The Sons
And Daughters Of Ireland Do Not Forget, In Their Prosperity On Far-Off
Shores, The Land Of Their Birth And Of Their Childhood's Dreams.
Like the daisies on the sod,
With their faces turned to God,
Their hearts' roots are in the island green
that nursed them on her lap.
Suffering from want in those hard times must have been comparatively
slight in Enniskillen, as the local charity was strong enough to relieve
it, I was informed by an Episcopal clergyman.
XXIV.
SELLING CATTLE FOR RENT - THE SHADOW OF MR. SMITH - GENERATIONS OF
WAITING - UNDER THE WING OF THE CLERGY - A SAFE MEDIUM COURSE - THE
CONSTABULARY - EXERTIONS OF THE PRIESTS - A TERMAGANT.
Hearing that there was a great disturbance apprehended at Manor
Hamilton, in the County Leitrim, and that the military were ordered out,
I determined to go there. I wanted to see for myself. I put on my best
bib and tucker, knowing how important these things are in the eyes of
imaginative people. Arrived at the station in the dewy morning, and
found the lads whom I had seen carrying their dinners at the Redoubt
drawn up on the platform under arms. How, boyish, slight and under-sized
they did look, but clean, smart and bright looking, of course. Applied
at the wicket for my ticket, as the 'bus man was eager to get paid and
see me safely off. The ticket man told me curtly I was in no hurry, and
shut the wicket in my face. The idea prevails here, except in the cases
of the local gentry who are privileged, and to whom the obsequiousness
is remarkable, that the general public, besides paying for their
accommodation, ought to accept their tickets as a favor done them by the
Company. This stately official at last consented to issue tickets; as I
had not change enough to pay I gave him a sovereign, and, not having
time to count the change, I stuffed it into my portmonnaie and made a
rush for the cars as they snorted on the start.
In spite of my determination, made amid the smoke and filth of the
third-class cars between Omagh and Strabane, I took a third-class car,
and to my agreeable surprise it was clean, and I had it to myself. We
steamed out of Enniskillen, all the workers in the fields and the people
in the houses dropping their work to stare at the cars, crowded with
soldiers, that were passing. I had a letter of introduction to an
inhabitant of Manor Hamilton, as a precaution. We passed one of the
entrances to Florence Court, the residence of the once-loved Earl of
Enniskillen. When I understood that this nobleman was up in years, his
magnificent figure beginning to show the burden of age, and that he was
blind, I felt a respectful sympathy for him, and wished that the shadow
of Mr. Smith and his three thousand of increase of rent had never fallen
across his path.
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