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Show "FATHER FROUT." As I .tood one morning, in Cork, Ireland, listening- to tho "Shandon Bells," made immortal by that great journalist, poet, humorist, and scholar, Father Frank Mahonoy. or "Father Prout," I could not help to repeat his linos : The Bells of Shandon They sound so grand on The glorious waters of the lliver Lee. On the -'list of next LVeembor will be the centenary cen-tenary of the birth of Francis Sylvester Mahonoy (Father Prout.) Francis Ala honey was born in Cork in 1804. His classical education was obtained at the Jesuit college at Amiens, and after reading iheology in Paris, he received clerical ordination. Tn London he officiated tor some time in the chapel of a Bavarian legation and while" there he fell into a society of Bohemians of literature. About ISol. Father Prout began to contribute to an English publication. Erasers' Alagazine. His contributions consisted chiefly of translations from - the Latin, Greek and Italian verse which he humorously 'represents 'rep-resents as being the true originals from which the English authors had merely plagiarized them." says a magazine writer. Francis Sylvester Mahonoy, in hjs "Bells of Shandon," has immortalized himself. Over the wa-lers wa-lers of the River Lee the "Hells of Shandon" still echo their memory of v Eat her Prout," his genius and his scholarship. The Rev. Father Russell. S. J editor of the Irish Monthly, pays the following tribute trib-ute to "Father Prout": In deep dejection, but with affoetion. I often think of those pleasant times. In the days of Frasor. ere I touched a razor. How I read and revelled in thy rhymes: "When in wine and wassail wo. to thee wore vassal, Uf Watergrass-Hill. O, renowned P.P. May the bells of Shandon Toll blithe and bland on The pleasant waters of thy memory. The songs melodious which a new ilarmodius 'Young Ireland" wreathed round its rebel sword. With tho doep vibrations and aspirations, Fling a glorious madness o'er a festive board: But to me seems sweeter the melodious metre Of the simple lyric that we owe to thee O." the Bells of Shandon, That sound so grand on The pleasant waters of the River Lee. Father Prout. bom in the Minister. Ireland, that has given to Ireland and to the Irish world distinguished distin-guished men. will live in the memory of all those who have read: Those Shandon Bells, that "sound so grand on the glorious waters of the River Lee." And when those Bells of Shandon peal out over the waters of the Lee, to the glory and the universality univer-sality of Catholicity and every true Irishman, who visits the ''Rebel Town." and who listens to their peal, he should lift his hat first to God next to Father Fa-ther Prout, who made the "Bells of Shandon" fa- j mous- J. McG. I 4- . |