Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1878-08-22
CURRAN

After toiling for very inadequate re-
compense at the sessions of Cork, and
wearing, as he said himself, his teeth
almost TO their stumps, Curran proceed
ed TO the metropolis, taking for his wife
and young Children n miserable lodging
upon Hay Hill Term after term, with
out either profit or professional reputa-
tlon, be paced the hall Of the Fonr
Courts. Among those who had the dis
crimination to appreciate, and the heart
10 feel for HIM, luckily for Curran, was
Mr. Arthur Wolfe, aiterward the unlor-
tslnAie but respected Lord Kilwarden.
The FIRST fee of any consequence which
he received was through his recommen-
dAtIon; and his recital of the incident
cannot be without ITS interest 10 the
young professional aspirant whom q
temporary neglect may have sunk into
detection. al then lived" said he
"upon Hay Hill: my wife and children
were the chief furniture of my apart
ments; and as to my rent, il stood pref
ty much the same chance Of liquidation
with the national dobt. Mrs. Curran,
however, was barrister's lady, and
what she wanted in wealth she was
well determined should be supplied by
dignity. The landlady, on the other
hand, had no idea of any graduation ex-
cept that of pounds, shiIlings and pence.
| walked out one morning to avoid the
perpetual alterations on the subject,
with my mind, you may imagine, in no
very enviable temperament. fell into
the gloom 10 which, from my infancy,
/ had been occasionally subject. / bad
q family for whom I had no dinner, and
landlady for whom / had no rent. ]
had gone abroad in despondence-I re-
turned home almost in desperation.
When I opened the door of my study,
where LGrafer alone could have found
q library, the first object which pre-
sented itself was an immense folio of a
brief, twenty golden guincas wrapped
up beside it, and the name of Old Boo
Lyons marked upon the back Of it. I
paid my landlady-bought good dim
ner-gave Bob Lyons a share of it
and that dinner was the date of my
prosperity" Such was his own exact
account of has professional advance
ment.
In one of Curran's professional ex-
cursions, very singular circumstance
had almost rendered this the termina-
ton of his biography. He was on a
temporary visit 70 the neighboring town
of Sligo, and was one morning standing
at his bedroom window, which over
looked the street, occupied as he told
me, in arranging his portmsnteau, when
he was stunned by the report OF blum
derbuss in the very chamber with him,
and the panes above his head were all
shivered into atoms. He looked sud-
denly around in the greatest consterna-
tion.s The room was full of smoke, the
blunderbuss on the floor just discharged,
the door closed, and no human being
but himself discoverable in the apart
ment If this had happened in his ru-
raj retreat, it could readily have been
reconciled through the medium Of some
offended spirit of the village mytholo-
gy; but, as IT was, he was in popnsous
town, in a civilized family, among
Christian doctrines, where the fairies
had no power, and their gambols no
currency; and, to crown all. poor COO
bier, into whose stall on the opposite
side of the street the slugs had pene-
trated, limited in no very equiyocal
terms that the whole affair was con-
spiracy against his life. II was by no
means pleasant addition to the chances
OF assassination TO be loudly dlsclaimed
against by a crazed mechanic as an as