ERSKINE CHILDERS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 4

ERSKINE CHILDERS.

LONDON, November 25. "Childers was a gentleman,'' writes "One Who Knew Him," in the London "Daily Mail." . , "His quiet manner contrasted strongly witfh the fierce bucolics of rural Sinn Fein and the ranting fanaticism of de Valera. He was not young, yet when the mad adventure of last June began he left his comfortable Rathmines villa and took to the hills like the rest. He was an outlaw, and probably the most hated man in Ireland. Though physically a wreck and ought to" have been in hospital, he roamed the Munster mountains with a Colt revolver strapped to his thigh. "He was utterly sincere, and if he fought hard, he fought clean. "Apart from politics he was a charming, courteous and witty man of the world, but quite ruthless. Recently, illness ravaged his body, and his face was devoid of expression, like a mask in a Greek tragedy. "A slight limp, a legacy of the King's service, added to the curiously sinister expression he made at first sight. It is alleged that the influence of an invalid wife, who rarely leaves her couch, and to whom he was devotedly attached, drove him further than he would otherwise have gone."