The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-30
TALES OF THE BORDERS
THE IRISH REAPER.
JoHH NAcKAT WILSON.


Runcorn to Manchester, IN one Of the pass
hge-bOats which ply upon the Duke Of
Bridgewater's canal There could not be
less than a hundred passengers, and they
were of as motley description as the i'm
,agination of man could conceive even in a
dream. The boats exactly resemble long,
low, fiatroofed wooden house but sutfi-
.ciently lofty for a middle-sized person to
stand erect between the floor and the roof,
or rather the deck. At one end sat about
dozen Primitive Methodists, alternately
reading passages of Scripture, or bursting
forth, at the extreme pitch of their voice,
into a squall of music, singing hymn upon
hymn, till my very ears acbed, and the tim
bers of the boat might have started. Near
them sat a number Of rosy-cheeked Welsh
women, staring at the vocalists with look
of wondering vacancy, that the goats on
their own mountains could not have sur
passed. There were, also, manufacturers
wives and children returning from seven
DAVIS visit to RuncOrn, for the benefit of
saltwater DIP in the Mersey; and six or
eight prim, sober, sleek, silent, well dress
addressed Quakers; with more than a
spriukling of the boys of the Emerald Isle.
The loud laugh Of one Ct them was ever
and anon heard above the shrill music of
the Ranters. He was about five feet seven
inches high, and exceedingly strong and
well made. He wore an old great coat, of
a yellowish blanket color, and hat, the
crown of which had fallen in with service,
and its brim was equally turned up before
and behind, and on both sides. his feet
were thrust into pair of brogues of true
Irish manufacture, which, with a pair of
coarse blue worsted stockings and corduroy
insxpressibles, completed his outward man.
He carried an apparently empty sack under
bis arm, and surrounded by about
dozen of his countrymen, who seemed to
regard him as an oracle, heartily echoing
back his boisterous laughter, and exclaim-
ing, "Well done, Mr.. McCarty .-fsith, and
it's you that's your mothers own son, at any
rate"
O'Connell had sailed from Liverpool on
the previous day, and bis countrymen were
discussing his political merits.
"Why, bad luck to ye," exclaimed our
hero with the green coat, in answer to one
who had held forth in praise of the coun-
sellor; "and it is you, Mick Behan, that
says every man in Ireland should pay the
'Connell rint but I'll tell you bit OF
a parable, as Father O'Shee says, and a par
able, too, of my own natural mothers max
ing. Larry says she to me-'Larry
NJ Carthy, don't be after planting those big
potaties for seed for they've hole In
their heart little Christian might slape
in"
you're no better thin a Sassenacb,
Larry" interrupted the aforesaid Mick
cant you spake your maneing like man.
if you have any maneing at all at all.
This was like to have end in an Irish
row in reality though the majority evident
" sided with Mister Larry Mccarthy, not
because they agreed with him in opinion,
but because, as afterwards appeared, he
was their master or employer The dlspu-
tants paused for a moment, and loud
groan, as if from one in great bodily pain,
mingled With the wailings Of woman, was
heard from the farther corner Of the boat
Larry turned round, to use bis own ex-
preston, like a flash Of lightning" and
the next moment he stood by the side OF
the sufferer, who was tall, bony-lookng
figure but, save the skin that covered
them, there was little Of bis mortal man but
the. bones left. 1t was only necessary to
look on bis features, wasted as they were,
to tell, that be, too, was an lrishman. "A
young wife sat beside him, whose counte-
nance resembled beauty persOnifying sor-
row; she had little child at her breast,
and two others, the eldest not more than
FIVE years Of age, stood by her knees.
Larry looked upoE the group, and bis
heart was touched.
"Och and what may be ailing ye, cOun-
tryman % said be ''sure and ye wouldn't
be after dying among friends, would ye :"
"Ohon and is it friend that would
be asking after my own Patrick p replied
the poor wife. 'Sure, then, and he is i'll,
and we're all i'll together; and it ls SIX
blessed months since be earned the bridth
Of tinpinny. Oh, blackness on the day
that the rheumatic came on him -"
"Shure now, and is that all p interrupt
ed Larry . ''and, belize, the doctors have
been chatting you for | tell you, honey,
and you, too Patrick, those 'natomy chaps
know no more about the rheumatic thar
holy Solomon knew about stameboats. But
belize, I'm the lad that disn't know neither
but maybe your chatting yourself if ye think
SO. III tell ye what it is: the rheumatic il
wandering wind between the flesh and th'
bone and, more than that, there is no way
to cure it but to squaze it out at the ends o
the fingers or toes. "
"Oh, my cbiIder's sorrow on it, thin 2
replied the suffering mans wife; 'but
more and more above tho rheumatic, Pat
rick got his leg broke last february =
GAY, splintered, honey, added the bus
band: "and the doctors-bad luck be Wiz
them can't make nothing ont; and
am now gOin to the great Stafford bone-doc
tor" =.
"And maybe be won't be curing the b.
bone without the money ?" said Larry wit
an expression of sympathy.
The sufferer shook his head, and was 81
lent his wife burst into tears.
} 81 will work, | will beg, | will die, 70
! my Patrick" she exclaimed, and presse'
the child closer to her breast.
'You had better be barring the dying
hcSey," rstIoed LRyry; ''ara ~ouEst