Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1890 — PICTURE OF PARNELL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PICTURE OF PARNELL.

SMALLEY'S PEN-DRAWING OF THE FAMOUS IRISHMAN. (irtlen of Alt Propriety —He Ipior*» All Personal and Social Obligations, and Yet Is a Great I eader of Men —A Master of the Art of Obstruction. This most interesting pen picture of Mr. Parnell yet printed is furnished by the confessedly unfriendly hand of-George W. Smalley, one of the best known of London correspondents: “Mr. Parnell, be the merits or demerits of his home-rule policy what they may, has been, at any rate, a great figure in public life. He has led not a great party, -but a party large enough to hold the balance of power in English politics, with extraordinary ability and power. * * * * "When he entered the House of Commons the cause of homo rule was the cause of a despised and powerless minority. Today Mr. Parnell’s watchword is written on the banners of all that is left —and the greater part in numbers is left—of the Liberal party of Great Britain. He accomplished this amazing result by methods not less amazing. He defied the House, trampled on its traditions, broke its rules of deliberate purpose, organized a conspiracy against the very life of parliamentary government, set himself to degrade and dishonor the oldest parliamentary assemblage in the world, the mother of parliaments, the prototype and pattern of every legislature, State or Federal, in the United States of Amer-

jestrHe endured censure and suspension; he court d both. Ho allied himself first with one party, then with the other; used both, despised both, hated both, and was by turns the master of both. “He studied the rules and orders of the House till there was, save the Speaker, none who knew them so well as he. It is a kind of knowledge more formidable in tho House itself than any other, or perhaps all others. He mastered them in Abler to misuse them; to pervert them, ovortlirow them; to destroy them and tho legislative es-

ficiency of the House together. He invented and perfected tho art of obstruction. He committed every conceivable crime against the dignity and authority of Parliament He was not, and is not, a good speaker, nor even, in the ordinary sense, a good debater. Yet, in the end, he subdued this proud assembly to his will. He conquered his place. Ho was heard and almost obeyed. The House, which used to apply to him all kinds of discipline, sometimes rather childishly, found itself in the end compelled to treat him, and to treat with him. as an equal. “The old parliamentary hand himself

was not his superior as a tactician either in the House or before the country, and, finally, as we all know, MrGladstone, like the House, had to capitulate. A capitulation is pot an unconditional surrender, and there wefo conditions in. both cases. Hut in both cases it was a surrender. Mr. Parnell is entitled to the glory of having brought

hfe chief enemies to terms, and te wtf hard terms. Mr. Gladstone’s was perhaps the more humllitwo * and certainly the more

completo •nd on the harder term*. Within five years from the day on which Mr. Gladstone locked np Mr. Parnell in Kihnalnham jail Mr. Parnell had forced Mr. Gladstone to abandon his Irish policy, to renounce his Iri9h principles and to march the remnant of his shattered legions, with arms reversed and drums muffled, into the Parnellite camp. “Mr. Parnell has always been the mystery man of politics, and people now think that the mystery is cleared up. The mystery was Mrs. O’Shea. When Mr. Parnell was not in the House of Commons he was at Eltham in her society or at some one of the many other places in which this long intrigue was at different times carried on. His absences were often commented on, never publicly explained. Never did any man carry mystery and secrecy so far. It was supposed at one time that Mr. Parnell cloaked his movements because he dreaded assassination.

“He cared nothing for society, but of late years some of his new Liberal allies or their wives have sought him and asked him to dine. If they knew his ways, they sent their invitations by telegraph; nor were they even then always received. “Mrs. O’Shea is no ordinary woman, nor is she an adventuress. She is of the bluest English blood and is a woman of intellect and refinement. Her brother, Sir Evelyn Wood, is one of the best generals in the British army and, after Lord Wolseley and Sir Frederick Roberts, who are both Irishman, next in the line of promotion for commander-in-chief. Mrs. O’Shea is handsome, with a pearly white skin, a wealth of golden hair and a graceful, voluptuous figure. She has a fascinating manner and is charming in conversation, with cultivated literary tastes and a man’s knowledge of politics. The breath of suspicion had never touched her until she met Parnell. She started in to help him politically and ended by becoming infatuated with him. The fascination was mutual. “O’Shea is the son of a Limerick attorney who left him a large fortune, which he squandered in horse racing and gambling. He was an officer In a crack cavalry regiment, a dashing, lady-killing fellow with a good figure and attractive manners. He married Kitty Wood when she was in her teens, but the pleasures of the mess-room and tho race course had more attraction for him than home. When he lost liis money he left tho army and lived on his wife’s, spending it freely on wine, women and horses. Ho often remained months away from home and utterly neglected his wife. Getting into Parliament for County Clare through the influence of the Catholic bishops, he foisted himself “bn Parnell through his wife’s entreaties and proceeded to earn a good Government berth by maklrg himself useful. He closed his eyes to what everybody know and finally only acted from mercenary motives. He is the most thoroughly despised cad in London to-day. Under other circumstances and with a man for a husband Mrs. O'Shea would have made a good wife. There can be no doubt that Parnell will marry her.”

MRS. O’SHEA TEN YEAR; AGO.

WONERSH, CAPTAIN O’SHEA'S HOUSE AT ELTHAM.

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL.

CAPTAIN O'SHEA,