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Show j Mini In Ireland Ey 1GHN O, BLACK Copyright, 1903, by John A. Black. "You'll be travelin' on Headfort's land till near Virginia," said a mild-mannered Irishman whom I met just out of Kells; and Virginia was twelve miles away. "It's too much land for any man to have," with which I agree. "What kind of a landlord .is he ?" I asked. "Sure, he has no sinsc; but he' not bad himself; him-self; it's the agent that's the divil." "You don't see the landlord often, I suppose." "Divil the sight we ever get o' him, savin' when he drives through in his grand carriage betimes. His new woman" he married an actress some two years ago "kapes him in London spendin' the rint ; money." The long, wedge-shaned yard, with its well-trimmed well-trimmed evergreens, and a pretty church at the top, which is held in the fork of the road at Virginia, Vir-ginia, gives this town the look of "puttin' on airs" over its plainer sisters strung along the road on account of its new-fangled name, 1 suppose. Xorth of Virginia I saw the process of turf-making, turf-making, or moulding. The beds of brown- turf molded into bricks looked like great pans of well-browned well-browned biscuits the Saturday baking of some Trish giant's good wife. It is slow, laborious work, but it is the only way this soft, mucky turf can bo made fit for fuel. I have been looking for an Irishman old enough to remember 1847 and the famine, and clear-headed enough to tell me of his reminiscences; so I am asking every old man I see if he "minds" the famine. fam-ine. Here comes the "oldest inhabitant" of County Cavan with a long scythe on his shoulder, looking so much like Old Time himself that I suspect that is why the Grim Reaper has spared him so long. After the usual "fine day, sir," and "it is, sir," I ask him how long he has lived here. "Ever since I was a bit o' a gossoon," he replied. re-plied. "You remember the famine, I suppose?'' "Indade that I do, right well, sir." "Was it bad about here?" "It was a sore time, sir ; but not so bad here as many places, they said, sir." "Were there more people living here then?" "Indade there was that, sir; there were tin men to one now; sure, there'd be droves o' them goin' to mass o' a Sunday mornin'." "And more houses, of course?" 'Houses in every one of .them fields nearly; bcyant the. ditch there, stood four house;?; at the top of the field there were Iwo houses, and all about here-were houses that wa. tore down for the laud loner ago." 'The people went to -America 'if 'They didr or died o' hunger."' "I suppose some of your people went to America Amer-ica r ' ' They did; I have a brother and a daughter doin' well in America" and may I say confidentially that they send the ould man '"a bit of money betimes be-times which kapes him from nade." "Thim Americans be stiirin' payple," he goes on; "th-Tv won't slape in the mornin', I lu-ar." ''-No, they are too busy," says 1. "They must mind their way of livin'." and I think he L. right, if many of us want to live as long and keep as well as this Cavau man. The road by which I came down into Cavan divides at the edge of the town; one branch crosses the valley, the other sweeps around the hill through a poor street with houses high up on one side, into the town. Its long, narrow, winding main street was pretty lively with traffickers of all kinds, for it was Saturday afternoon. Two trampy looking fellows were singing in the street to the accompaniment accom-paniment of bones rattled by one of them. Whether such music hath charms to secure the civilized ha'penny or not, I did not wait to see, for I prefer pre-fer the quiet of the country to this hubbub, so I am off toward Ballyhaise. It is evening and "all the air a solemn stillness holds." I can hear the thump, thump of heavy -boots on the road before I can see the walkers hurrying into town, so quiet is it. The evening is playing her great calcium light on the hills; now sweeping them with a tidal wave of light; now gilding their tops with gold above green; now turning it playfully on a little whitewashed cottage high up on the hillside, till it is transfigured into a ''mansion in the sky." But here I am in Ballyhaise, far below the skies, and without a hotel, to say nothing of mansions; man-sions; and the evening calcium light show is about over, too, so I must get in somewhere, or be arrested ar-rested for riding without a lamp after sunset. If the spare bed had not been, empty, and that Iiedhills merchant may he always have two beds or more had not been a Christian, my name might have gone down to posterity written in the book of His Majesty's criminal records; for I asked the policeman if I could have slept in the barracks in case no one had taken me in, and he informed me that I could, not only for the night, but for six nights so gracious is the law until next court day, when I should have to appear and answer some charge traveling without visible means of sleep, I suppose. The country about Xewtown Butler and Lis- na.-kea is somewhat level, but the distant hi)' ; cry along Lough Erne ?avt- i' i"r.. ni'iiii ''-Thick ''-Thick black clouds hung mvr thr. ' k " the nearer hills with their dt-cp ?hadw; ,;-, ,j n.','1?. the clouds I could see the hills a'T'- illt. ,. .' glori cms in sunshine with on" int- to r'l;i. draped in the mist of a drifting shmvcrVi,;,.!, tj. sun wove into a bridal veil: whil ;iMc )u.. .1 edge of the clouds were molting and prinkim..- riin with intermittent showers. This r7nii,n,,;!j ,..,.,. try is pretty. Enniskillen is one of the Iri.-l; town- m-. !.-!,,.,) with a reputation for beauty which tli.y ;'r-r M,.r,, able to suf.:iu especially on a cold, hl.u k !,,. The first ihing one sees as ho come- int.. ,.. t.rr from the south, is a great I hope i-ntj.-y .vliicli glowers warningly at me a 1 whorl k., t and over the bridge into the main street. It - M good-looking street, with some Hue hoic-e- ;i; .! stores on it. Two policemen with guns wre i.ji ing back and forth' in front of a house,, I;k, :i A man what it meant thi warlike peronuaucr he informed me. that the judge who had 01m to town to hold court was quartered there. D.-h. -i "i he cometh the judge! The iwo constable-; p -sent arms, one on each side of the door, till ;h, Law enters, and the door closes and the 'poll, ?, . men look cheap as they resume" their walk Iar:c and forth. In the days of chieftain rule, ihe M,i-guires M,i-guires administered the law, atnl-sucji ju-J:.-.' was to be had in those days, to the p.-..plo of .t :,. parts. . The Inniskilling Dragoons and the Royal In-niskilling In-niskilling Fusiliers have done considerably ki!!iai. at sundry times' and places, and for. diver- cause,, and thereby have got themselves a right g.-iodrejm. tat ion as killers of His Majesty's enemie- -mi-f the ladies besides various badges, medal.- and othn- hardware to hang on their chests, which keep theju from falling over backward when they are on. parade. pa-rade. . Gjoing out of Enni.-killen I met a long, black, silent, funeral procession winding slowly along. th shore of the lake which lies against the town a Jliltonian picture of Death carrying off its. victim vic-tim from one of these white cottage-.. From thr hearse back, the procession was made up of some carriages, several jaunting cars, .a trap or two. some horseback riders, and a straggling string of walkers. An attractive looking road to the Ielt hired mft away down past an old church, up a finely wooded hill around which the road winds, till I came out at the" top into a magnificent view of Lough Erne, and in front of a great private mansion. After getting enough enjoyment of the scenery to pav me for the extra travel, I made my way out to the . main road and on to Kesh. (To Be Continued.) |
