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Show j SETJjtfAS MACMANUS. Until Two Years Ago the Irish Story- I teller Was a Schoolmaster. ! Until two years ago Seumas Mac- ; Mantts. the Irifh storyteller, taught a I little parish school the same at which; ; ne nun nimseit gatnereo nis Miinviti'sw i among the Donegal mountains. An-j An-j other young schoolmaster, and a schooi-! schooi-! mate. James Sweeney, tells of Mr. j MacManus' eventful step when he de-I de-I cided to forsake his school and turn to 1 literature. j "I believe he locked the school door j for the last 'time with a sigh of regret." re-gret." writes Mr. Sweeney. "There were many ties to attach him to the place. It was the school where many of his careless, happy boyhood hours were spent, wherev his youthful companionships com-panionships had been formed and. cemented ce-mented by pleasant remembrances, and mayhap where his youthful ambitions first sprung into existence. iTherewero boys whose jacket sleeves were rubbed stealthily across their eyes that day when he announced his intention- of leaving them. Seumas MacManus gained his appointment to this t'.-hool as he forced his way into the ranks of literature by open competition. I think there -were upward of eight eanetidates for the position. I was one myself, and 'Mac,' though the. youngest.' I believe, left us far behind. He has left us farther far-ther behind since. "When ho resigned this appointment about two years ago the parish and surrounding districts were thrown into such a state of alarm as would prevail !n London if Joe Chamberlain should relinquish his. offico at the present juncture. People couldi not believe that any man ini his proper sense-? would thus commit professional suicide. sui-cide. It was incomprehensible that any man of mature judgment should throw away. the fabulous salary of 60 a year. "Quite easy was the transition to the explanation that he was asked by his employers to resign- because he persisted per-sisted in writing lyin'g ptories for the papeTS, and poetry. It then got into mtrcouiiij uyti auu intrude iiii. tr j. - body's mouth that, owing to the part he had taken in- the commemoration of the Irish rebellion of '98. the education, department had called upon him to retire re-tire from office. So the people were loud and vehement in their indignation when they discovered 'the masther was broke.' With all the force and energy of their honest, kindly hearts they sympathized sym-pathized with him in his misfortune, just as they, had deplored his rashness when he ha'd announced that he was going to publish a book. "There were a few- who maintained that 'Mac's" resignation was. in no way forced that it was a voluntary act of his own. Jemmy Friel, the roadmaker. was one of this minority. ' 'It's my opinion,' said Jemmy, leaning lean-ing on the shovel and addressing himself him-self to Ned Simms and Mick Curley. it's my opinion that the masther's. not the soart iv a boy to do sich a thing an 1 design if he didn't lake himself. If he wanted to hour on to the taichin' he mudn't design for all the boords in, Dublin. He'd hev it thried in parlia-mint parlia-mint beyant first.' " |