THE KILKENNY ELECTION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 571, 17 February 1891, Page 2

THE KILKENNY ELECTION.

DRAMATIC SCENE AT THE CLOSE OF THE POLL.

The counting of the ballot papers of the recent Kilkenny election was a dramatic scene. The London Daily News special wires :—' It was a pity there was nobody there to take an instantaneous photo of the little SCESE IN THE COUBT-lIOUSE, When the sub-sheriff rose to announce the figures there were some sixty or seventy of us present. At tho side of the long table sat Sir John P. Hennessy,a prim little man, with an expression of elevation on his thin sharp features, and as neat as if he had been carefully taken out of a bandbox for the occasion. By his side sat the organiser of this victory, Mr Michael Davitt, in a brown study, twiddling the corners of his black beard. The renowned Michael is the ‘ magpie ' of Mr Parnell's speeches. Dr Tanner is the ‘ gutter sparrow ;’ all the rest are ‘ scum.' Why Mr Parnell calls his chief opponent tho ‘ magpie ’is not quite easy to understand, unless it is that Mr Davitt is what Mr Whistler would call an ‘ arrangement in black,’ black hair, black beard and moustache, dark eyes, black felt hat, and black Canadian overcoat adorned with black facings, and black wool of Astrkohan. The * Magpie ’ was, as I have said, in a brown study, or, more properly speaking, up in the clouds. Not so the ‘ Gutter Sparrow,’ He had a flower in his buttonhole. His neat brown bat was tilted jauntily on one side. He was in riding costume of baggy corduroys and tight gaiters. Beneath his left arm was his trusty sbillelsgli, and with both hands stuck deep into bis pockets, chest thrown out, legs striding apart, and a smile on his jovial face, he leisurely surveyed his friend the enemy. Within arm's reach of the 1 gutter sparrow ’ stood 1 the cowardly little scoundrel ’ of Committee Room No. 15. ‘ The cowardly little scoundrel' has had his revenge, if he cares for revenge, which I know he does not. Mr Tim Healy’s savage sarcasms have perhaps done more thin anything else In thia contest to provoke personalities from Mr Parnell. There

THZ PAIR STOOD F.CE TO FICZ : Mr Healy on one side of the room, Mr Parnell on tha other, two embodiments of the tragiccomedy or comic-tragedy of Irish history. In the background with Mr Redmond and Mr Harrington close beside him stood Mr Parnell with h's bandage covering nearly half his face. Bandage or no bandage, and in spite of his commonplace, almost slovenly attire, you would have picked him out of a thousand men. He stood proudly erect. Not the faintest shadow of emotion or feeling of any sort passed over Mr Parnell's free when the figures were read out. The face was as calm and fixed as the face 0! a marble in the British Museum, Af -er they were made known the victorious candidate leaped to his feet and uttered a few prim and correct compliments to the presiding officer, and made a prim and correct little bow. Then ■ Magpie ’ came down from the clouds. Then out they went brushing shoulders with Mr Parnell, bestowing not even a glance upon him—the ‘ Magpie ' first, then the prim candidate, then Mr Healy, then Dr Tanner with hie sturdy stride and beaming face, and the ' uncrowned king' was left alone. I remained behind, but I could hear

THE nowr, AND THE YELL of the five or six thousand outside, as Sir J. P. Hennessy and his frfends appeared at the doorway. But a wild roar of cheering broke forth when, a few minutes later, and after his opponents had gone, Mr Parnell came out. He stood in the middle of the balcony which runs along the whole front of the Courthouse. This balcony was crowded with Mr Parnell's supporters. Down below in the street, and in the space between it and the Courthouse, were the cheering multitudes. But I nped hardly say that there were very few voters among them, There were hundreds and hundreds among them who not only have no votes, but who are not likely ever to have any. They were roughs, loafers, corner boys from the back streets of Kilkenny and towns far and near, Some half-dozen long and denselypacked ranks of these, one behind the other, occupied the front of the crowd. *So long as we have 1400 men like our voters in this election,' said Mr Parnell, in a firm, clear voice, ‘we shall not despair.’ Cheers from the five or six thousand, but more especially from the mass of non voters. 1 This is only the first of a series of 86 battles.' They whoop and yell their approval. *We are face to face WITH A OBEAT CONSTIBACY, a conspiracy to strike me down, organised by Mr Michael Davitt.’ Curses for the • Magpie,’ Mr Parnell had just said that he was about to appeal to the people when a familiar voice cried out swiftly and cruelly, * You have made your appeal, and you have been whipped.’ It was the ‘cowardly little scoundrel ’ of Committee Room No. 15. Have you overseen a pack of excited dogs springing up confusedly among each other behind their iron bars, barking and yelping for a rush out ? Those 1 have mentioned in the crowd behaved very mnch in the same way. If they could have pulled down Mr Tim Healy from the balcony they would have TOES HIM TO PIECES. They leaped and swayed about and howled, while Mr Healy quietly gazed at them with a cnrl of contemptuous scorn on his lip. Mr Healy has his faults like the rest of us saiats, but cowardice is not one of them. It is impossible to overpraise the conduct of the constabulary throughout all this straggle. At the moment which I have just been describing, in the twinkling of an eye strong bodies of them came up at the double, fully armed, and took up their position between the roughs and the balcony and at different stages strategic points along the streets. In a quarter of an hour more the horses were taken out of Mr Parnell’s car. Men took their places, and the * uncrowned king ’ was drawn through the streets of Kilkenny.