Above all, he possesses that rare
virtue, tact. He is courteous and affable to all visitors, and makes new
friends constantly because of his sterling qualities. As a public
speaker, he is earnest, forcible and argumentative without being
captious. If his opponent thinks he has a man to deal with who is not
fully posted upon the subject under discussion, he quickly learns his
error. While not an orator, Mayor O'Brien carries conviction to hearers
by the force of his honest utterances and sound reasoning. At the same
time he has risen to the heights of eloquence upon the floor of the
Board of Aldermen when defending the cause of the laboring man. Himself
a workingman all his life, he never allows those who earn their bread by
the sweat of their brow to ask him twice for a favor which it is in his
power to grant. He has been their unsolicited champion when they badly
needed one, and his record will bear the minutest inspection.
Such then is a brief sketch of a remarkable Bostonian. The poor boy who
landed in Boston a little over a half century ago has become its Chief
Magistrate. Boston has honored him. He has shown, and is still showing,
his appreciation of the high honor. Slowly, but surely, this modest
gentleman has won his way to the front in the popular estimation of his
fellow-citizens.
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