Krriev of Rniews, lIS/OS. 



Character Sketch. 



MICHAEL DAVITT. 



A race of nobles may die out. But they fail not. the kingiiei- breed, The zeal of Nature nerer cools, 



A royal line may leave no heir. Who starry diadems attain: Nor is she thwarted of ber ends: 



Wise Nature sets no guards about To dungeon, axe. and stake succeed When gapped and dulled her cheaper tools. 

 Her pewter plate and wooden ware. Heirs of the old heroic strain. Then she a saint and prophet spends. 



—LOWELL. 



of hunger. And upon the brow of the child in 

 whose he.irt dwelt the undying Flame, the tears of a 

 starving outcast mother fell as the waters of Baptism, 

 which was his consecration to the service of Sorrow. 

 Rut the fashioning of the instrument of Deliver- 

 ance and of Doom 



When the Irish were evicted, fifty or sixty years 

 ago, from their miserable cabins on the Mayo hill- 

 side, the evictors, not content with levelling the 

 homestead to the ground, must needs set fire to the 

 wreck. And as the flame leapt up from one of 

 the smouldering cot- 

 tages in 1852 it en- 

 tered into the soul 

 of a boy of seven, 

 who had been born 

 there, and \\ho 

 stood affrighted by 

 the side of his par- 

 ents watching the 

 fire. That Flame, 

 becoming incarnate 

 in him, dwelt among 

 men for sixtv \ears 

 and came to be 

 known as Michael 

 Davitt, the Father 

 of the Land League. 



The boy fled from 

 the scene of desola- 

 tion, and with his 

 parents crossed the 

 narrow sea to Lan- 

 cashire. The great, 

 stony-hearted step- 

 mother impassively 

 received them, like 

 thousands of others, 

 and bade them work 

 or beg or stan-e. 

 \Vork was scarce in 

 those years of 

 dearth, and the 

 boy's earliest recol- 

 lection of his life in 

 England was that of 

 seeing his mother, 

 whom he loved and 

 worshipped as some- 

 thing divine among 

 mortals, begging 

 with tears for a 

 crust or a copper in 

 the streets of Man- 

 chester to keep the 

 familv from dving 



Photograph iyj The Late Michael Davitt. 



Vc 



was not vet com- 

 plete. The child be- 

 came a boy, and be- 

 fore he was twelve 

 he went blithely to 

 work in a cotton 

 mill to help to earn 

 his li\-ing. He was 

 set to work, all un- 

 knowing the perils 

 of the mill, in the 

 midst of unprotected 

 machinerv. His right 

 arm was caught in 

 the whirling wheels, 

 the bone crushed, 

 the joint torn from 

 its socket. The faint- 

 ing and tortured lad 

 was carried home. 

 For a fortnight he 

 refused to submit to 

 an amputation which 

 would mutilate him 

 tor life, and, accord- 

 ing to his rhildish 

 sLiperstition. not only 

 for this life. At 

 last, to save him 

 from death by gan- 

 g r e n e, he was 

 c h 1 o r o formed by 

 force, and when he 

 woke from the 

 deathly trance his 

 arm was gone, his 

 right arm I 



The mutilation 

 was his Dedication 

 to the Service of 

 Labour, for with his 

 left hand he was 

 destined to edit the 

 Labour World and 



