Kearney, The Agitator.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3050, 23 November 1878, Page 1

Kearney, The Agitator.

EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF THE CHIEF OF THE LABOR PARTY.

Briefly, he is an Irishman become an American citizen; a drayman turned agitator. . Speaking in detail, it may be said that he was born in Oakmont, county of Cork, Ireland, in February, 1845. His father, Michael Kearney, was an Irish laborer, and died when Denis was but eleven years ef age. ,The family consisted of seven sons—Jeremiah, now aged thirty-four, who follows the sea and is supposed to be on the coast of Africa; Denis, aged thirty-one; Patrick, aged thirty, a resident of this city and a blacksmith by trade.; Michael, also a resident of this city and a tailor; Daniel, aged twenty-six, who is in San Francisco with his brother and takes charge of his business as drayman' during his visit East; Timothy P., aged twenty-three, who accompanies Denis on his Eastern tour, and William, the youngest, aged twenty-one, his joined the Society of the Christian Brothers in San Francisco, and proposes to devote his. life to the service of the church, as a Christian teachpr. Denis Kearney began life as a postboy in his native village at the early age of six years, Currying the mail in the early morning to and from an adjoining •town, and attending school after his labor was performed. His father's deatb, when . he was but eleven years old, compelled him to leave home in order to obtain employment and.help $o support the family. He first shipped as a cabin boy in a vessel sailing from Cork to Liverpool, and later went on voyages to the East Indies.- He.was so intelligent and faithful as a sailor before the mast, that, at the remarkably early age of'fourteen years he rose to be mate of a clipper ship, and at nineteen was captain in charge of one of the largest vessels in the foreign trade. Ever since his first' experience as a cabin boy he has sailed under the American flag.' He has sailed in the ships Bounding Hjllow, Finchley and Jes. Chesley, in and out of the ports of New York, Boston,' Baltimore and San Francisco. On the 24th of October 186S, he reached San Francisco on the Shooting Star, and after that followed the sea three or four years. He remained two years as first officer of the Shooting Star, fie then went as second.officer on the steamer Active, between San Francisco and Victoria. Afterwards he became foreman on the wharf, and about five years ago?went into the draying business, paying $5,000 to the man whom he brought out. During the years that he followed the sea, and since, he baa supported hit mother, bringing* her from the. .old country to this city,' where she has a comfortable little home with two of her sons near the Brighton station on the Boston and Albany .Railroad. He also assisted in bringing his brothers to this country, and has helped ■ them to obtain employment, so that they are all doing well. A little more' than a year ago he appeared before the people of San Francisco as an agitator. In the. spring of 1877 the draymen of, the city held a meeting to take measures for the overthrow of what they regarded as a monopoly in the government teaming. -Kearney -was made a member of the committee to wait upon Senator Sargent, but that gentleman having, as it is said, treated the committee cavalierly, the matter was carried before the regular authorities in the fall, when Kearney took a leading part. At this time he called a meeting in a hall, which was held on the ,12th of September, and those who composed it passed resolutions' calling upon the workingmen to sever their connection's with the old parties and unite in their own interest. ■ .Reforms were called for in- the following language," which may be taken as indicating the ostensible purposes of the party: . 1. The abolition of all assessments on candidates for office—the people to own the offices, not the incumbents. , 2. Holding state and municipal officers to a strict accountability for all their official acts. ' ' . • 3. The establishment by the fltate of a Bureau of Labor and Statistics. 4. The immediate reduction and the periodical regulation thereafter of the hours of labor. 5. The creation by the State Lcgisla- * -«re of a Convention of Labor, with v 'quarters in San Francisco. 5i following Sunday the first of the . c - meetings on the " sand lot," so series ot l HeM OnJ abouj . «?1 j 1 a&u *\ %* following-Sunday there ?nm Utt!i "'w risers increased were 1000, and t.- at ti f f?S«7 e«S« Week M %c presentatonce. 12 000 to 16,000 would l . *i aiagUßge> and The speakers used strong '„* w * r ' e ark although Kearney and othei i. urni j „„ rested again and again and re* , more bail, their speeches became only ... . emphatic. • Then came trial and acqu, on the charge of inciting riot, and thot * troubles over, internal dissensions arose, which, however, were quelled by Kearney, who was soon elected permanent Presi- • dent of the Workingmen's Party. Denis Kearney looks like a neitJter a brigand nor a rough, &nd those enterprising gentlemen of the San Francisco press' who have been sending blood curdling descriptions of him to the East would better save them hereafter for the nursery. He is a man of medium size, well built, and with an appearance of solidity suggestive rather of brawn than of beef. His tnuatacFie and hair are,dark brown, and his face as the. ladies would say, " a shade to match." His features are regular and his face expressive of average intelligence and unusual force of character. The ".low cunning" and " brutal*ferocity" which imaginative-correspondents discovered in so large quantities in.his • face must have been left somewhere between San Francisco and Boston, for the • signs were not visible yesterday morning. He wears a rough looking blue suit, with * a soft hat, and the check shirt already

mentioned, and to make a long story short,' as lie walked* through-the entry after his speech, in search of the bathroom, he looked like a smart young Irishman with little schooling and plenty .of intelligence, and enough good nature in his face to warrant anybody in asking him for a cigar light. , S As soon as he had made himself'presentable after his long journey he went to his mother's house in Brighton, where he spent the day in rest.—Boston Journal. * ' '