Show THIEKRISHflAN AT HOME In his Iilsh Life and Character Mr Michael MacDonagh author of Thc Book of Parliament has essayed to do for Ireland what Dean Ramtiny has done so well for Scotland fn his 1 Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character and ha finds hla entertaining entertain-ing material In his own collections and experiences mainly derived from an extended and active connection with Irish journalism He expresses the hope that his work along this line may lead to a more just understanding under-standing of characteristics ot thc Irish race to a wider appreciation of iheJr good qualities to a kinder Icier anco of thou faults and Collies which are mainly due to the checkered history of thc people to the wayward circumstances of their unhappy past I Mr MacDonagh begins by Introduc i lag us to the later Irish squirethe I country gentleman up from hiM estate in Galway Kerry or Klidarc familiar 1 j and conspicuous In his rough tweed I i suit his leggings and his bowler hat with his ruddy features and his soft brogue Ono meets him In Grafton I street In company with hit three or four daughters tall well setup healthy and vivacious girls And later 1 I he is found at the Klidarc Street club lllcklng his leggings with his riding crop or watching the passing show from the bow window on Nassau I street a hearty goodhurgored fellow with r prodigal stock of animal spirits who will have a eordlalywelcomc for lou when you come to crony with him in Clare 01 Wcxford Wcstmeath l But you will not find In him the rol J licking and the restlessness of the old I squire who went out In the great I famine of 1847 and took with him his horseplay and his rough practical Jokes his chronic Incapacliy to pay Jils debts and his unlimited unlimit-ed capacity tOt whisky punch at night his Inordinate hospitalities and his rapture of dueling ThW new man has acquired something of English gravity ot manner and English sobriety of thought He keeps accounts and Invests his money which his grandfather never did For money these gentry of the old time had to depend solely on their tcnents Investment oC capital In securities se-curities was a thing undreamed of and there was therefore no source of income in-come but the rents of the cstales And the tenents were as improvident as the landlords Their feudal devotion to the I ould shtoCk was deepseated and wholehearted Their cudgels were always al-ways at he serviceof the landlord I but the ould shtocking the I peasants bank of deposit was always I empty The tenant kept the landlord well supplied with whisky for those 1 were the days when poleen was manu I factored In private stills on every hillside hill-side and French smugglers lay oft the coast every night with cargoes of claret s I C With all his reckless prodigality and cxcess due to an exaggerated sense of hospitality the old Irish squire is everywhere remembered ns a thorough I gentleman a man of line manners I positive intellectual culture and a scrupulous regard for his personal honor it was this latter trait that made him an incorrigible duelist ready to give or take a challenge on the slightest provocation No man who was not in Holy Orders could dure If he had any regard for his place In society to shelter himself behind law morality or religion to evade a challenge It would mean his Instant expulsion from any club or set to which he might belong Many a man faced the pistol In the hand of a dead shot for the most trivial cause There were cases In which the challenged party was utterly unconscious uncon-scious of having given his adversary the slightest cause for offense A Gal wa gentleman attended county dinner and was surprised to receive the next morning a challenge from a man he had met there They fought and the Galway man had the gool luck l to whig the other fellow Going over to shake hands with his prostrate foe as was the custom he said I have no recollection of having offended you Oh bedadl said the other youre the wrong man sir The fellow I meant had only one eye An Irish gentleman who had been challenged expressed his fine scorn for his adversary In a true Irish outburst Fight with him 1 would go to my grave without a fight first Captain OGrady Called out thc editor of the Limerick Chronicle who being very ncarsighlcd came on the field wearing the Indispensable spectacles The Captains second objected on the ground that the glasses might give him an unfair advantage The glasses Is I It 1 said the editor Sure I couldnt see to shoot me own father without them S C What the pistol was to the squire the blackthorn shillelagh was to the gossoon at a later day It was the arbiter In personal quarrels family feuds disputes about trespass right of way boundaries and local contentions between baronies or parishes Donny brook fair which in the early part of the century was hold near Dublin was the popular theater for thc exhibition of faction lights People came from all parts of the country many to buy or to sell but many more fcelin1 blue mouldy intlrely for want of a batln tripped to the fair with lid < sole ob ject of participating In the discussion with slicks Mr MacDonagh continues con-tinues The excitable temperament of the pcoplc their pugnacity their dare deviltry were thc main causes of faction I fac-tion fittbtincr In Ireland Llttln m no animosity lay l behind these mclcctS They fought for the pure love of fight inJtndt to give vent to their feelings A friend oC mine a barrister was In Abbyfeuie county Limerick attending at-tending Quarter Sessions about fit teen years ago Therell be ructions In the town tonight said the head constable Why asked my friend Oh the Flgurlds are all drunk and theyie loolcln for the Mor lartysAnd what have they agin the Morlartya The ould story said the policeman for betrayin1 the cause of Ireland In the sixteenth century the Morlartys according to the local tra dition betrayed the groat Ball of Des mond the head of lie1 Fitzgerakls to the EnglIsh and ever since the Filx goralds have It in for the Morlnrtyp In Limerick and Kerry u fAn f-An Englishman returning to London after spending a week in Ireland assured as-sured his friends that he did not meet one real Irishman meaning of course the sort of IrlHhmnn that the English comic papers English novels nnd the English singe had made familiar l in himthe Irishrntln In a swalloviaJl frieze coat knee breeches and a bat tered caubecn with a pipe stuck in the band of it no nose to speak of a wild shock of red hair and a shillelagh I never met an Irishman with a pipe In the band of his hat protests our indignant Mr MacDonugh He admits that to the contemplation of people of other nationalities the Irish are an Incomprehensible race John Bull has not only lived beside Paddy but has tried to govern him for more limn 700 years and he does not understand him yet Tho Invented stories current In English and American Ameri-can Journals which arc Mnp > osed to Illustrate Irltfh life and character are silly wtupld preposterous They lack the Irish Idiom the Irish turn of words the Irish oddness of thought the I Irish mind hence to an Irishman they aro obviously bogus The Irishman says Mr MacDonagh is the merryandrew of the English speaking world Time sole object for which he was created JH i to make the duller AngloSaxon laugh We expect all Irishmen to be onlorlnlning and If by chance we meet a sober Celt we feel a sense of personal wrong as if we had been cheated of our due 0 O In the complex Irish nature there are startling contrasts and contradictions T 1 idle they are the most Jovial of the iopics they arc also at times the I saddest They arc wild and reckless sober and shrewd An emotional race 1 they get more fun out of their pleasures pleas-ures and more hahn out of their I troubles than the more justly balanced I I AngloSaxons The brogue is an accent I ac-cent an intonation leisurely mcill fiuous i saucy to convey It in print is 1 beyond the power of man It is the softest the mellowest the most musical thing in the way of accents ac-cents outside of Paradise The brogue as It is heard In all pans of the country has certain broad character mIles but It has varying and delicate shades of Intonation In the different provinces A wellknown Protestant clergyman In Cork was the possessor of a pronounced example of the slng ong brogue of that city It came to his cars that some of his parishioners ware making fun of this He complained com-plained of the Injustice done him ann an-n ktd a friend whether In his opinion any trace of the brogue was to be ob Hcrved In hln speech As to that said his friend if you wish to deny that you have a biogiic I would advise you lo do so In writing I a Some Englishman rushes Into an essay On the Decay of Bulls In Ire land II might well be regarded as an IntcanalonalmlsCortunc says Mr lacDonogh wore the native wit and humor and above all that grotesque confusion of thought that Jillghlfnl contradiction of sense commonly called ti bull to show signs of decay So he proceeds in consternation to In voallgaie and Js challenged on the thraahold of his inquiry by a hair dresser In Kingstown who tries to In duce him lo buy iL bottle of hairwash What fort of stuff Is It inquires the customer Oh Its giand stuff Its a perfect multum In parvo thc leas you take of It thoobcltur Two farmers sat on the promenade at Bray A lady of very slender proportions pro-portions passed Did you ever see so thin a woman said one Thin is it said he other I seen a woman in Wexford as thin as two of her put together This racy national characteristic has suffered through thc inventions of clumsy foreign wits that are so commonly com-monly ascribed to Irishmen The man ufactued hull is often silly and always al-ways inexpert A genuine bull is not an expression of stupidity Mental confusion of course is responsible for It but that very confusion often springs from nImbleness eagerness previousness of thought the notion Ihe word leaps before it looks t > Ca When a Galway peasant was asked If he know what an Irish bull was he explained ex-plained If you was dhrivln along a road and ye seen three cows lyln down and wan av tliim was standn up lhat wan is an Irish bull Said Sydney Smith The stronger the apparent ap-parent connection and the more complete com-plete the real disconnection of the Ideas the greater the surprise and the better lie bull But a bull and nonsense non-sense arc not the same thing The bull Is a gift and It Is not confined to the uneducated classes When Sir JRIchnrd Steele who was born In Ireland was asked by an English friend how it was that his countrymen were so addicted to bulls he replied It must be something some-thing in the Climate Probably If an Englishman were a native of Ireland he would make bulls 3 a a An Irish newspaper describing a phenomenal shower of rain declared that the drops varied In size from a shilling to eighteen pence And a Kll dare huntsman who had ridden a restless rest-less colt to hounds declared that be the time we were over the crest of the ridge the baste was that quiet a child might have milked him The normal state of mind of the average Irish peasant says Air Mac Donagh is lo be again the Government Govern-ment Abstract principles do not appeal to him Loyalty to an Institution he is unable to understand but his fidelity to his leader to his neighbor to his clan or community Is unequaled for its strength and endurance Some years ago the only clear conception he had of it the Government was that lie police thc sheriffs thc tithe proctors the magistrates the judges were its agents and these officials were associated in his mind with raids on farms stocks and crops evictions arrests ar-rests of poor bhoys fines Imprisonments Imprison-ments transportations hangings Hence the intense sympathy entertained enter-tained by the peasantry for those who are In the clutches of thc law accused of political or agrarian crimes hence the strange fact that as the criminal records disclose some of the most appalling ap-palling crimes have been committed by men of otherwise blameless lives In a recent action for divorce the question was put to a woman Did you call your husbands uncle Carey the in I former No she replied I did I not go so far as that I only called him antiChrist a t > 0 The Informer Is nevertheless a fam iliar figure In political and agrarian trials But In no case that I have been able to trace says MacDonagh has the Informer been tempted lo divulge di-vulge his terrible secret by thc reward offered by thc Government It Is the fear of death or of penal servitude that usually induces the superstitious and homeloving peasant to round up on his comrades It was this characteristic Unit led to the conviction of thc Phoenix park assassins Some of Mr MacDonaghs examples of Irish wit and repartee are verv happy An Irish farmer had joist sold a lot of young cattle at a fair An Entrllsh tourist inauirod how irmnh ho had got for them Pour pounds a head Only that said the Saxon Why if you hud brought them to my country you would have got six pounds Maybe po your honor An If I cud bring the lakes of Killarney tp purgatory Id get a pound a dhrop A polemical Protestant thinking to chaff Father Healy Said Now which would you rather go to father hell or purgatory tTo the latter on account of the climate but to the former on account of the company Im so fond of Protestants There Pat said a gentleman to his thirsty eardriver at a roadside Inn doesnt that drink make another man of you Deed an It do sir and begorra hes dry too O f JS Jhe Irish have not JL distinct dialect like the Scottish Time they use many Celtic expressions they employ as a rule only English words such as may be found In tummy English dictionary But their speech abounds In poetic graphio and singularly oxprosslve phrasrrt strange combinations of force and simplicity unexpected 11001 I mugs of vn the ridiculous with thc nath ° tlc Quaint English colloquial survivals novel ap plications of thc wrong word dared Arm orator ln a ilational meeting de The ways of Providence are unscrupulous and a county Clara Woman conipaiael to her doctor ° r that rightly she had lost her teeth and couldnt domesticate her food |