The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-25
CONNOLLY, NEW
 LABOR LEADER,
 IS MODEST RYAN

New York, Aug. 25.-Patrick J. Connolly slipped silently as a shadow Frid1y afternoon into the of fees of the I. R. T., where he has been causing so much commotion, pulled his chair up to a desk, sas down with great deliberation, looked seriously at his interviewer and re- marked:
 Fire away. Anything but the strike!''
 Here was the man who had turned things topsy-turvy in New York for d couple of days; whose eyes were heavily underlined with sleeplessness; who was tense with the strain of a hard fight and a victory won. Less than 8 week ago few outside his inti- mate circle knew that such man ex- isted. Today every enc wants to know just who Connolly is.
 It would be hard to ina zine the leader of the striking transit forces doing anything casually. He was des- perately serious about being inter- viewed, and he furnished a series of surprises. There is not a hint of the roseur -Nout him; nothing trucculent from the top of his stubbly. close cropped, gray head to the soles of his heavily shod feet.
 It could not have been his personal magnetism that led the strikers out. held them in leash and finally got them back to work again, for he is not the typical strike leader of fire and birthstone, enthusiasm and fam boyant oratory. It must rather have been his common sense that com mended him to the men.
 ,.t ', ,a odToittnd that he was not a socialist, and that the last thing in the world he wanted to be was an agitator. But if he is not a socialist he is an ardent Sim Feiner. That is understood as soon as he voices the rich tones of Con naught, where, as every lr1shman knows, the brogue is thicker than anywhere else in the Emerald Isle. He speaks with infinite deliberation- with the hesirancy of the quiet man and the slow thinker.
 Connolly has none of the mental or physical characteristics of the fight CT. His strength lies in a certain solidity of characteS and quiet dog gedness of purpose that make grad ual impression on his auditors. He IS small. stocky square, with large bones and strong sinews-the type of man who has weatherd the out-or- doors and been too familiar with hardships in his boyhood days to grow tall or lissome.
 His head is bullet shaped, with prorninent cheek bones, long upper lip. taut lean jaw and Hmped eyes that look out with exaggerated frank ness from under heavily fringed lash es. He is transparently honest, franN and dircet-believes in laying all his cards on the table and trusting his fellow men.
 ~ot that life has dealt too kindly with Connolly. Rather the reverse Bu+ he does not harbor any grudges. He believes in evolutionary reform and thinks sudden and revolutionary p,eosnres disastrous. Back of his in- tense practicality an unexpected vein of idealism is discernible.
 Strangely enough, this little man with the srraying hair, who has been driving an 'rL' train for s5 day, longs for something else. His days slip by to the amending roar of city life - grime, noise, skyscrappers crowded streets-and all the time his heart beats to the slow, sweet echoes of Dastoral life. and he longs to be hack in the country. For there he was born and bred-in the little vfl- | iage of Meena grene. County Leitrim and there his 7o-year-old mother | lives today.
 When New York became more than he could bear he bought a six-roon cottage out near Yonkers and when he gets home at night he feels tha; | he Is a little nearer 10 Mother Ma ture. His chief Joy in life is sowing, reaping and watching things grow SO that his cottage Is a thing of beauty wit.' lines creeping over IL. flower garden lying around 1t, fruit trees shading it and hens cackling in the back yard.
 Much as he likes the country he is -oinz to stick with transportation, ! however, and do his best to help his