Next morning the Dublin daily papers laid themselves out to make the most of the sensational fight at the Rotunda. Even the habitually cautious _Irish Times_ felt that the occasion justified the expression of an opinion, and that there would be no serious risk of alienating the sympathies of subscribers and advertisers by condemning the bloodshed. It published an exceedingly dignified and stodgy leading article, drawing the largest and finest words from the dictionary, and weaving them with extraordinary art into sentences which would have been creditable to anyone bent upon imitating the style of Dr. Samuel Johnson. The British Empire and the whole of civilized Europe were called upon to witness the unspeakably deplorable consequences which invariably followed the habitual neglect of the cultivation of the elementary decencies of public life. The paper disclaimed any sympathy with either of the belligerent parties, and pointed out with sorrowful solemnity that if the principles sedulously inculcated upon its readers in its own columns were persistently flouted and contemned by those who claimed the position of national representatives, little else except a repetition at frequent intervals of the painful and humiliating scenes of the night before could possibly be anticipated by reasonable observers of the general trend of democratic institutions. The _Daily Express_ openly exulted over the rioters. Its leading article--the staff may have danced in a ring round the office table while composing it--declared that now at length the Irish had proved to the world that they were all, without a solitary exception, irredeemably vicious corner-boys. Miss Augusta Goold was warmly praised for having demonstrated once for all that ‘patriotism’ ought to be written ‘Pat riotism.’ Deep regret was expressed that those who attended the meeting had not been armed with revolvers instead of stones, and that the platform had not been defended with Maxim guns instead of comparatively innocuous wooden chairs. Had modern weapons of precision been used the _Daily Express_ would have been able to congratulate mankind on getting rid of quite a considerable number of Irishmen. The _Freeman’s Journal_ and the _Daily Independent_ were awkwardly situated. Their sympathies were entirely with Mr. O’Rourke, and they were exceedingly angry with Miss Goold for interfering with the collection of funds for the Parliamentary party. At the same time, they felt a difficulty in denouncing her, not for want of suitable language--the Irish Nationalist press has a superb command of words which a self-respecting dictionary would hesitate to recognise--but because they felt that push of the horns of the dilemma on which O’Rourke had been impaled, and they were obliged to sand their denunciations between layers of stoutest pro-Boer sentiment.