynamite through storm and
stress to Colon. That's why | am a
tilibuster. And I wish to God / was
80 years younger so l could do more
work for life and liberty"
The cough gripped him again and
l waited while he struggled with his
foe, doggedly, essentially,
Meeting With Funston.
In snatches, in interrupted SEN
fences, the dear old warhorse and
seadog told how he first met Fred
funston On a fili0uAtes ing trip to
AS a newspaper man in whom was
the passion for rough adventures
Funston had Joined a party of young
seeking excitement and
glory in Cuna just before the out
break of the war. They had got as
far as Observation-Disclosures John
ny with carload of arms and Fun
ston with an intense desire to get
wherever fighting was thickest. Arms
and the men managed to get on board
a train FOR Miami.
Funston and one of his comrades
were suspected of spying in the in
terest of Spain and were about to be
put off the train.
Some one had reached for the
bell rope" recounts Capt. O'Brien,
but We decided to question them.
Funston answered with such a ring
of honesty that we allowed him to
join our expedition. We got him
safe to Cuba, and l was willing to
bet my best sea chest that he'd make
his way to the top. Leadership and
fight was written all over him"
OFBrien and WeyIer.
An extremely piquante interchange
of courtesies once took place be-
tween Dynamite Johnny O'Brien
and the hotly-hated Spanish viceroy
in Cuba Captain General Weyler,
who has just recently been made the
head of the Spanish army.
In his temperamental way Weyler
ntimated to Capt. Johnny that he
didn't like the way he landed con-
And that instead of having
the fearless filibuster captured and
neatly shot he should instead be
hanged from the flagpole at Cabanas
in full view. of the city.
Capt. Johnny replied by return
mail to the effect that in such small
esteem did he hold Gen. Weyler that
he (the captain) would make land
ing within plain sight of Habana
On his next trip to Cuba.
II may even land an expedition"
he wrote, inside the harbor and take
you prisoner. In this case will have
you chopped in small pieces and fed
to the fires of my ship"
InTx