Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/70

64 of the observation and endurance of the crowded years of his short life.

Horace Greeley was among the first to feel the original and striking presence that had come into the literary world, and some of O'Reilly's best narrative poems appeared in the "New York Tribune."

The "Atlantic Monthly," Harper's, Scribner's, and others of the best American literary publications welcomed him to their pages. He was a valued contributor to the "Dark Blue," the magazine of the University of Oxford, till it found out that he was a Fenian and an ex-political convict.

He married, on August 15, 1872, Miss Mary Murphy, of Charlestown. The fruit of this marriage was four beautiful young daughters,—Mollie, Bessie, Agnes, and Blanid. Of his wife he wrote, dedicating to her his "Songs, Legends, and Ballads:" "Her rare and loving judgment has been a standard I have tried to reach." His last volume of poems, "In Bohemia," was dedicated "To My Four Little Daughters."

In 1876 Mr. O'Reilly, already for some years editor of "The Pilot," became its proprietor, with Archbishop Williams, of Boston. Under his direction it became accounted a foremost exponent of Irish-American thought, and one of the stanchest and ablest defenders of Catholic interests.

Mr. O'Reilly's poems are published in four volumes, as follows: "Songs of the Southern Seas,"