Our Boys in Ireland

Front matter

• 'Z/ //////,■// . V//A (near Dublin) OUR BOYS IN IRELAND BY HENRY W. FRENCH Authoh of "Our Boys in China," "Olk Boys iniNdia," etc. NEW YORK: WORTHINGTON COMPANY 747 Broadway i Copyright, 1S91, BY WORTHINGTON COMPANY. DEDICATION. TO <5o^£, OF DRUMCORMACK IN SLIGO. IF ALL THE WORLD WERE AS GOOD, ALL THE WORLD WOULD BE MUCH BETTER THAN" IT IS. CONTENTS. Chapter pa,;k I. Eight Boys 1 II. Man proposes 9 III. Making the Best of It 18 IV. What I know about Galway 26 V. Through Connemara 57 VI. A Day beyond Clifden . 75 VII. The Story' of Maureen Lacey 96 VIII. Caught by' the Waves 129 IX. On the Wing 152 X. Killarney' 173 XI. A Rainy Day 203 XII. Through the Gap of Dunloe 236 XIII. Up Mangerton 252 XIV. On the Wing Again 258 XV. What I know about Cork 262 XVI. Down the Cork Harbor 278 XVII. Some of Ireland's Great Men 289 XVIII.

The First Day in Dublin 296 XIX. Saying Farewell in Wicklow 323 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Coming into Port 8 On the Quay, Galway 17 The Clifden Car 29 They do not look Irish .... 31 Salmon-fishing 33-34 The Breakwater 35 QK The Guard ,36 On the Highway 38 A Poor Place to call 39 Something more Aristocratic 40 Spanish Ireland 43 Parcel Post 46 Sketches of Street Life in Galway 47 Lough Corrib 49 Connemara Women 50 Representatives of Gladdagh 51 King of Gladdagh 52 A Gladdagh Boy making Twine 53 The Main Street of Gladdagh 54 Monument to Judge Lynch 55 The End of the Lake 58 Fishing 60 A Norman Archway, Cong Abbey ... 61 The Town Crier 63 Ruins 64 Beggars besieging an Old English Duffer . 65 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pagk Police Protection 67 Home of an Evicted Family 68 Farming 71 Going Home from Church 73 Road to Salruck 78 Good for Anything 82 A Village in the Hills 83 Catholic Schoolhouse 85 Fishermen 87 Salruck Pass 89 Distributing Sacks of Seed-potatoes 91 A Street of Tombs 93 The Famine at Bofin 94 A Steamer coming for Shelter 99 Unloading Provisions 103-104 Cabins on the Coast 107 Peasants dressing for the Dance Ill Waiting on the Beach 121 Carrying Heather 125 Evicted 131-132 Only Potatoes 134 The Next Door 136 Stock for Moonlighters , . . 137 Just from Market 138 A Long-headed Fisherman 139 A Village 141 .SOME OF THE VILLAGERS 142 Bringing Ashore a Mass of Floating Sea-weed ...... 143 Caught by the Waves 146 Looking back from the Summit 149 Bridge near Clifden 150 A Jaunting-car LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

IX Pa csK Cars 157 A Real Live Castle 159 Cross of Kilfenora 161 Ruins at Clonmachoise, near Athlone 167 Cormac Chapel ' . . . . 169 Inside Car . 176 Covered Car 176 The Muckross Cemetery 179 The Muckross Abbey, from the Side 180 Tombs of the Kings 182 A Tomb at Muckross 183 Muckross Abbey 184 The Purple Mountain 187 Ross Castle 189 Carriage Road, Ross Island 191-192 Where Paddy Blake replies 193 The Hunter's Dining-room 194 The Keeper's Cottage 195 View of Innisfallen 198 Torc Cascade 200 Along the Lake 237 The Tunnel 238 Entrance to the Gap of Dunloe 239 The "Kerry Dragoon" 240 The Lower Lake, Killarney 241 The Meeting of the Waters 242 Old Weir Bridge 243 Under the Weir Bridge 244 Torc, or Middle Lake 245 Eagle's ISTest 246 The Upper Lake 247 The Logan Stone LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. X Page Gap of Dunloe, Killarney 248 The Prince and Princess of Wales, in the Gap of Dunloe . 249-250 Mangerton Mountain 253 The Meeting of the Waters, Killarney 255 Victoria Rock, Killarney 256 Old Weir Bridge, Killarney 259 Statue of Henry Grattan 302 Statue of Daniel O'Connell 304 Bank of Ireland 306 Custom House, Dublin 308 St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin 311 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 313 Trinity' College, Dublin 318 Rathdrum Viaduct, County Wicklow 324 Dargle Bridge

Chapter I. Eight Boys

IT was a June morning in Boston. What more could be said to prove it one of the brightest and most beautiful that dawns anywhere in all the world ? The night before, " Old Prob " said that there would be an easterly wind, shifting to southerly, with falling barometer ; but, as usual, it only showed how little "Old Prob " really knew about it. " I thought, from the papers, that it would surely rain to-day," said Charlie Ashley. " Bet a cent you changed your mind when you saw the morning edition of Old Sol come out," replied Bob Brackett. " But I had an all-night-do wn-in-the-mouth first," Charlie insisted. " That's for reading the newspapers," said a third, with sage solemnity ; at which all the boys laughed. There were seven of them standing in a little group outside the closed gate of the Bos ton Latin School.

It was only half-past eight ; no teachers had arrived; but these boys were deeply interested in a foot-ball match that was to come off that afternoon, weather permitting, and they had gathered early to talk it over. Possibly you know them already, for they were popular fellows in their day, in the Latin School, and left records that lingered a long time behind them ; honest, eager, and determined, whether at foot-ball or Homer. You must guess at their ages — somewhere from fifteen to eighteen. They were all full of life, only with different ways of expressing it. And, as birds of a feather flock together, these seven, and one more, who has just now come round the corner from Dartmouth Street, had lived their school life together, studying, playing, and quarrelling together — for who ever heard of eight boys, who thought the world of each other, who did not quarrel ?

Their names ? Really, that is something that matters very little in the make-up of a first-rate boy. Who is that lad across the street ? If you do not fancy him over-much, you will say, — " Oh, that's only Bill Hazen." But if you like him, you say, — " Why, don't you know him ? He's one of the best fellows in the class ! You ought to hear him speak on public declamation days. He can keep the whole room as still as a mou.se. He can make us all split with laughing. He's captain of our company!" And you wave your cap to him, and quite forget that some one asked you about his name. That is the way it would have been with any of these eight. They all had long lists of virtues to attribute to the rest, and they knew each other by those virtues much better than by their faults or even their names.

But boys must have names, and that fellow with black hair and black eyes is Clifton Small. " Clif," the boys call him. The boy leaning upon the gate, who " bet a cent " a moment ago, is Bob Brackets. He is forever betting a cent, never meaning to claim if he win or pay if he lose, but as a way he has of expressing his supreme conviction that his opinion is correct. The boy who has just come up is Will Lester. It is quite characteristic, for he is always the last. It does not follow by any means that he is the least, however — just a way with him to bring up the rear. Charlie Ashley, the fellow who was down-in-the-mouth all EIGHT BOYS. 3 night, for fear that it would rain, is the anxious one of the eight. He is always a little afraid that something may happen not just as it should happen, and is consequently a little paler than the rest, for he studies much harder than is necessary, lest, by some slip, which never comes, he should be called upon at some point where he was not perfectly prepared.

The result, however, is that he leads his class, and he is thoroughly satisfied with it, pale face and all, even if his friends are not. The boy beside him, with that long, sober, serious face, is really one of the best natured of the whole. His name is Arthur Andrews, but no one ever thinks of him in that way. He is simply " Phil." That, for short, because he is the born philosopher of the class. The next is Jack — somebody. His best friends could hardly remember what, for all day and every day he is just Jack ; a royal good fellow, but a perfect namesake of the illustrious Jack who fell down and cracked his crown. When he throws a stone he will invariably hit the mark, but after that the stone always glances and goes through some window. He may even study as hard as Charlie, but he is sure to be called upon at the only infinitesimal corner of the lesson that he let slip.

The result is that, were it not for Will, who must as a necessity be the last, Jack would be at the very opposite end of the class from Charlie Ashley, who is one of his warmest friends. Boys are, for tunately, like the good God above in looking not .so much at the outward appearance as upon the heart, and Jack and Will stood just as high in the estimation of their friends as they stood low on the monthly reports. The tall, muscular fellow facing Jack is Sam Waters. The boys would tell you that it was harder than conjugating an irreg ular verb to get him to say anything, and he was hardly known to any of them to originate a sentence over three words in length. What he does say is always quite to the point, but Jack declares that Sam is overrated for common-sense, under the popular impression that still waters run deep, and that if one should cut out from what other fellows say all that is over in quantity, the quality of what remained would be fully up to Sam's reputed standard.

They never call him Sam, hoAvever. His school name is " Chess." It was a long way round that the boys went to obtain it, but after his first year in the Latin School they had all settled down to that as in some way the appropriate name for him, and Chess it remained. The eighth, the tall, robust lad with golden-brown hair curl ing all over his head, with rosy cheeks and clear, blue eyes, that can laugh with a will, look straight into danger, see through a geometrical fog-bank, and flash in the face of wrong, — it is easy to see that he is everyone's friend, — is Paul Clayton, whose curly head, some years before, was often pillowed on a muni's arm, away in the mountains of Cashmere ; whose lisping lips had dared defy the great governor of one of the eighteen prov inces of the realm of the Son of Heaven ; just as much Paul Clayton, just as much a Boston boy, just as little anything else as any jolly, generous, and manly member of the Boston Latin School.

" It's only five weeks to vacation," said Will, with a sigh, as though the struggle to keep himself in sight for even five weeks longer were almost too much to endure. " And then it's only ten weeks more till school begins again," Jack added, with a deeper sigh. "And the tremendous duty devolves upon us to exist, in some way, through those ten weeks. How shall we do it?" asked Clif. "Bet a cent I'll manage it some way, even if it takes all summer ! " Bob exclaimed, twisting his hands about in his pockets. EIGHT BOYS. " I wish I felt sure how the examination would turn out, first," Charlie muttered. " Pass or no pass, sink or swim, live or die, etc., I'm going to have a jolly time in some way this summer ! " Jack exclaimed. " Let's go together." That was three words, and, irrespective of the voice, every boy knew that they came from Chess.

" Good idea, Chess ! " Paul replied. " Boys, let's make up a party." " But where should we go ? " put in forethoughtful Charlie. "Don't you borrow trouble, Charlie," .said Jack. " I never worry about a window till after I've smashed it. If I did. I should be in hot water all the time. Let's agree to go some where together, first, and then let the majority decide where." " For the sake of argument, let's agree," said Phil. " Done ! Now where ? " said Chess. " Fishing," said Charlie " Canoing," said Will. " I say, boys, suppose our respective governments veto the bill?" Clif suggested. " Pressure must be brought to bear," Jack replied, em phatically. " At any rate," said Paul, " before we present a petition, we should know what we want. If it is positively vetoed, we shall have to abandon it, of course, but we might as well strike high at the start and come as near it as we can.

Let's go in for something that we don't get every vacation ; something that will be useful as well as ornamental. What do you say to a two-months trip in Europe ? " " Europe ! " consternation struck the little group. " Europe ! " that was all they could say for a moment, till Charlie mustered courage to add in a half-whisper, "Europe is not bad." "Europe is good ! " Jack exclaimed, gathering courage. '• Decidedly good ! " Clif added. " Come, Chess, what says the sage ? " Thus appealed to, Chess leisurely changed his position, thought the matter over for a moment, and replied, " Take a vote." " Good idea again, Chess," said Bob ; " bet a cent it's unanimous. Now, then ! Those who are in favor of going to Europe, more or less, say so." They all said so without delay, and Bob added, " For the present, at least, the ayes have it ; and unless fathers and mothers are opposed, and say no, it is a vote.

That's regular ; isn't it, boys ? " " That's regular," Clif replied; "but now the question is, to what part of Europe shall we go ? " " To Scotland and England ! " " Paris and the Rhine ! " " Italy ! " " Come, Paul, you proposed Europe ; where would you say ? " asked Clif. " If I can go at all, I shall be quite glad enough not to be particular as to where," Paul replied. " Well, I have my preferences, and so have you," said Clif. " Now, out with them ! What are they ? " " We've covered all Europe, thus far," said Jack, " and it remains for you to cast the deciding vote. What do you say, Paul ? " " So far from being a deciding vote, I'm afraid it would stand all alone," said Paul. " Bet a cent he means Ireland," said Bob. t Paul quietly took a cent from his pocket and handed it to Bob, remarking, " You have won."

" Shamrocks and thistles ! " Jack exclaimed, in disgust. "And rocks are not the only shams there, either, I fancy," said Bob. EIGHT BOYS. 7 " Bob, if you do that again, I'll — " Clif began, for Bob was very much inclined to point an ill-gotten pun, now and then, and Clif, who thoroughly objected, never failed to go just so far in a threat. But the puns kept coming, though the threat never went any farther. " We've blarney enough in America. I'd rather go fishing," said Will. " There's lots of fishing in Ireland," Paul replied. " Well, I'd rather do my fishing somewhere else," said Charlie ; " I'm quite too much in love with my own precious hide to risk it in Ireland." "I say, Paul," said Clif, "the very rea.son that you stand up for Ireland is that every one else is down on it. It's a mighty good trait that bets on the bottom dog, and many's the bottom dog that will come out at the top, by and by, to stand up for you, in return.

But when it's a summer vacation, and we're in for a good time, I must say I think we can do better than go to Ireland." " Well, don't fear but that I shall be more than glad to go with the crowd, anywhere," Paul replied. " Do you really mean," Jack asked, in unfeigned astonishment, "that you would actually like to go to Ireland better than anywhere else in the world ? " " Better than anywhere else in Europe," Paul replied. " But if it were all the world ? " Clif asked. "To India," said Paul. There was silence in the little group for an instant, for they all knew something of the sadly happy charm which constantly drew Paul's heart to India. Clif broke the silence as, laying his hand on Paul's shoulder, he said, " Old fellow, you've eaten the lotos. Have patience till college days are over and you'll breathe the spicy breezes again.

But, in the meantime, since we cannot wait and go to India with you, and we don't much care to go to Ireland, make one more try. Three times and out, you know. Name the spot, and we'll agree to it, sight unseen. What do you say, boys ? " The consent was unanimous, for Paul was an unbounded favorite; but he knew well the value of neutrality to friendship, and insisted that the selection should be made by lot. It fell upon Scotland and England. The home secretaries were duly consulted, urged, and persuaded, the passages engaged upon a steamer sailing for Scotland, via the north of Ireland, and the boys were happy. COMING INTO PORT.

Chapter II. Man Proposes

"T)ET a cent we are in for a gay old time ! " said Bob, after J-J their friends had left the deck, all were ashore who were going ashore, the planks drawn, the tender had towed the steamer's prow into the channel, and the first perceptible throb of the deck beneath their feet warned them that the engines were in motion. " I'm glad that saying good-bye is over," said Clif, his bright, black eyes brighter and blacker than usual, with tears that no manly boy is ever ashamed to shed. " If the steamer had not been ten minutes late in starting I should have been left," said Will, still panting from the exer tions of the last moments. " But I'm all right now for the next ten days, at any rate." " All right if nothing happens to prevent. But how about accidents?" Charlie suggested. "And I wonder if my things are all right.

I'm just going down to the state-room to see." " Well, we're in for it, accidents or no accidents," said Phil. "and, as there is nothing that we can do about it till they come, I suppose the best thing is not to fret. There'll be time enough to jump overboard after the steamer catches fire." Paul shuddered. His strong, brown hand, as it rested on the rail, clutched it involuntarily as he thought of the time, five years before, when that hand (much smaller and whiter, and more dependent on others) had clung to the cue of the Chinese Tao Sen as together they dropped from the deck of the burn ing Tigress into the wild waves of the China Sea. OUR BOYS IS IRELAND. One can hardly escape at midnight from a burning steamer, in mid-ocean, while hundreds perish about him, hardly listen to the cries of the dying and see the dead upon the water, horrified by the glare of the burning steamer, and in five years forget it all.

Paul's cheeks were pale and his lips trembled a little as, looking out to sea, he said, more to himself than to the others, " I hope I may never know another fire at sea." A few hours later, as Clif and Bob stood together, watching the fire flashing in the water from the motion of the wheel, in the evening. Bob said, " I never saw anything cowardly in Paul till this afternoon. But that was very strange, the way he acted when we spoke of a fire at sea. I believe he was almost ready to jump overboard at the very thought of an accident ; I tell you, you never know a fellow till you try him." By the faint light of the stern lantern, Clif looked at Bob for a moment in blank astonishment. Then he replied : — " No. You don't know a fellow till you try him, and, if the time should ever come that we should have a chance to try Paul Clayton, I fancy we shall find that the way he acted when he thought of danger and the way he acts when he faces danger are two very different things."

"I say, fellows," said Jack, coining up, "the first thing I did was to slip clown the companion-way. I caught my toe, ripped the sole clear off my shoe (I haven't but one more shoe on board, and it does riot belong to that foot, either), and took a header for the bottom. As I was passing it, on the way down, I grabbed a big flower-pot, with a plant of some sort in it, bracketed up there, and took the whole thing along with me." " That's good enough for number one," said Bob. " Bet a cent you'll snap off that precious head of yours some brio*ht morning." For convenience' sake the boys formed themselves into a company, of which Clif was general manager. Will was to be the treasurer, for, as paying the bills would always be the last thing to do, they thought he would be apt to get around just at the right moment.

Charlie was to take charge of the baggage. He was always so anxious lest something should go wrong that he was considered constitutionally adapted to that work. Paul was to act as general umpire, to settle all disputes. The other four boys were to act as assistants in cases of emergency. To Jack fell the duty of assisting Charlie, but the boys all assured him that, as they wanted their baggage carefully handled, and in a way to prevent accidents, he was to consider it a wholly honorary position, and never, under any circumstances, to attempt to perform any of its duties. Jack accepted the position with his usual good-nature, laughing as he replied, " The time may come when you would rather run the risk of having the corner knocked off from one trunk than to have me stand with my hands in my pockets, but I will not budge all the same."

They had all sorts of weather. Nature seemed determined to give them her utmost variety, culminating in a terrific storm, as they neared the end of the voyage, which, after two days of raging, left them, no one knew exactly where, in a dense and motionless fog. The captain was sure that he had been driven out of his course, but how much he could not tell. He knew that he must be near land, but tried in vain to discover how near. The steamer crept slowly onward, the anxious officers paced the bridge, and the hearts of all the passengers, usually so light upon the last days, dropped down. About midnight, however, the fog-horn ceased and the steamer moved more rap idly. Paul lay awake in his berth as two bells struck for one o'clock ; he was thinking of the poor beings in the steerage — he had been among them with the doctor, frequently, during the storm — when a sudden shock wrenched the great steamer, caus ing him to leap from his berth.

Then there was a bound and a fall and another shock, which threw him down. Gaining his feet, he hurried on his coat, which was all he had taken off. thinking the doctor might call him, as he had the night before, to help him in a critical case, where, he said, Paul had proved himself better than any professional nurse. The engines had stopped with the first shock. It was evi dently a serious accident. Sailors were running and officers shouting above his head, and here and there came a cry of alarm from the cabin. Paul did not wait to see what the trouble was, but, waking Clif, who roomed with him, he hurried from state room to state-room, rousing his companions, and then disappeared. Dressing as quickly as possible, they were soon on deck. Nothing was to be seen about them but the blackness of night, and the fog, that had settled in again so densely that even the steamer's lights were hardly visible.

The sea was, apparently, almost calm, but sailors were rapidly obeying orders sternly given, and lowering away the boats, while the steamer, with a heavy list, hung well upon one side, making it difficult to stand upon the deck. " We are fast upon the rocks, boys," said Clif, returning from some officer, whom he had found willing to give him so much information ; " we are near some land, they say, and the sea is not so high but that all can be safely landed if they can only be put in the boats before the steamer goes down, for she is filling rapidly, and will break, they fear." " Well, we'd better go quick for a place in the boats," said Charlie, and set an example that all the boys followed. They were obliged to wait for the last boat, however, as the women and children, with their husbands and fathers, were being given the first places.

While they stood waiting, Jack asked : — " Who was it woke us up ? " " I don't know," said Will, "a steward, probably, or a sailor. One came to the door just after I was out of my berth ; but, see ing we were up, he went on." " It was Paul who woke us up," said Clif, as they began climbing into the boat. Bob's foot was upon the rail, but he hesitated for an instant, turned and looked back at Clif, and then went on. " Where is he ? " Chess asked, suddenly ; and for the first time, in their anxiety, the boys noticed that Paul was not with them. It was the last boat aft. The cabin and intermediate passen gers were all off when that was in the water, and only the steerage remained. They were being placed in the forward boats and rafts. The boys hesitated for an instant, but an officer pushed them on from behind.

" Hold on ! " Clif exclaimed, " there's one missing. Paul ! " he shouted, " Paul ! " There was no answer, and those behind crowded him on. He had no sooner gained the boat than he turned, determined to return to the ship, when she gave a lurch that nearly capsized them. Instantly the officer gave the com mand to cast off, and the next moment they were being pulled from the wreck as swiftly as the strong arms of the sailors in charge could ply the oars. " It was mighty good of Paul to wake us all, and it's not just right for us to go and leave him," said Clif. " He probably got off before us," said Charlie. " And what could we do ? We were all so frightened that we didn't think till it was too late. I even left my watch in my state-room." " I left my coat," said Will. " We might better have left everything," Phil added, " than have left Paul if he is in trouble.

I hope he's not. He may have gone on." "It was mean," said Bob, "not to do something, and yet, what could we have done ? " •■ What Jack did," Chess replied. " Jack ! why, where's Jack ? " they asked. " On the steamer," Chess answered. No one but Chess had noticed that, just when the steamer careened and the boat was cast off, Jack had caught the loose rope and swung himself back on to the deck again. " I think they are all right," said an officer who had over heard the conversation ; " for, when she fell the last time, she hit on hard bottom, and I do not think she will sink farther till a storm blows her to pieces. The steerage rafts are not all off yet, and they may come in those, or they may have their sig nals seen directly. It is lifting a little. The captain is still on board." " Well, that's a comfort," said Phil ; " and, in all probability, it is true that they will get off quite as safely as we.

But I don't like the way we left Paul. He did not leave us that way. I'm most afraid that he has hurt himself in some way. I'm glad Jack was level-headed enough to do what he did." " It's not for you to talk that way," said Bob ; " you did your best to get back on to the steamer. But some of the rest of us — I most of all — ought to be well ashamed of ourselves." " And we are," said Chess. Rockets had been continually sent from the steamer after the boats left, from which they had guided their course ; for the fog had sufficiently lifted for them to see a little distance, and was still lifting, when suddenly Chess exclaimed : — " We've turned around ! " and he pointed to a rocket that had just risen over the prow ; but an exclamation from the officer in the boat and a quick changing of the course suggested the joyful truth that it was a signal from the land.