My friends had congratulated themselves on this transaction
having occurred before the organization of the Land League; but one
night an armed and masked party took the widow lady and reinstated her
in her place.
My friends were startled a little by a visit from this
party, who informed them that they were returning from reinstating the
lady in her place. Had they any objection? No, they had no objection.
Would they disturb her in possession? No, they would not disturb her in
possession. If they had only the L100 which they had invested they were
quite willing to surrender the farm. Three cheers were given for my
friends, three cheers for the widow lady, a gun was fired off, there was
a wild cheer for Rory of the Hills, and they disappeared. The widow lady
after some time quietly left the place of her own accord, and everything
was as it had been before. They, the armed party, found out that they
were not doing the lady a kindness by reinstating her, and so the matter
ended.
Limerick, though an old city, is not a very large one. Going down the
principal street - George's street - you can look down any of the cross
streets beyond the masts on Shannon and see on the other side of the
river oats, waving yellow and in stocks, up the slope. Standing on the
Wellesley Bridge, where young Fitzgibbon in bronze stands on a granite
pedestal, perpetually endeavoring to draw his sword - which he succeeded
in drawing to some purpose at Alma and Inkerman, if we are to credit the
pedestal, which we do - you can look down the Shannon, over the boats and
among the steamboat chimneys and the ships' masts, and see the green
banks of the Shannon, broad and wide, with cattle standing ankle deep in
the rich pasture. You can see them as they extend far away, widening as
they go, till the horizon shuts out any farther view. The constant rain
of these two last months, I am afraid, will damage the ripening crop. It
is near the close of August and there is hay yet uncut, there is hay
lying out in every form of bleached windrow, or lap, or spread, under
the rain. Some of it looks quite spoiled.
No one, I suppose, leaves Limerick without gazing at and perhaps wishing
for some of the beautiful specimens of Limerick lace that are displayed
in the shop-windows.
From Limerick to Killarney in the rain through a country gradually
growing poorer. At the junction there was a detention which enabled me
to walk about a little. There was a detachment of police that filled a
couple of car passing on their way to eviction in one direction; a large
detachment returning from eviction got out of the cars here. Eviction in
this part of Ireland is feverishly active, and on every hand you hear of
Mr. Clifford Lloyd. A person with whom I had some conversation told me I
could have no idea of the state of the country without penetrating
through it away from the line of rail.
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