The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-12-23
THE FAIRY's WARNING.
By JOHN BRoGHAM.

| belonged to those who had natural right to
| them-beforc her Saxon neighhors overspread
| tie beautiful land, despoiling the rightful pos
SCISSORS of the soil, heaping mountain loads OF
! oppression upon the poor inhabitants, and then
deriding them because they could stand as
straight as they did forerly-there happened to
live in the town of Clonmakilty, a well TO do,
! industrious, and kindly hearted weaver, whose
name was Connach O'Dearmid
| Now, at this time, there vas not g country in
Christendom could produce such splendid IA
| brics of every description, from the heavily wo-
! ven cloth of gold down 10 the exquisite hnen
whose texture was so fine that yards upon yards
of it could be drawn through weddiug-ring !;
and amongst all the looms in the land, none
turned out the equal of Cannach O'Dearmid $
and mind you-the weaver then, was not the
hunGer wasted, gaunt phantom sort Of death
in-hfe object, one may now see occasionally
peering from a miserable aperture called win
dow, in the very centre OF Ireland's once proud
capital No, indeed! He had his servants,
ami his grooms, and retinue like nobleman.
AnIif the kings and warriors had their hards
to chronicle their ixh achievements, and inspi-
red minstrels to sing them, so had the handi-
craftsman his, to hymn the still prouder deeds
of holy labor.
A fine, high-spirited, happy and centented
people were they then, until the Unsuitable and
cunning islanders close by, after vainly endea-
voring by open warfare to subdue them, secret
" introduced tie fruitful elements of discord,
which unhappily divided those who never more
can be united. Colonies Of a strange and ut
terly antagouistic blood and creed, were plant
ed in their midst new religion, brought forth
aud nurturcd with ecclesiastical zeal, that most
fatal of feuds whco results from n dife renee of
faith is it surprising then that, robbed of their
Inheritance, and driven into the woods and saw
age hiding places, their hearths usurped, and
their s,tars desecrated-is it to be wondered at,
that the poor prosecuted people without shelter,
without education should slowly but surely have
retrog g@ded, when all the rest OF the world has
advanced, until centuries of oppression have al
most depopulated an entire nation ?
But to 80 back TO Connach lie happened,
fortunately for himself, to live in time when
every held his own, in quietness and peace;
there were no ''evictious, no h0mesteads level
led to enlarge my lord SO-and-So's estate, no
middlemen and agents to plunder equally the
unfortunate tenant and absentee landlord, no
INTRIGUING double-faced demagogucs, no selfish
semi-politcal priests but contentment like an
atmosphere of perpetual summer rested upon
the land, and amongst the happy islanders none
had more cause to be so than Conn ach, the
yer q benignant fate having placed him in that
most enyiable of all positions-cheerful and
well-satisfed mediocracy-too high for priva-
ton to reach and too low for envy to assai,
with just sufficient intellect to comprehend and
enjoy everything enjoyable in nature, and thor
oughly impressed with that instructive religion
of the heart which causes it to expand in graf
itude to the benign Giver Of Good-tcue, loving
and cousderatc in his family relations free
friendship.
Such were the characteristics of the repre-
sentative of the ODearmids living in his time
and with but slight notifications of tempera-
ment, such have they been through succeeding
generations, even up to the present time for
amidst the chances and changes of conquest,
colonization and foreign absorption, the old
house, land name and occupation have been
transmitted from son to son, in regular descent,
at this very day-if the tourist should ever dis
cover ia tolerably goods sized, but curiously
patched tenement, bearing an exceedingly old
fashioned 81 ign-board, on which is painten ''Con
mach O'Dearnlid, Weaver"
The cause Of this strange preservation and
uninterrupted transmission of name, property
and occupation, for such number OF years, Is
satisfactorily explained in family tradition,
which | had the pleasure of hearing from the
present representative and as it appeared TO
me to be more graphic in his own diction, shall
endeavor to present it to the reader, as nearly
as l can, in his words -
''You know, sir, suppose, that at the time
luck fell upon the name of the ODearmlds,
makein' somewhere about, it might be thou
sand years ago-but the date doesn't matther
ha1Umeen j.; however, the fellow that owned it
thin was bowld-hearted rollckin', gnerous
divil-may-care boy, as iver lived. Well
sir; the fairies, you know was piintier thln nor
they are now by raysin, L suppose, that the
ground was trod upon by the real ould stock,
and not by furrin schamers and yalla-headed IN
thruders. More's the pity Almost every fam
lily ov dacipt behavior thin had somethin' or