Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1917 — “DYNAMITE JOHNNY” O’BRIEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“DYNAMITE JOHNNY” O’BRIEN

It falls to the lot of few men to celebrate their eightieth birthday, much less when a man has led a life of adventure, has been mixed up in practically every revolution within the last sixty years in Central and South America, and has braved death hundreds of times. But such is the lot of Capt. John (Dynamite Johnny) O’Brien, who recently celebrated the passing of his eightieth year at the Hotel MeAlpin in New York. In honor of his birthday, President Menocal of Cuba ordered Victor Hugo Barrtthco, Cuban representative in New York to entertain tlie captain at an elaborate dinner; “Dynamite Johnny” was the real thing in adventure, the dynamite and munition artist in more than one Honduran, Panamanian, Haytien and Cuban revolution. It was he who, In 1896, took a shipload of dynamite and munitions to General Garcia, the Cuban insurrecto. He accompanied the late General Funston on a Cuban expeditlon before Funston was identified with the United States army. Richard Harding Davis and O. Henry wrote scores of stories with “Dynamite Johnny” as the hero.