Life — April 26, 1883 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BIOGRAPHETTES. O'DONOVAN ROSSA. “THE history of this ornament to the Peerage of England is one of the brightest jewels in Great Britain’scrown, The founder of his house was no less a personage than the famous crusader Godfrey de Beef-soup, but Donnie was immediately de- scended from his mother, who was somewhat related to his father by marriage. Born to patrician estate and principle, it is no wonder that the intense hatred of the Irish race which character- ized his ancestors should have been transmitted to O'Donovan, or that in his subsequent career he should have devoted his energies towards its persecution and destruction. _In this malignant work he has ever conducted himself with a shrewdness which cannot fail to excite admiration, His bold stroke in compelling the Irish peasantry to cut the coupons off their landlords’ cattle, re- fuse to pay their rent, and perpetrate other atrocities, has been suitably rewarded by Parliament, while his fearlessness in direct- ing the campaign, with only a narrow ocean between him and the vengeance of his foes, is a monument to his courage which needs no comment, Of late years a most malignant attempt has been made by Mr. Rossa’s enemies to injure his credit and character by insinuating that he is an Irishman, and that his efforts in cattle, rent and dy- namite affairs are really for the benefit of the people of the unfor- tunate Emerald Isle. This absurd story would need no refutation were it not that the ignorant really believe it. They do not see that his skirmishing fund js really an ingenious way of keeping the Irish poor, or that his fomenting of conspiracies is the best excuse for England's iron heel, or that his bloody harangues and writings are merely sly methods of working up popular British indignation against the Irish to an intensity which cannot fail to bring about the latter's utter annihilation, He is the best friend English tyranny possesses. fod \.. SX SS SS S SS aS NRC mae XI DION BOUCICAULT. OF the 98,793 plays extant, 98,741 are undoubtedly by Bouci- cault. ' The balance are genuine Dalys, Cazaurans, or Bo- lasco-Harrisons. Unreliable historians have, from time to time, attributed dramas to obscure writers, notably one W. Shakspeare, and to Aleck Dumas, Eddie Bulwer, and Vick Sardou, but the claims of these scribblers have been triumphantly disproven by Mr. Boucicault, and it is now positively known that he has written every drama in existence, with the exception of the few above mentioned, Mr. Boucicault is the most rapid playwright the world has ever seen. He has been known to enter a second-hand book store, and write an entire shelf-full of French plays in five min- utes, which certainly beats .he record of any other known dra- matist. Of late years, however, the demands upon him were so great that he was compelled to resort to the labor-saving device of putting dramatic material into a coffee mill, and selling the re- sult to managers in four pound packages—one pound to the act. Patriotic to the last degree, his plays are mostly laid in sunny Italy, where he was born. They are intense in coloring, and have'a depth of romance which is only equaled in the bear sto- ries of the New York Sum, or the sworn testimony of a Louisiana witness. He used to act in them himself, but the public heart was so deeply stirred by his genius that after a few nights the house was empty, and so, with his characteristic modesty, he re- frained, and now never acts where he is known. THE conjunction of dramatic and musical stars this past week has been dazzling. Nilsson, Patti, Salvini, Clara Morris, Albani, Del Puente and Modjeska have appeared at one time, to say nothing of Jumbo and John McCullough. comicbooks.com