I had some biscuits and cheese in my satchel, and they
began to struggle to get out, and at last I consented and handed the
little parcel silently to the prisoner. He did not thank me, except by
falling to and eating like a famished creature.
Arrived at Cork, the police took him away on a car, and the last glimpse
I got of him he was eating as if he had not eaten before for a week.
I was very thankful when Sabbath morning found me in Cork again and with
power to rest. There is not much appearance of Sabbath in the streets of
Cork; it looks like a vast crowd keeping holiday. A great many shops are
open; the stall women are in their places and seem to drive a good
trade. I even heard a woman crying her wares as on any other day. I do
not think that a little more Sabbath would hurt this fair town in the
very least. I rested this day.
In the evening I had the pleasure of hearing "the bells of Shandon"
ringing the people in to worship in the old Shandon Church. I heard them
while walking by "the pleasant waters of the river Lee." I followed
their chime and enjoyed it, sweetly solemn and grand it was, and thought
of Father Prout who has made them so famous, and finally found myself at
Shandon church.
When the chimes ceased I went up the high steps into the old church. It
is very old. It is high, long and narrow. The tower, in which are the
famous bells, seems of better workmanship than the church. It is built
in stories. The bells were chiming out, "Oh, that will be joyful!" as I
entered. It is a nice, homely, comfortable church; but so plain that the
tide of fashion has rolled past it into another quarter of the town. The
pulpit and reading-desk were supplied by a gray-haired clergyman, who
had power to read the service, so that it had a newness as if it had
never been heard before and to preach to the heart. With the echo of his
words and the echo of the bells of Shandon the Sabbath closed.
LV.
THE SOUTH - THE FEELING OF THE PEOPLE - EVICTIONS AND THE LAND LAW.
In conversing with a very sensible gentleman in Cork, he mentioned the
competition among the farmers themselves as one reason of the high
rents. I have heard this brought forward again and again in every part
of Ireland. It is difficult to get so far into the confidence of the
southern people as to know what they really think or feel. Without an
introduction from one whom they trust they are very reticent and non-
committal. There is another party who will not be drawn into giving an
opinion for fear of their names appearing in print in company with these
opinions.
Cork is such a brilliant city, such a sunshiny city, for the sun shone
while I was there as it did not shine anywhere else where I have been
for the last two months, such a brisk, busy city, that I felt some
regret at leaving it. Cork is a busy town, but there are many idle hands
and hungry mouths within its boundaries.
The prevalence of drinking habits is deplored by many with whom I
conversed here. Speaking of the movement, now so rife, for encouraging
home manufacture, especially in the shoe trade, a lady remarked that if
there were a revival in trade without a revival in temperance many
shoemakers would only work three days a week as had been the case in
good times before.
It was a sunny day when I looked my last on the busy city on the river
Lee, on the numerous basket women that squat in its streets, some
knitting or crocheting for dear life, some sitting with arms crossed,
fat and lazy, basking contentedly in the sun beside their baskets of
miserable stunted apples that would be thrown to the pigs in Canada.
Between Cork and Mallow my travelling companion was an elderly
Scotchman, a cattle dealer, who deplored the disturbed state of the
country very feelingly. He admitted that there was undeniable need of a
revision of the land tenure but thought that the people went about
securing it in a very wrong way. I ventured to suggest that there was
likely to be an agitation in Scotland on the land question. "Aye, there
will and must be that, but they will manage it differently," said the
old gentleman. He censured my excitable country people pretty freely. I
enquired why he did not return to Scotland to live in that tranquil
country. "He had been long, out of Scotland, about forty years, and had
got into the ways of the Irish, and truly they were a kind-hearted
people and easily pleased."
Another gentleman in this compartment pointed out to me Blarney Castle
in the distance, and Blarney woollen mills nearer hand, where the
celebrated Blarney tweed is manufactured, and whispered to me that
Father - - , I did not catch the name with the noise of the cars, had
appeared in a suit of Blarney tweed. There and then I wished that every
reverend Father in Ireland was dressed in native manufacture.
A little fiddler was playing in the car for halfpence, and the Irish
gentleman paid him to play Scotch tunes in our honor, thinking we were
both Scotch, I and the old Scotch gentleman. I asked the child to play
"Harvey Duff," as I wanted to hear that most belligerent tune. The poor
child looked as frightened as if I had asked him to commit high treason
and shook his head.
