The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-04 00:00:00

CHEST OF DRAWERS.

" Oh, tell us that, granny darlint," exclaimed little Tim
Devereux, still holding his grandfather's hand ; " I want
a story so bad."
" Well, Tim, here it is," said the old woman. " The
chest of drawers will stand beautiful under the window,'
said Toni Lavery. Under the window !' repeated his
wife—as pretty a little woman as you'd see in a day's
walk, but with a cruel tongue that would give nineteen
to the dozen any day, and not think it a trouble—
' under the window,' she said again, Witt a scornful curl
on her lip, it shall never go under the window while I
have breath in my body; no, it shall stand forenent
the window, whero it will be seen and admired ; under
the window, indeed ! I wonder you don't say up
the chimney !" It shall go under the window, Moyna
Lavery ; it's too asy going I have been with you, intirely.
You are never satisfied, full or fasting, and think all the
world must curtsey to you ; it shall go under the window,
and you'd better not dare hinder it !" It never shall,' said
; I'll pitch the window into the street first.' And
I'd pitch you after it for company,' said Tom. On this
Moyna raised a wirristhrue' that you'd hear from this to
Bantry and Tom's loud voice had more noise than sense
in it,—and Tom took the stick to his wife,—and she
screamed murder, and at the lucky minute the door opened,
and there, sure enough, stood Father Barry, and, as became
a holy and good man, he asked them what they were at.
and what they were after, and as Moyna had the nimblest
tongue, she said ' her husband was that Omathaum that he
would have the chest of drawers under the window, which
she never would give into, never ! she'd lay her bones in
the green churchyard first !" But where's the chest of
drawers ?' said Father Barry—and may be the fool's look
didn't come over both their faces : ' The chest of drawers,'
said one ; Is it the chest of drawers', said the other ; oh,
sorra a chest of drawers we have at all—yet.' So I was
just thinking it's a good way to get our rights before we
take on about them."

But the drift of the argument enforced in this
most entertaining little pamphlet—can't any one
guess it ? Those who have the smallest difficulty
in doing so may be helped to a right conclusion
on the matter by a fragmentary extract or two
from its pages—taken almost hap-hazard. Says one
of the interlocutors—" If we studied a little, and
looked to our rale interests, I think we'd make as
pretty a shamrock as ever had leaves on St.
Patrick's day. England, Ireland, and Scotland on
the map make a very neat shamrock, only Ireland
somehow has been badly cemented on to the other
two, or the cement wasn't good." Says the same
spokesman—who is James Roche, by the way,
the broth of a boy who alters the insurrectionary
watch-cry of God Save the Green into God Save
the Queen and the Green. Says James—" There isn't
one well-born Irishman in the whole throng of Fenians."
To be plainer, however, we will group together,
and number up while doing so, a few more of these
fragmentary quotations from this patriotic talk
among the peasants, as the talk is here narrated
or reported in reprehension of Fenianism—
First—" Uncle, do you mind the time when a bell, such
as that which called us to Mass this morning, was never
}IPA PA ringing from a c,hapci r.

Secondly—" Don't you know that when you were a
young man no Roman Catholic could be a judge? Well,
there are eight of them among the judges now; and one,
an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, is a judge in England,
as much respected and honoured as any one among them
all."

Thirdly—" Don't you remember—it's not so long ago—
when there wasn't a single Roman Catholic in any corpo-
ration in all Ireland ; well, nine out of ten are of our reli-
gion now, and four out of five of the Mayors are the same."

Fourthly—" Was there ono Roman Catholic in it while
we had a Parliament ? Not one! There are, maybe,
forty in the Parliament that meets in London ; and have'nt
we all road of the rows they used to have in that same
College Green ? Members sent there by old remnants of
old towns—that had no houses—to be bought and sold ?"
Fifthly—" Uncle, what was your day's wages for a hard
day's work when you were a young man, fortyyears ago?',
Just fi'pence then, and no more."
" What would you get now ?"
" Well, all the boys hereabouts get a shilling a day ;
some more, none less."

Sixthly—" Look about us now ; every house is white,
the limewash does that. When I was a child we never
saw such a thing, except maybe on the doctor's or the
priest's; and the filthy pool at the door of the cabin—sel-
dom ye see it now ! And the pig, hasn't he got a place to
himself— sure, that wasn't so when you were young."
Soventhly—" Well, and how did ye work the land then?"
" Troth, with our own four bones. I mind the time
when there was but one plough in the Barony of Inish-
own."

Eighthly—" And how about the eggs ; doesn't Molly
get a shilling a dozen for them ?"
" She does : more luck to her ; but that wasn't the way
long ago; five for a penny wasn't bad marketing, and
many's the pair of chickens I've sold for eightpence.
Molly gets two shillings a couple for just the same."
Ninthly—" Och ! never a pair of shoes had she at all at
all; there was not a pair in the whole parish when I was
a boy, except the gaugers, and the breed of them gaugers,
the Lord be praised! is gone from the country. I'd like
to hear what Peggy Deasy, honest woman, or Nelly Doran
would say if we told 'em to go to market barefoot ! There
isn't a girl in the Barony that hasn't a pair—for Sundays
anyway !"
Tenthly—" All the boys young and old have dacent
coats to their backs now. 'T was another thing intirely in
my young days. Even James Mulcahy—
"Ah ! what's become of him ; the bocagh that used to
bo showing his sores to the people, picking up a bit from
door to door, and wearing clothes that ye would'nt touch
with a pitchfork."

Enough, however, when eve have said what we have
said of and quoted what we have quoted from
" God Save the Green, by Mrs. S. C. 11a11"--if
we commend every true-hearted Irish man, woman,
and child in the three kingdoms, who can spare the
twopence to that end, to buy it, and read it, and
learn it by heart, as a panacea against the virus of
Fenianism.

MARKETS.—This Day.