The mistress of
the shop enquired if I would take milk. I assented, and was served with
a brimming tumbler of excellent milk. Payment was refused, and as I
turned to leave, I was favored with a subdued groan from the women
assembled in the shop. Evidently they thought I was some tyrant who
required the protection of the police. It would not flatter me - not
much - to be taken for some landholders here.
When my police fellow-voyagers were dropped at their comfortable white
barracks here and there, and only one was left, we fell into
conversation to beguile the time. He had been at one time on duty in
Donegal and knew how matters were there, from his point of view, better
than I did. We spoke of Captain Dopping, and his opinion of him was if
anything lower than mine. He expressed great thankfulness that guarding
the Captain had never been his duty. Whether he disliked it from moral
causes, or for fear of intercepting in his own person a stray bullet
intended for the gallant captain, he did not say.
Arrived at Ballina after a long, tiresome journey, yet like everything
else in this world it had its compensations. Ballina is a kind of
seaport town, in the Rip Van Winkle way. An inlet from Killala Bay
called the Moy runs up to the town. There is no stir on the water, no
perceptible merchandise on the quay. One dull steamboat painted black,
in mourning for the traffic and bustle of life that ought to be there,
slides out on its way to Liverpool and creeps back again cannily. Unless
you see this steamboat I can testify that you might put up quite a while
at Ballina and never hear its existence mentioned, so it cannot be of
much account. The streets are thronged with barefoot women and ragged
lads with their threepenny loads of turf. The patient ass, with his
straw harness and creels, is the prevailing beast of burden everywhere I
have travelled since I entered Enniskillen with the exception of Sligo.
Sligo town, like Belfast in a lesser degree, has the appearance of
having something to do and of paying the people something who do it. The
traders who come to Ballina market seem to trade in a small way as at
Manor Hamilton. Still, the town is handsome and clean, a large part of
the population, prosperous-looking, in an easy going way, the ladies
fine-looking and well dressed. One wonders what supports all this, for
the business of the town seems of little account.
Spent a Sunday here and after church became aware that the too, too
celebrated Miss Gardiner, with her friend Miss Pringle, had arrived at
the hotel on their way to Dublin, on evictions bent. The police had
marched out in the evening to her place to protect her in. I was eager
to see this lady, who enjoys a world-wide fame, so sent her my card
requesting an interview, which she declined. I caught a glimpse of her
in the hall as she passed out with her friend and guard. She is a very
stout, loud-voiced lady, not pretty. The bulge made by the pistols she
carries was quite noticeable. "Arrah, why do you want to see either of
them," said a maiden to me. "Sure they both of thim drink like dragons" -
dragoons she meant, I suppose - "an' swear like troopers, an' fight like
cats." This was a queer bit of news to me. I did not take any notice of
it at that time; but, dear me, it is as common news as the paving
stories on the street.
Miss Gardiner is almost constantly at law with her tenants, lives in a
state of siege, maintains, at the cost of the country, an armed body
guard, and is doing her very best to embroil the country in her efforts
to clear the tenants off her property. At the Ballycastle petty sessions
a woman summoned by this lady for overholding, as they call it, appeared
by her son and pleaded that she had been illegally evicted. Miss
Gardiner told them they might do what they liked, but she must get her
house. Now this house never cost Miss Gardiner a farthing for repairs
nor for erection, and it is all the house the wretched creatures have,
and, of course, they hold to it as long as they are able. The priest
attempted to put in a word for the woman, and was unmercifully snubbed
by the bench. In Miss Gardiner's next case, the bench decided that the
service was illegal. Miss Gardiner then called out, "I now demand
possession of you in the presence of the court." The bench would not
accept this notice as legal. She had a great many cases and gained them
all but this one. This particular Sunday when I had the honor of seeing
her she was bound for Dublin on eviction business.
XXXI.
KILLALA - THE CANADIAN GRANT TO THE FAMINE FUND AND WHAT IT HAS DONE -
BALLYSAKEERY - THREE LANDLORDS - A LANDLORD'S INTERESTING STATEMENT.
I had the very great pleasure of a drive to the ancient town of
Killala, accompanied by the wife of the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, who
superintends the orphanage and the mission schools in connection with
the Presbyterian Church of Ballina. Killala is an old town with a gentle
flavor of decay about it. It has a round tower in good preservation, and
an ancient church. I was shown the point where the French landed at the
stirring time of war and rebellion.
It makes my heart glad to hear in so many places of the benefit the
Canadian grant has been to this suffering country. I heard with great
pleasure of fishing boats along the coast named Montreal, Toronto and
other Canadian names in affectionate remembrance of the Canadian dollars
that paid for them.
