He left us, thank God." "What
made people dislike him so?" "Because he was the height of a great
tyrant." "Come now, what did he do?" "Everything he could do to oppress
the creatures who were in his power. I have known a man come home to his
little family with three shillings for his week's wages, all the rest
scratched off him in fines. If you have a family yourself you will
understand what their living would be when they paid the rent of the
cabin. A man dazed with hunger would not have all his wits about him and
there would be more fines. In that way the mane hound got his work done
for half price, and ground the life out of the people. There was no word
of an emergency man to pity or help them. God help us; how true it is
that the help does not go where the want is."
We got to Knock, a country church in a country place. Alighted, and
while the carman tied his horse I looked round me. There was an
enclosure round the chapel. At one side was a row of wooden booths,
where relics, beads and trinkets were sold. On the other side of the
enclosure was a school for girls. It was at the end of the church where
the apparition is said to have appeared that we entered. All the plaster
on this end was removed by devotees. In the spot where the apparition
was said to have been seen, there was a life-size statue of the Virgin
in plaster. All over the gable were strips of wood cleated on, behind
which were ranged walking-sticks and crutches in regular order till the
whole gable was covered. There was a long frame-work of wood about
twelve feet long and three broad, also filled with crutches and walking-
sticks.
As I stood looking, the car man came in after tying his horse, and knelt
down on the damp earth before the Virgin's shrine and repeated a prayer.
He was not ashamed to practice what he believed before the world and in
the sight of the sun. When his prayer was over he joined me, and drew my
attention to the number of crutches and sticks left behind by those who
were benefited. I pointed out to him a very handsome black-thorn stick
among the votive offerings, and asked him would it be a sin to steal it,
as black-thorns were in demand over the water. He told me if I did that
whatever disease was laid down there by the owner of the stick would
cleave to me. I thought of Gehazi and restrained my hands from stealing
the black-thorn. There is one nice characteristic of a genuine Irishman,
he can take a joke.
There were many masons working at an enlargement of the church. We went
in. It had an earthen floor, and there were many people kneeling on it
at their prayers. Some were silently making the stations of the cross,
others, a large number, were reciting the rosary aloud under the
leadership of a young woman, who repeated one part, when they all
answered in concert. The windows were darkened by the scaffolding and
building outside, and as I sat there seeing and hearing, looking toward
the altar, in the shadow of a pillar I saw a hand steal out. I own I was
startled; but when my eyes got accustomed to the gloom, I saw it was a
man at the top of a ladder quietly painting away as if the church were
empty.
After a while I came out and went over to the school. There were 78
children present, all girls, all clean and decent. There was one
teacher, a pleasant-faced young woman, who had two monitor assistants.
The order kept was very good, the school furniture neat, a good many
maps on the wall, and the children seemed busy and interested. The
teacher told me that the income of the school, owing to results fees - a
sum paid by Government according to the progress of the pupils, was
sometimes as high as L80 per annum.
After leaving the school, went over to the booths to buy some trifle as
a memorial of Knock. The man in the booth told me I had come from
America. There was another man with his arm in a sling, who had come
from America also. He had come to visit Knock. I asked him if his arm
was better. He said it was, but not entirely well. I asked the man in
the booth if he had ever seen anything. He said that he did not come
there to see anything, but to make a living. He and the American had
both bits of the original plaster, which they showed to me.
The priest of the place was not at home. He lives in a cottage down the
hill a bit, in sight of the church. I had seen all there was to be seen,
so I made my purchase and bid good-bye to Knock, and drove back to
Claremorris.
Claremorris is a nice enough little town, very quiet, as if not much of
any great work was going on. Where there are factories I notice the
people step quickly and look straight ahead. Over towns which depend on
the trading of the country round there is an air of repose and leisure.
I did not see much of Claremorris, for I soon left it behind in going to
Ballinrobe by car.
The land here seems very rich. I remarked this to my travelling
companions, who told me that I was on the rich plains of Mayo. The
fields are large and well cultivated. There were no signs of the abject
poverty, wee, stony fields, horrible rookeries of houses that exist in
the shadow of the Ox hills.
