rom the Vatican, although he was a most devoted Roman Catholic. He
would take, he said, without question his religion from Rome, but not
his politics. There was no great cause of freedom upheld all through the
world in his time, but he clung to it and cleaved to it. The writer of
this article once talked to Mr. Gladstone about O'Connell, well knowing
that in early life Mr. Gladstone had been a great admirer of O'Connell's
abilities. Mr. Gladstone told many anecdotes of O'Connell's personal
energy in pursuit of any purpose which he believed to be just, and in
illustration of his wonderful mastery over even a thoroughly hostile
audience. When asked what he believed to be O'Connell's principal
characteristic, Mr. Gladstone paused for a while and thought the
question out, and then gravely and deliberately answered: "I should
think his greatest characteristic was a passion of philanthropy." A
passion of philanthropy! Is it possible to have a nobler epitaph
pronounced on one than that--and pronounced by such a man? No man in our
modern history was ever so bitterly and savagely denounced in England as
O'Connell. No words were too rough for him. He was commonly called in
English newspapers the "Big Beggarman." He was accused every day, of
making a fortune out of the contributions of a half-starving people. The
truth was that all and much more than all the money raised by the Irish
people, was spent on the agitation for repeal of the Union. The truth
was that O'Connell gave up his splendid practice at the bar, for the
sake of advocating the Irish national cause. The truth was that he spent
his own money and reduced his own property to all but pauperism, for the
sake of advancing the same cause. The truth was that he died poor,
leaving his children poor. But he had his reward. A man whom Mr.
Gladstone could describe as possessed above all other things by a
passion of philanthropy, may leave his memory safely in the charge of
those whose best interests he honestly strove to serve.

[Signature of the author.]

SIMON BOLIVAR[9]

By HON. JOHN P. ST. JOHN

(1783-1830)

[Footnote 9: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

[Illustration: Bolivar. [TN]]

So far as the world knew, the birth of Simon Bolivar at Caracas,
Venezuela, on July 24, 1783, was of no greater importance than that of
any other child. Perhaps but one person entertained the slightest
thought that he would ever be the hero of many battles and the lib