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Show A A A , . . 4- 4- 4- 4- -r -t- t t -r f t- r r t v. THE IBlSH JOAN OF ABC. New York, Jan. 29. Miss Maud Gonne, the Irish Joan of Arc,, arrived today oh' the French line steamer "La Normandie", from Havre. : Miss Gonne coiud say but lfttle about her future movements in this country, beyond the fact that she would stay a month and then hurry back' to Ireland, a3 her time j ;. vas fully engaged there. She will ad- J dress 'several meetings in the interest t of the Eoers. Upon the arrival of "La Kormandie" at the pier Miss Gonne wa .escorted to the Fifth Avenue hotel. "The object of my visit here," said Miss Gonne, "is to arouse sentiment here in favor of. the Boera I have been in France, Germany and Holland and there have heard expressions of surprise sur-prise that America was not foremost in championing: the Boers. They are struggling for liberty, they are fighting as you did for independence. I believe that the sentiment in favor of the IJoers is growing, and I shall do all in my power to fan the flame. "Another reason that I am here is to cement the unity of sentiment between be-tween the Irish In America and the Irinh in. Ireland. .That sentiment is so cirong now in Dublin that they do not care to march the troops down the jr. a in streets for fear of having them hissed and assaulted. The present time is the best that Ireland has ever had to strike a blow for freedom. s "In Ireland today there are only 6.000 soldiers, where formerly- tnere were 0,000. One reason that Ireland is not in a gxod position to strike a blow is because she had strictly followed Par- ntll'c ivanhinrr that lihprtv fnillrt hp se cured by parliamentary motions. It was said that we could have freedom ly asking and holding out our hands. God knows that our hands have been hvld out long enough. Now we see t.iat we must. go back to the'first idea; ' freedom must come by force. The epirit In Ireland today is the same as in lbC7." In speaking of striking a blow at England. Miss Gonne admitted that the constabulary must be reckoned with. She said, however, that England is in a position where she must grant demands. de-mands. ' "To nations as to the individual," indi-vidual," she- continued, "there comes an hour of destiny, and Ireland's hour j has come, and sae must not let it sip. "One work of the Irish party is to I etop enlistment. Ten years ago there v ore oO.OCO Irish in the army, and now there are not 2,500. At present recruiting recruit-ing is at a standstill." To illustrate the strait? to which the . English have been put for men. Miss Gonne told the following story: "I was visiting the North Dublin hospital when two recruiting sergeants came in to get recruits. After much labor they eecured two. Both men were ill and the nurse said they could hardly stand one drill. The papers" in England may be agitating that England put 50,000 men in the Jield, but she will have very hard woik getting them." Miss Gonne also told the story of her recent arrest in Dublin, while driving . to a meeting of Boer sympathizers. The United Irish, German and Holland Hol-land societies of New York joined in velcominer aud Gonnle to New York. 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4 4 4- 4- She -will lecture and w.o'rk in this country coun-try for. the purpose of exciting American Ameri-can sympathy for the people of the Transvaal who are fighting against Enzland. . . Misa Gonne will be readily remembered remem-bered aa the young woman who has long been known as the "Irieh Joan of Arc." This title was given her by the people of Ireland in appreciation of her ; ardent espousal of the cause of their independence. I This will not be the first visit that Misa Gonne has made to America. Three years ago ehe came here on a lecturing tour, endeavoring to arouee In the "sons of Ireland in America the spirit of '98 which dominated their, ancestors an-cestors in their great struggle of 1798"; and to solicit means for the alleviation allevia-tion of the misery of. those who were then in destitute circumstances in the Emerald Isle. Miss Gonne's coming this time is to be made the occasion of an anti-British demonstration, if the- plans of the various va-rious committees are carried out. Ever finct,the beeinning of hostilities in the Transvaal ehe has been conducting conduct-ing a pro-Ecer agitation in her native land, advising the young men of Ireland Ire-land to keep out of the English army; and it is said that the atmosphere of unrest that now pervades Ireland id partly the result, of this fair patriot's lectures, w hich, in themselves, are convincing, con-vincing, but are backed by a beauty of face and figure that la no less winning. It was when she was only 14 years old that Maude Gonne came into her home one day and informed her father that she was going "to do something some-thing for Ireland yet." This statement had something of the effect of a thunderbolt thun-derbolt upon the father, who was loyal to British interests. Colonel Gonne was of excellent Irish family, but was a conservative, and as a British offi cer serveu. many years as an attache at the court of St. Petersburg. His wife also shared ardently his love for the mother country, and it was considered con-sidered very strange indeed that the only child's idea should be eo diametrically diametri-cally opposed to their own. But Maude Gonne had been brought up under the influences of the beautiful beauti-ful scenery of Ireland, and knew and loved every spot surrounding her beautiful beau-tiful home at Glengarff. . During her I visits to the homes of the peasants she had heard wonderful talee of O'Con-nell O'Con-nell the Liberator, end stories of the daring of the rebels, and the redeoats, during the terrible years of the great war. Being ' a very impressiuistic child, thce tales affected her greatly, and Maude Gonne resolved that if there was any one goal in life towarUthe attainment of which she would devote all her powers it would be the independence independ-ence of Ireland. But soon after her dramatic declaration declara-tion to her father Miss Maude was sent to England to receive her education, and, once there,. she went into society, learned music and art, find became famous fa-mous for her beauty . and cleverness. But these accomplishments were only arming and strengthening her for the work which, ehe was to take up later in life. . In 1SSS, when Misa Gonne was only 20 vears old, ' her father died, leaving leav-ing her a snug fortune arid valuable estates in Ireland. Her mother had died during her early childhood, so that ehe was now left an orphan. She traveled trav-eled in Europe for a while with a cousin and returned to the old home Just in time to see the end of the McGrath tragedy, which is still fresh . in the " minds of the sons of Erin. The Bantry estate was not far distant from the Gap of Dunloe, and was on the road to the Gonne estate, at Glen-gartff. Glen-gartff. While on the way to. her home Mies Gonne passed large numbers of people, the men sad of expression, with eyes looking vengeance, accompanied by weeping women. On inquiry Miss Gonne and her cousin learned that these people were on their way to attend at-tend the funeral of Farmer McGrath, who had lived in the neighborhood, industrious in-dustrious and respected for years. In appearance Miss Gonne is tall and rather stout, with large eyes whose expression ex-pression changes and grows alternately alternate-ly indignant or soft, as she speaks of the wrongs Inflicted upon her people or tells of their gocdnea-!.. Her voice is soft, and her language is as well chosen as her arguments are convincing. During her vacations, which, however, how-ever, are very short, and only taken because her physician compels her to rest, Miss Gonne devotes her time to her favorite sport, horseback riding. In music she adores Wagner; she loves the ardor and determination so characteristically charac-teristically infused into the grand composer, com-poser, and she interprets both admirably. ad-mirably. She also loves the soul-thrilling poems of Hugo, and is seldom seen without a copy of that poet's works. Her supreme heroine in literature is Joan of Arc, a character whom she faithfully imitates, and the only companion com-panion of her work as ex-officio ambassador am-bassador for the Independence party of I Ireland is a sagacious little monkey, which Miss Goniie lauerhintrly calls her "chaperon," and which travels with her wherever she goes. ' |