When Lyons and Crofton enter the Committee Room after being out in the rain canvassing for votes, they judge the other canvassers for not working as hard as themselves (as the other men are sitting inside getting drunk). Henchy takes issue with their judgment and, using a hyperbole, comments on his canvassing prowess, as seen in the following passage:
– Is that the way you chaps canvass, said Mr Lyons, and Crofton and I out in the cold and rain looking for votes?
– Why, blast your soul, said Mr Henchy, I’d get more votes in five minutes than you two’d get in a week.
Here, Henchy uses a hyperbole when he says that he’d “get more votes in five minutes than you two’d get in a week.” This is clearly exaggerated language since, given the way that canvassing works, it would be impossible to garner a large amount of support in five minutes. (Most likely these men are stopping people on the street or doing door-to-door, having lengthy conversations with people in order to persuade them to vote for their candidate, Tierney.)
This hyperbole is significant as it establishes Henchy’s egotism and lack of moral compass. He may be the smoothest talker amongst the men—and he may genuinely garner the most support for their candidate—but he does so in immoral ways, such as lying to voters and telling them that Tierney is not associated with the Nationalist Party (when he very much is). In this way, Henchy represents the moral corruption of the Party in the wake of Charles Stewart Parnell’s death.
