Page:Life of John Boyle O'Reilly.djvu/385

Rh The Seattle Press relates the following amusing incident of the lecture:

There was no more attentive listener among the throng who collected at Armory Hall last evening to hear John Boyle O'Reilly, than an enthusiastic Irishman in the gallery. Mr. O'Reilly was in the midst of his graphic description of Cromwell's conquests when this Irishman lost control of his tongue for an instant. The distinguished lecturer had told about Cromwell's marches across the Isle of Green, from North to South, and from East to West. The Irishmen had all been driven over the Shannon, and the land thus secured was parceled out to the troopers. While the men had been driven over the Shannon, the women who would marry the troopers were allowed to remain. Looking back over the records the speaker wondered what had become of these troopers, who have dropped out of sight.

"Where have they gone?" cried he.

"To hell!" ejaculated the enthusiastic Irishman, leaning on the gallery rail.

It took Mr. O'Reilly some little time to get attention, while he explained that he thought the good Irishwomen who married the troopers made loyal Irishmen of their husbands.

On the 17th, St. Patrick's Day, he arrived at Tacoma and was at once obliged to take part in the procession, occupying an open barouche drawn by four white horses. The Tacoma Theater was packed to the roof at his lecture that evening, the very rafters being occupied. A great banquet, attended literally by scores of Irish-American millionaires, was given by the Ancient Order of Hibernians after the lecture, and lasted until four o'clock in the morning. On the following evening he lectured at the Opera House in Portland, Ore., the stage being occupied by leading citizens of the State, including the Governor, ex-Governor, Maj.-Gen. Gibbon, commanding the United States forces on the Pacific Coast, Archbishop Gross, Major Burke, and a number of rich men whose aggregate wealth, as a fellow-citizen proudly remarked, represented $200,000,000. O'Reilly's reception was one of which any man might have been proud; even the steamer Oregon, which was to carry him to San Francisco, waited for him an hour and a half beyond its time of sailing.