Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1920 — SINGER IS DEPORTED [ARTICLE]

SINGER IS DEPORTED

Boy Stowaway Has Wonderful Singing Voice. Sweet Tenor of Erin Enchants Ellis Islanders, but U. 8., Senda Him Back. New York. —Francis O’Brien, a young stripling famous on Bails island as a stowaway and as a tenor of promise, who is on the high seas on his return voyage to Ireland,* is a living proof that a birth certificate may sometimes prove an essential document in the pursuit of a career as a singer. Were it not for his lack of such a document as proof of his contention * that he was born in Philadelphia and that his parents took him to Ireland when be was four years old, young O'Brien might now be winning the hearts of American music lovers as did John McCormack, the emulation of

whose career led the lad to secrete himself on an American-bound vessel some three weeks ago. Instead, immigration officials, who have only cold, legal instructions to gqlde them in making decisions, saw fit to place him on an outgoing ship and let him try to establish the essential facts concerning his birth after his return. O’Brien, however, despaired of being able to prove much about his origin, because his father and mother are both dead, and he has no relatives in Ireland. The young tenor's fame as a singer probably would never have started to spread had it not been for a slight illness contracted on Ellis Island, causing him to be placed in the hospital for treatment. The nurses there became enchanted with his singing, and before be was deported he was giving concerts for the other Inmates of the hospital as well as for the inhabitants of the Island generally. As a result.

O’Brien’s name today is on the Ups of all Elifs island. The hospital attendants were calling his name with tender eulogy and expressing extreme sorrow that he had to go back. O’Brien Is only one of hundreds of such cases that are sent back to their original place of embarkation every month.