JOURNALIST AND POLI= TICIAN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 219, 20 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

JOURNALIST AND POLI= TICIAN.

-MR. T. P. O'COXXORS I'XIQCE CAREER. There :s one characteristic which must have impressed those who have soin "Tay-Pay"' at his flat near tho House of Commons, and that is his amazing energy and capacity for wors. Call in the early morning an : you will invariably find Mr. 0 Connor tapping the keyboard of his typewriter, for, if tho Irishism may be excused he writes everything with his own hand on the machine, tuning out in prodigious numbers those brilliant articles whica are read by millions of people every week. Tho caller is received. Mr. O'Connor works a swivel on his desk and, hey, presto! the typewriter turns a sumorsault and disappears, having the desk (juitj flat and clear. And having thus shut away h'-s manuscript for tho time being, he prepares to talk in his characteristically genial and entertaining manner. The interview at an end, Mr. O'Connor touches the swivel and. as you«go out of the door, you can hear the click, click of the machine, which talis you that be is again absorbed in his work.

WHEN HE IS .NERVOUS. 'T.P." writes as brilliantly as ho speaks—on almost any topic. Few men have so wida a knowledge, although he once told the writer that the one thing he dreads most are after-dniner speeches. "If I know/' he said, "that at the end of a dinner I must make a speecn, I am nervous. I have no appetite, and find little to admire in the best efforts of the chef. I can readily imagine Daniel, if he was at ail of my mind, heaving a sigh of relief as the lions drew near to devour him, and saying, 'Well, if there is any after-dinner shaking to be done on this occasion, it won't be done by me!"

MIGRATION TO LOXDOX.

Mr. O'Connor's energy is all the mor-> remarkable when one considers that he is sixty-eight. It is close on hit,' years ago since he entered journalism as a junior reporter for 'Saunders Newsletter,' a Dublin Conservative journal. Then, in 1870, be migrated to London in search of a situation, ani quickly established himself as one of the most brilliant writers and oditors who have evtrr come to the Metropolis. Alter l>eing sub-editor of the 'Dailv Telegraph.' he founded the 'Star,' the 'Sun,' M.A.P.,' and 'T.P.'s Weekly. He also wrote many books, notably tin Life of Disraeli, while it was just lik* him to make, as he did, a record tor time with his Life of Parne'l, for th;> book appeared with'-n a week of hu former Chief's death. Few people know how Mr. O'Connor was christened "Tay-Pay." \eara ag) he used to !>e known in Fleet Street as plain ''Tom O'Connor," although ho had always used the initials ''T.P." One night in the roaring 'eighties, Mr O'Connor delivered a rattling speech in the Commons, and as lie fin shed fellow-countryman in the Strangers Gallery, carried aawv by his feelings, shouted out: — "Bravo. Tay-Pay! Shure its you that's the grand man!" And " Tay-Pay" he has remained eve: since.