The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-11-20

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stories have been waited to England
from the Curragh, hints and glimpses
iof' a certain colony of poor Wretches
there Wholived as nobody else in the
three Kingdoms lived, and died most
like people who do come within the
bills of morality -tramps and others
they happened to perish of cold,
want, and whisky upoH that vast
common. In these stories there was
always something 81 SO shocking that
comfortable people were glad to dis
believe them, /, and something so
strange that it was reasonable enough
to set them aside: they were not
probable In an orderly, comm on place,
police-regulated, Christian commu-
nifty like our own. Besides, one could
not read those little stories-7para-
graphs in odd corners OF newspapers
in the great gooseberry season - with
| out q knowing suspicion that, If only
half they told was true more
must have been heard Of them. I his
seemed all the more likely because
| the Curragh is not an unfrequented
nook in some distant corner ofjthe
land, but'a plain near a capital city,
an! enoampment wherein thousands of
EngIishmen as we'll as thousands of
Irishmen constantly live, gentle and
simple both, and where scores of
strangers, visitors whoagO there for
no other purpose but to see what is
to be seen, peer about every week of
every Summer season. 1t. did not
seem at all natural that things so very
unlike what ought to happen in
nineteenth century as those little
wandering paragraphs limited at could
go on from year to year without in
vestigatiOn and arrest. But your
own observation is that the widest
circumstances. and most incredible
anomalies of life are those which lie
open to every eye, and are stared at,
and are not seen. And therefore
when, few weeks ago, other little
paragraphs came waited from the
Curraghs-chiefy o the effect that
the poor wretches of whom we have
spoken are called "wrens, because
they live In holes in the banks" and
that things are not so bad as they
used to be some years ago, when it
was not uncommon to find wren (or
unfortunate woman)s lying dead
amongst the Ffurze of a mornings
man. of brains to go and look into
the matter. Hardy, we say, because it
seemed to US now, as on a former oc-
casion, which we need not specify, that
to, ask cor accurate, sslive knowledge
from official persons would be an
swered. by the gift of, stone. as it
always is. Therefore We. solicited
some one to go to the camp, and find
the wrens (if any, and visit their
nests (lf any, and spend time enough
by day and night amongst them to let
US know what peculiar people tits of
which so many incredible hints have
been given-and forgotten. What
the nature of the task really was, and
what additional knowledge it gives
us OF. the world we live in, will APP
pear from the follow ng narrative -
1t was on an evening before Sep
TENDER had cooled-1hree weeks ago
and more-that L set out to investi-
gate the manners and customs, the
habits and habitat, of a bird not un-
known indeed in England, nor even
In London, but reported to be on the
Curragh of seriously peculiar kind
Rumor had told US all we had heard
OF the species; rumor is of ticklish
veracity; but one thing may be said
for her, that, if she sometimes tells
more lies than is tolerable, she s5hse-
times tells more truth than it is con-
venient to believe. Before Septem-
Der had cooled y is not merely an or
namental phrase. 1t is meant to be
remembered as a statement of facts;
because what aspect the place of my
visit would have not0, what it would
wear when the turf of the Curragh,
so soft to the foot, is even more silent
to the ear under Winter days snow,
has got to be- considered as we go on.
1t is an important part of the lesson
learned there on an Autumn day,
sharp enough, but very tolerable.
From London to Holyhead, from
Holyhead to Kingstown, from Kings
town to Dublin-all this was within
the limits of civilization. Not that I
think it a matter for congratulation
that anybody in the nineteenth cen
fury should be seasick. Nor thatI |
wish the dispensation altered The
Ipleasantest spectacle have witnessed
for some time was a director Of a
railway company (Who annihilated
space) and a secretary of a telegraph
company (who abolished time, and
used Heavens lightning as "a umes-
senger) alternate with a basin on az
playful sea- Dublin-yes, Dublin-is
civilized city, too: there is notcour-
age enough in the world to deny it. /
But Kildare, county town though it be,
one may be permitted to WITHHOLD
from it the. all suficing designation.
To Kildare my steps were directed,