A DYNAMITER AS A POET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5730, 25 November 1896, Page 2

A DYNAMITER AS A POET.

«. The combination of dynamiter and writer of light society verse is one that is necessarily interesting, even when the verse in question is some distance below the level of Austin Dobson or Mackworth Praed. The notorious Tynan —the "No. 1" of the Phoenix Park murder gang, the extradited criminal, the synonym for anarchy and general lawlessness — was, if we are to believe the Pall Mall Gazette, at one time celebrated for his habit of emulating Silas Wegg, and "dropping into poetry." In the early seventies Tynan and his people kept a stationer's shop and a small lending library in the main street of Kingstown, the arrival and departure point of the Irish mails. In those days Tynan was regarded as a pleasant companion, one whose tastes were of a somewhat cultured kind, and who had leanings in a literary direction. He was especially given to the production of squibs or lampoons in verse on local affairs and passing events, and this led him in 1878 to publish anonymously a small collection of local rhymes, to which he gave the title of "Ye Kingstbwne" Ballades, by ye Kingstowne Barde." A few specimens will show that Tynan could rhyme with some facility. The following is a description of Westland Row, a dilapidated railway terminus which " Ye Barde " fell in with on the journey from Dublin to Kingstown : — No grand old turret meets the eye. No pillar lifts its crest ; And when the thing was made, or why, Has never yet been gnes=ecl. The builder's name from Glory's niche Had vanished years ngo ; \ Yet, still we lore the ruins which Are down in Westlaod Eow. Tynan's "muse" loves the pavement. There is more satire of the same kind as the foregoing at the expense of the Kingstown Station : — Whose doors are there, as I am told, To let in lots of rain, And give each wretched sinner cold Who's wniting for the train.— and a similar mild onslaught on the membership of a certain club : •Tis called by some the Royal George, (It is St George by right) ; There all dav long ths members gorge Themselves, nnd drink at night. He occasionally attempted a sentimental flight, as in "The Belle of George Street": Her hair was blacker than the night, Or brighter than the day ; Yet whether it was dark or light I can't exactly say. And though I've tried I cannot yet Describe, in language meet Enough, the charms of her I met In Lower George's Street. These specimens are sufficient to give some indication of the mental state of the notorious dynamiter eighteen years ago. Feeble as they are, they prove that Tynan had an acquaintance with the more cultured walks of life and a capacity to excel in them that might have been expected to lead Mm anywhere but to the career of crime on which he afterwards embarked. Many interesting details by means of a microscope have been discovered connected with the life of the ancient Egyptians in a brick taken from the ruins of the pyramids of Dahshur. The bripk itself is made of mud from the Nile, chopped straw, and sand, thus confirming what the Bible and Herodotus had handed down to us .as to the Egyptian method of brickmaking.