CHARLES O'CONOR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 24, 9 October 1885, Page 11

CHARLES O'CONOR.

(From the Youth's Companion.) An Irishman seldom admits his inability to do whatever is asked of him. " I have, it myself," said Charles O'Conor, the famous New York lawyer, referring to this Irish trait. I should never hesitate to undertake anything from doubt of my ability to do it. I might have a good deal of trouble about it, bat I would manage to accomplish it some way."

A friend once said to him that he had been fitted by nature for a lawyer, and that no other profession would have proved so congenial to him.

" I do not think it would have made any difference what profession I had adopted," replied O'Conor. " I should have attained about the same relative success whether I had been bred a blacksmith, a doctor, a theologian, or a lawyer. I was just as fit and as unfit for one thing as for another. With hard work, for which I had capacity, I could have mastered almost anything after some fashion," Lord John Russell's critics used to insist that his self-confidence was as audacious as an Irishman's. Lord John, they said, would undertake to form a government, command the Channel Fleet, make a speech, compile a biography, write an essay for the Edinburgh Meview, or a " leader " for the London Tims.

Irishmen in thinking they can turn their hand to anything may be pardoned for their audacity, when one recalls the fact that Sheridan was both dramatist and orator ; that Goldsmith was poet, novelist, essayist, comedy-writer and naturalist ; and that Wellington could win battles, describe his campaigns, md govern a nation. It is not every nation who can back its self-confidence by such versatile deeds.

Mr. O'Conor's self-assertion is justified by his early life, whose study we commend to those who excuse their own failure by accusing circumstances. His father, as v»e learn from an article in the Century, was an improvident gentleman, who sent his son to school for only two months, and then put him with a manufacturer of turpentine, pitch, tar and lampblack. The boy received no pay, except his board, but in one year he became so familiar with the details of the business, that, when he signified his intention to leave, his employer offered him a man's wages. The other workmen would not, however, submit to a boy of 12 years being paid as much as a journeyman, and Charles, therefore, retired.

His father then Dlaced him with a lawyer who had little business, and no law-books. Charles managed, somehow, to get hold of a copy of " Blackstone's Commentaries," and read it through two or three times. He did not comprehend it, as his mind was to<> immature to gra9p the principles of legal science. Bat his persistence is shown by his reading through, at least twice, a book he did not understand.

He left that desolate office for another, and in his 18th year, he re-read Blackstone, and comprehended it. In those days even the most eminent lawyers owned very few books.

" A multitude of books distiacts the mind." O'Conor was forced to adhere to the old-school system of reading. Instead of rambling through many books, as is now the fashion, he mastered a few so thoroughly that he never forgot their contents. He knew not many things, but much. Mr. Tilden said that O'Conor had a more precise knowkdge of the science of jurisprudence than any other person living of the English-speaking race. After Mr. O'Conor was admitted to the bar, be had 25 dols., in his pocket. He hired an office, bought a desk, three old chairs, and a little stationery, and put up a small tin sign, but he did not own a single law-book. One day he saw a notice of a law library of 156 volumes for sale at 2 dols. a volume. Having no money or credit, he asked Mr. Pardow, a merchant, whom he knew slightly, to endorse his (O'Conor's) note. The merchant did so, as a favor, having faith in the success of his purpose in life, and the young lawyer puichased the coveted books. The library proved the means of his rapid rise to success ; fiom that day O' Conor never knew what it was to lack from a want of means.

An Irishman never forgets a favor or an injury. A thousand years of religious teaching have not made Ireland torgivc its enemies or forget its friends. She loves France to-day almost as much as she dislikes England. When Mr. O'Conor bad become famous and rich, he found the great-grand daughter of Mi. Pardow poor. He adopted her, and when he died, left her a third of his Urge estate.

So vivid was the lccollection of the days of his own poverty that he gave to all who came to him with the plea, " I am poor and needy." He knew that he was often deceived by impostors, but he could not shut his ears to that plea, saying :—": — " I am better for giving, even if the receiver is unworthy. '' He was once stopped in Broadway by a stranger who asked him for the loan of odols. He put his hand in bis pocket, draw out the amount, and handed it to the man. The befriended person was penniless and in despair. He asked a man standing near if he knew the name of that gentlemen.

'• That was Charles O'Conor, the lawyer," said the man

Thirty years after, Mr. O'Conor received a letter enclosing odols. from a person living in Virginia. It recited the facts, and promised to send 30 years' interest as soon as the writer was able. Mr. O"Conor wrote to the poor man, saying he accepted the Mols., as that would make the lender teel that he had discharged a duty, but he must decline to accept the interest.