Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1891 — A LIMBLESS STATESMAN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A LIMBLESS STATESMAN.

A man without arms or legs, who could write an elegant hand, shoot well, be a skillful sailor and fisherman, and ride horseback so well that he was accounted one of the best cross-country riders in Ireland, was indeed a surprising character. But Mr. Kavanagh was, besides, a man of great intellectual and moral superiority. He was one of the best as weil as one of the largest landlords in Ireland. He was an able and highly considered member of Parliament. He seldom spoke, but was an assiduous and valuable member. The writer of this article has seen him carried into the House of Commons by his servant and set down upon one of the Liberal benches. Of how delightful and admirable a man he was this will give an idea. A gentleman who was for two weeks his guest at Borris, told the writer, says the New York Herald, that he wanted very much to find out how Kavanagh was fed, but that his conversation was so extremely interesting that at each ,meal he would forget all about his intention of satisfying his curiosity on that point. The fact is, however, Kavanagh ate with a fork attached to the stump of his arm. He wrote holding the pen in ihis teeth, and he wrote very nicely and finely. In riding he held the bridle in his mouth, his body being strapped to bis saddle. In shooting we presume he held the gun with the stump of his arm against his body, but how he sue-

needed in pulling the trigger we do not know. < The Kavanaghs are one of the most ancient families in the British Islands. They were the early Kings of Leinster. The famous Strongbow married an Eva Kavanagh. The Kavanaghs have also been Austrian nobles. The charter horn of the Leinster Kings—a large, fluted cornucopia of ivory, mounted on brass and resting on a brass easel—is among the heirlooms at Borris.

THE LATE ARTHUR KAVANAGH. M. P.