KEARNEY, THE AGITATOR OF SAN FRANCISCO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 272, 19 July 1878, Page 7

KEARNEY, THE AGITATOR OF SAN FRANCISCO.

Dexxis Kearney, until last week the " President of the Workingmen's Party of San Francisco,"' was actually in the ranks of the Committee of Safety last July, and did his part in the suppression of the rioters ;he had no affiliation with the hoodlums whatever. Those riots did, however, in one sense give rise to this new political party, for it awakened in Kearney and others of his acquaintance a 'train of thought on the labour question which soon afterwards found voice on tho corners of the streets, and from that grew into an organization which numbers to-day — only six months from the date of its birth — hundreds of thousands of active working members and sympathizing friends. The organization, if wisely directed, might bo productive of great benefit to .the workingmen and to the country ; but there is danger that wild counsel will be taken and reckless movements inaugurated which must recoil with disastrous eiiecls on the popular body.

Dennis Kearney is an Irishman from the county of Cork, and is now thirty-one years of age. He came to New York when eleven years old, and from that time onward, for ten years, he sailed between Boston, New York, and Baltimore in the Connecticut, Bounding Billow, Joseph Chcston, and other vessels. He arrived in San Fra'£ cisco in 186S, as first officer of the Shooting Star, from Alexandria, Va. He followed the sea-faring business for about five years on tho coast, then found work on the wharf as a foreman of labourers, and soon after he became boss drayman on a small scale. His personal appearance, from an intellectual standpoint, is not attractive. His hair comes down low on his forehead, and is thick and towsy, of the buffalo style. His face is not repulsive, but is not winning or enchanting by any means, and he has managed to got it well browned, or takes pride in deeping it dirty. In his habiliments he is indifferent to the allurements of the artist tailor. He is slouchy in his make-up and in his gait. Of course, ha has honestly earned his costume, and has a right to. wear what he pleases ; but there is a suspicion that he might be less popular if he dressed better. A Diogenes is more to the liking of the multitude than is a Beau Brummell, and Kearney shows his appreciation of that predilection in sticking to the drayman's wellworn toggery, and eschewing new broadcloth.

His training for public speaking was attained at Sunday debates on the social and political questions of the day in a small reformers' hall in San Francisco. He is neither slow of speech nor delicate in utterance. His language is of the ordinary street stamp, largely interspersed with strong adjectives and cursing epithets. He seems perfectly indifferent about the julgment of others, and evidently regards Dennis Kearney as the best judge of what he should say and how he should say it, — Exchange,