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Show THE KILKENNY YCATS. , The following is said to be the origin of the legend of the Kilkenny cats: - Just before the war in the year "ninety-eight" a battalion of Ancient Britons (Welsh infantry) was stationed sta-tioned in the Marble City. They varied the monotony of flogging and pitchcapping "suspects" and the peasantry peas-antry round about by the following barrack game: They caught two cats, tied the ends of their tails together, flung them across a rope or clothes-line, and with frantic joy watched iho creatures claw each other's eyes rfnd vitals out. The game went merrily on till there came ' to Kilkenny a lieutenant colonel who had no objection to trussing "croppies," but who decidedly objected to: this round-about way of killing cats. He issued orders J forbidding the game under penalty. One day,- however, j the men were indulging in the forbidden amusement in j a quiet corner when they heard the clank of the colonel's spurred heels coming their way. One of the offenders promptly seized a sword and severed the cats' tails. The felines ran off. The officer appeared immediately on the scene, saw the dangling tails across the line, and inquired in-quired what had become of their owners. He was informed in-formed by a terrified spokesman that thev had "eaten each other up all but the tails." |