Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-08-27
A Street Baliad-Siletr.

creatures which can only boast of very in
ferior powers.
A Street BaIiad-Sihgtr.
Dublin, Ireland, has ever been noted for
her ballad-singers and her song-vepders.
And though these lyrical mendlcants have
at this day in measure disappeared from
the business parts and thorougafares. they
are still, in comparatively smaller numbers.
to be seen and heard in the less frequented
by.ways of i" DubIin's famous CITY," They
charm the visitor and tourist by their un-
couth simplicity and rich originality; and
their efforts to extort money from the be-
nevolent are always crowned with success.
The most famous of these gentry will be
remembered by the traveller prior to o46.
He was a tall, erect, blind man, quaint
and curious in his speech, with a rare
fund of humor under perfect control, and
matchlcss expression of grim good na-
ture forever on his countenance. His dress
was a conglomeraton of patches and rags,
with coat of Josephian tint, and his
trowsers seemed to lack sadly what Sidney
Smith would term continuity of cloth
and strength of seam" he was in rags
and tatters, and it was matter of much
wonder how these same garments were
ever taken off and put on again. He
called himself Zozimus and every morn
ing he took his stand, puuctually at ten
O'Clock, at the corner of Essex bridge, and
after ringing his bell for few minutes, be-
gan to chant his lays as the eager crowd +,
joking and jostling, began to congregate
around him. He was looked up to as a
king of his profession by the lesser lights
in the street singing business, and be HIM
self felt an honest pride in the position he
assumed, and which was freely accorded
to him as the chief ballad singer of Ire
land. Zozimus was the original composer
of most, if not all, the songs which he
sang, and these productions were alike dis
tinguished for freshness and vigor, and usu-
ally sprinkled with true Irish wit. The
author was seldom vulgar, and the poems
were pretty generally of a political order.
He took lively interest in the liberator' S
career, and O'Connell furnished many a
key note for his song. He had also turn
for sacred subjects, and his subject of the
finding of Moses in the bulrushes was one
his most famous pieces. Before singing
this, his usually began to wave his arms
about, with sort Of half-wierd incanta-
tion fervor, inquiring with each wave, " Is
there a crowd about me now ?" q" l.
there any backguard hereto listening I? >
" Are you ready, boys?" After satisfy
ing himself upon these points, he would
sing his opening verse in shrill high key
| "Ye sons and daughters of Erin attend;
Gather around poor Zozimus your friend;
Listen, my boys, unul you hear
My charming sUng."
After this delivery, he would clear biz
voice, pause and listen a moment, and ther
he would break out in a more musical at
tempt at melody and chant series Of
stanzas. Zozlmus was good type of the
ancient ballad singer of Ireland, class Of
tramps fast passing away. 1t was to thls
class of people that the satirists of the
seventeeth and eighteenth centuries usec
to repair, and the strifes they wrote frs
reached the public ear through the street
singer Many are the stories told of tn,
Dean of St. Patrlck's who used to mystic
riously issue from dens and garrets at un
seasonable hours in the night, and early
ones in the morning, after having spent tn,
intervening time In teaching one of thes'
ballad-mongers new bit of satir ;e ant
Swift laughed and joked over the troubl
he had with his pupils, who would persis
in getting things mixed up. And others
beside the author of a I" Tale of Tub,
employed these wandering minstrels t
give metrical utterance to tneir thoughts
Zozimus lived in narrow, crowde,
room, in garret; and though he out
wardly confessed contentment with his lot
his life must have been hard one. Ii
was almost totally blind, and oftentime
i'll. and yet we never heard of him utterin
a murmur. In the latter part of 1915
his wife, called " Old Sallie," died, an,
her death was hard blow to poor Zozl
mus. She was buried in the grave var,
) allotted to the poor, and often her husban
would visit the sacred spot, and lay him
self down upon the green sward, and il
low tones, plaintively moan:
Il Lay HcE Sculy uOWu, uedr Terrence,
Deep beneath loved Erin's sod;
II Plant the shamrock green above her
She has gone to meet her God.
In an oaked tomb she slumbers,
Dear old Sally lies at rest;
Twas but yesterday held her
Trembling head upon my breast.D
Zozimus did not survive his wife, for b
died utterly broken down in mind, in spiri
and in body on Friday, April 8, 1916. 4
priest who went to visit him, found tn,
poet in g miserable room, lying on stray
pallet, and surrounded by horde of bal
lad singers. to whom he was teaching tn
doggerel that soon would be of no NOR
use to him in this life.
E "How are you, Mike?" said the priest
Pm dictatin'," was the concise, bu
characteristic reply of the minstrel.
\ In accordance with the usual custom, b.
had grand wake, and lengthy funeral
So lived and died prominent Irish charac
ter, one who was widely known in his days
and after whom Dublin comic paper wa