ALFRED GEARY 329 



assailant, died in his delusion. Before joining the original 

 staff of the ' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News/ 

 Geary had had an exciting experience as the editor of an 

 English newspaper published on the River Plate. It was 

 surprising to those who best knew him in that capacity 

 that he came through without sustaining a single scratch. 

 He was utterly fearless with his pen, and more than once 

 wrote at the risk of his life. There was an occasion when 

 he lounged into the theatre in his cool, calm, imperturbable 

 manner, well aware that an incensed desperado had 

 threatened to put a bullet into him if he showed up. 

 Nothing happened. At a breakfast given to Geary on the 

 eve of his departure to the Cape, to assume the post of 

 editor of a Grahamstown journal, the proposer of his health 

 facetiously predicted that their guest would not be three 

 months in South Africa without plunging the country into 

 war. As a matter of fact, he was not long there before his 

 pen ran away with him, and his friends in London had 

 news that ' Geary had been at it again.' He was engaged 

 in editing his own journal, the ' Lantern,' at Capetown, 

 when, after a long and enfeebling illness, he died. It is no 

 figure of speech, but the simple honest truth, to say that 

 he died deeply and affectionately regretted by all who most 

 intimately knew him. With reference to the deplorable 

 libel on Sir Joseph Hawley, Geary always declared that if he 

 had had his own way Dr. Shorthouse would have escaped 

 from the severer penalties which attached to the publication 

 of the onslaught. Pie wished to give himself up as the 

 author, but Dr. Shorthouse, with a mistaken sense of 

 chivalry, sturdily refused his sanction, and took the blame 

 on himself. 



THE ANCESTRY OF ISONOMY 



In reference to the forbears of Common, and, there- 

 fore, of Isonomy, AUGUR (Mr. G. S. Lowe), writing in the 

 * Sporting Life' with the St. Leger impending, says : ' It 

 is very remarkable how this great equine family has risen 

 to its present position, as it originated from the little weedy 

 mare Silence, by Flatcatcher, and she belonged to an old 

 friend of mine, and was ridden as a hack by himself and 

 wife. When she was nine years old Silence produced 

 Whisper, who was also hacked about, but became a great 

 stud matron as the dam of Sterling.' 



