People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 17, 28 April 1904, Page 10

People We Hear About

Mr. Michael Davitt called on President Roosevelt on February 15 and presented him with a blackthorn stick. Mrs. William O'Brien, wife of the well known Irish politician, will shortly publish a navel entitled ' Under Croagh Patrick.' A French edition will be iss,ued simultaneously. In an article on Irish brains in Amencan journalism the ' (Michigan Catholic ' says that Finley Peter LHinjie, the Mr. Dooley ' who is democratic and diplomatic,' now 'does special work for a New York publisher at a salary of £6000 a year. A cable message received last week states that Messrs. A. O'Brien (Ohristchurch) and P. M'cEvedy (Soutih>bridge) have been included in the English Rugby footbjall team* which is to visit Australia and New Zealand. They will represent Kent as three-quarters. Their mapy friends in Canterbury will be pleased to see those young athletes, who have gained much distinction" in the football field during their residence in London. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, referring to the marriage of the Duike of Norfolk, says : ' Probably the sole thorn, among the rose leaves for his homely Grace has been that he has been compelled to don a neww-ftockcoat. He is one of the few lining Englishmen who are at once rich enough and distinguished enough to be able to afford to wear old clothes.' 'Colonel Arthur Lynch when in Lewes prison composed a considerable number of sonnets, and subsequently a novel of from 30,000 to 40,000 worfls. As he was unable to commit these to paper, he carried them in his mind, and every morning his first exercise was tot repeat these sonnets and the rtovel. Since his release* he has written a poem, a number of sonnets, and a novel ; but it was merely a mechanical operation of setting down what he had already composed. He is now translating the novel linto French. The following Parnell story, revived by the ' Irish Packet,' is good : Parnell was n>uch addicted to literature, and he indulged in no superfluous tricks of oratory. But few finer tributes— unwilling though it was — were ever paid to genius and force of character than that flung at Parnell by ' Buckshot ' Forster on the Irish leader's first appearance in Parliament after his imprisonment and the ' Kilmaimham Treaty.' By a peculiar and ironical appropriateness, Forster was explaining his resignation of the Chief Secretaryship, when his voice was drowned by the cheers that greeted his great opponent's entrance. When he was able to resume, he uttered the memorable words, ' I think we may remember what a Tudor King said to a great Irishman in former times "If Ireland cannot govern the Earl of Kildare, then let tdie Earl of Kildare govern Ireland " In like mariner, if all Emglanid cannot govern the hon. member for Cork, then let us acknowledge that he is the greatest power in Ireland to-day.' Of, the, late Mr. M'Cann, MP, for St. Stephen's division of Dublin, whose death was recorded recently, T. P O'Connor says 'He entered the House of Commons late in life , "too late to accustom himself to the place, too late to make any impression upon it. But, nevertheless, he was an important torce in Ireland. He was a stockbroker by profession , had an instinct about money-making that amounted to genius, and made a vast fortune Then, when he had acquired wealth, some of his children, instead of seeking to enjoy it, went into religion, and lefv their prosperous homes, their wealth, their social delights behind them, and ministered to the poor and the suffering. Mr. M'Cann had something of the same apostolic spirit ; bbt, of course, it haid to take a different shape. He ga,ve himself the mission of increasing the material resources of his country, thereby hoping to do his share in the work of Ireland's resurrection. And he had in a few years done an immense deal. His fiist thought was that of the canal system of Ireland, which i ail ways had almost destroyed, should be renewed, as supplying the cheap form of transportation required for a poor country. In a few years shares that were worthless mounted up to a bie; premium , the canals were restored, and goods be^an to be freed from that dreadful and destructive toifi which the railway freights levy on the industries of Ireland. Next Mr. M'Cann attacked the land problem Wok a. lare;c estate in Co. CaVain, changed it from grazing; to tillage, built a bacon factory for the farmers around, and, in 'short, became an eaTthly Providence to all the countryside. It was no wonder that he was l<yved , it is no wonder that his loss is felt to he irreparable.'