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Show 4- 4 - : fflaud otme : Miss Maud Gonne, the "Irish Joan of Arc," whose sensational appearance at pro-Boer meetings in Dublin last Sunday caused the police to arrest her companion, James Connolly, the Irish republican, and to tear the Transvaal flag from her own hands, has taken a new tack in her agitation for Irish independence. in-dependence. Thus far Miss Gonne has been a friend of Ireland, but in her new role she appears as an enemy to England, Eng-land, and is exciting bitter animosity in the hearts of the English. Ever since she took up the cause of Ireland Miss Gonne has been active. She has spoken to thousands of people in America and on the continent of Europe, and in England itself, and has proved herself a formidable politician, organizer and lecturer. She has been called a conspirator by the British press. This powerful agitator is the ciintiest woman imaginable, whose remarkable re-markable beauty, still owns the charm of dewey youth. Her dresses are marvels mar-vels of exquisite taste; her boots and bonnets might drive a prima donna mad with envy. Her capacity for leadership lead-ership in the salon is not less, than her ability as a lecturer and a writer. Her face has been portrayed upon the canvases of srrea.t artists ivo ! lighted in their task, and sculptors have j tried to immortalize her beautiful form ', in marble. There is no drawing room ; in Europe which is not honored to , have her as its guest, and hundreds of gallant men have loved her, but in vain, for she is devoted body and soul to her country. This Jeanne d'Arc of Ireland is taller than most women, slender, superbly proportioned, of regal grace of carriage, car-riage, anc "divinely fair." She has the broad, low brow of the old classic type, a straight, delicate nose, deep, lustrious eyes shaded by long, rather level brows, and a wreath of wavy, light brown hair, which ripples back from her smooth brow over "two small, well-set ears, to become a tiara for her small, shapely head. Miss Gonne , is not "Irish" in the usAial acceptance of the term. Her forbears come from the north of Ireland, and her father, an Irish colonel in the British army, was classed as Orange, aristocratic and conservative. Her people were members of the vice regal social circle and the young girl herself was brought up in the very atmosphere of Dublin ' castle. Indeed, when she was 17 or IS years of age she was the reigning beauty of the vice regal court, and that she did not become imbued with the anti-Irish spirit of the people among whom she lived is a wonder. Her conversion to the Irish cause was the work of a dramatic incident she saw shortly after her return from a residence of several years in England at school. One of the tenants of an estate es-tate contiguous to that of the Gomes was a land leaguer named MoGrath who had won renown by the long and vigorous fight he had made against a suit for eviction. He was regarded as a hero by his neighbors, and hero he was for while he was fighting his case hJ had also to earn a living for himself and his children. This man was regarded re-garded as a dangerous criminal by the aristocratic family and friends of Miss Gonne. in the midst of his fight McGrath was taken ill and died, and his widow and little onee were evicted from their small holding. Miss Gonne, whese heart has nltvn- Koo,- . . uvvu urii'uci, v'.ujita tne poor people. She heard the lamentations lamenta-tions of the bereaved onc-s and their friends over the dead body. She sat with them and did all she could to console them, and from that moment she determined to enroll herself among-those among-those who were giving their lives to the cau?e of the suffering Irish. In 1SSS, when Miss Gonne was about 20, her father died and beo.ueathed to her his entire estate. Finding herself free and rich, she became at once intensely in-tensely active. For years she worked among the evicted tenants, neither sparing her strength nor her money, and when the amnesty campaign, looking look-ing to the release of the political prisoners pris-oners from English prisons, was inaugurated in-augurated she was its warmest promoter pro-moter most zealous and enrgetic propagandist. prop-agandist. When, owing to the Parnell-ite Parnell-ite siplit. things were in a bad way at home, Misu Gonne crossed to France, where her reception was most flattering. flatter-ing. There she started a newspaper at her own expens3 L'Irelande Libre and through it, ae well as .from the platform in all parts of France and Beigium, she advanced Ireland's arguments argu-ments and. appeals for justice ably that a big sympathetic movement has resulted, which takes its name from To Ireland Miss Gonne has devoted all her time, all her exceptional talents as a writer, speaker and politician, all her great influence with mien, and a large part of her income. Xo single Irishman has done so much for his country and his people in the same time a has been accomplished by this beautiful, beau-tiful, dainty, brilliant, courageous girl. Some notion of Miss Gonne's clearness clear-ness and strength may be derived from a few remarka made at random to an interviewer on the occasion of her late visit to America. She eaid: "In Ireland we hear a great deal about the benefits of Queen Victoria's rule. When we recall that n 1S37 (the year Victoria came to the throne) the population of Ireland was 8,000,000, and its taxation about $,000,000, while today to-day its population is only 4,500,000, and ita taxation about $58,000,000, it does not become quite clear that we have adequate ade-quate reason to sing 'God Save the Queen.' "There is no material improvement in the condition of our people. The population pop-ulation continues to diminish. England exacts more and more taxes in proportion, propor-tion, as the iopulation grows less. In all other countries, while amnesty has been granted to political prisoners, there are Irish political prisoners who have been kept in the murderous and lunatic-making dungeons of England for fifteen years. Seven out of seventeen of these prisoners ntie unveu ma.. "The American people have received come object lessons fa. the way England Eng-land treats political prisoners, when, not long ago, the American citizens, Gallagher and AVhitehead, were sentv over from English prisons to the United Unit-ed 'States, only when these poor fellows fel-lows had been driven hopelessly m- 6a"You will excuse me for saying that the United States Should protect her citizens, whether they be detained in the British prisons of Ireland or in the Spanihs prisons of Cuba." |