The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-12-25
lR ELAND

Mayo, Ireland, from which we extract the FOL
lowing:
Never, probably, since the day of the Gas
tlebar races" when the French and Irish
chased the Highlsnders down Stab-All Hill
have there been more stirring times IN tins
old country town than at present There new
er was much business in Castlcbar-Judge
KeOgh himself Roscommon man, once said
beating the police was the only industry OF
any note-but what little there is has been laid
aside, and the town is wholly given up to na
tional politics. The Imperial Hotel, owned
by James DAILY, arrested some months ago tor
seditious utterances, IS the principal headquar
tiers Tor the advanced Nationalist, including
the lrish-American element, while the mouer
ate rebels ioregather at
| HUGH FEENEY's TAVERN,
one of the oldest of its kind in the West. 1,
is an old rookery, but on dreary November
night, with the rain driving III clouds, as
though coming from a giant hose in the neigh
boring Atlantic, and the streets deserted by
everybody but the shiyering scntries, It's sanded
floors, its huge fires of turf dug IN the pleas
ant boys Breatiy, its rashcrs of bacon scrcech
ing in the pan, and its tumblers OF punch
smoking on the oaken table, like the heather
affairs on Mars Hill, afford much comfort and
|cOnsOlatiOn. There are probably fivcand
twenty men-not what you would call solid
men-ln the travellers room, the walls OF
which are hung with pictures of Robert En-
met, bergman Abbey, the Irish Parliament
Tom Moore, and other national prints by un'
known artists. There are shop-keepers and
tradcsmcn, generally sprinkllng OF small
tenants from the nelghborIng town lands, and
a dash of saucy bagmcn from Dublin. The
gathering partakcs of the character OF free
| 4 ~ al nk,co ro hoe hai U
mixed up with patriotic and national songs
like the "Wearing of the Green" "Erin's La.
mcnt," and "O'Donnell Aboo." year or
two ago this club--for nearly the same faces
meet every night in the wcck-demanded
Home Rule; they would have been satisfied
with an Irish Parliament on College Green
subordinate to st. Stephens. But tonight the
cry is for repeal, eternal ixity of tenure, no
rents, and the death of the landlords; and this
IS the brief Credo of the entire people.
| By-and.by, when they have entered upon the
fourteenth or fifteenth tumbler, they begin to
talk of pixies; and the more boisterous move
an immediate adjournment to Days and the
raising of the sunburst IN the morning. God
help us! An old Greek bard, who suffered IN
his time, says that
Bootless is a fort bercft OF men,
And naught avails q ship without crew;
and what could all the peasants and tenants in
Connaught accomplish against the ten thous.
and soldiers and constabulary now encamped
within her borders, and the mighty power OF
England lying IN wait withouty An old man
i'm the company, who rose with the young Ire.
landers IN '4S, and was ruined by 1t, points
this out in homely language; and the next
tumbler, ordered in by 5agman for the eX'
press purpose Of cheering up the meeting, has
a Numerically opposite effect and right in
the middle of bar of the Exile of Erin" the
old fellows bow their heads and cry. These
men have seen and felt, all their lives long,
the abominaton OF the system they would
now, like madmen, seek to overthrow by force
in the face of immeasurable odds. The poor.
house bard by, StabAll, contains GOO OF their
klth and kin, who, after tough struggle with
tate, have surrendered Internationally, and
have been carted OIL to that hldeous caravan
serai On the bog roads, in the fishing hamets
by the sea, on the mountain sides, IN every
parish and towDaud from Killala to Mulran
ny, and from Ballina to Ballyhaunis, there are
hundreds and thousands of men and women
| fighting the same grim fight, and doomed, un.
less the Almighty God or friend IN America
sends them money to take them away, to the
same ignominlous death. Is 1t any wonder
these old men bow their heads and weepg Or
| that after a lifetime of snch scenes, they rave
in their excited moments of rebellion and
murder? The Western Irish are not yet let
tered people. The red marks Of CrOmwells
ropes are yet around their necks, and the shad'
ow of Poynings Black Act still darkens the
land. This Is no Observation-Disclosures can he
no jusliicatlon-but it Is at least plea in eX.
tenua,ion of agrarianism; whilst tor the land
system as it exists and is administered IN the
West, no honest man with heart for his tel
low-men can possibly frame an excuse.
THE BALTIMORE COUNTRY.
| Ballnrobe, near where Boycott Lord Erne's
agent, is beleaguered, Is pretty village on a
small stream called the River Robe, seven
| Irish miles from Claremorris, a station on the
Midland Il Great Western Railway. 1t sup.
ports u neat weekly, the Chronicls, and round
about it lie some OF the prettiest demesnes in
the West The scenery in the ow-lying districts
| is not unlike the southern counties o Eng.
| land Surrey, for instance. In the spring and
summertime Tie hedgerows are beautiful with
the perfume of the red and white hawthorne
and the singing of many birds; and the prm-
rose and cowslip dot the emerald green of the
pastures. The woods, too, are pleasant places
odorous of FIR and thick y peopled with ground
game, and an occasional pheasant whirrs
above the trees and cartridges skulk under
your very feet.
| Dut dSCcnuilg tuc NH tS'Wdius HUI ihount
the scene changes, and as wild panorama as
ever man saw is gradually unfolded. Here Is
Croaghpatrick, and by his side Mount Nephin
the two giant sentinels who, as the prophesy
of st. Malachy runs, shall be the first to behold
the approach of a delivering fleet from the
western ocean. Yonder is the Reck, where the
peasants on ST. Johns day make their sta
ions; and many hungry and sore-footed
soul has gone nine times round the broad, cir
cuar top of this rough mountain saying hei
beads 10y the way and chanting the hymn t.
the Virgin IN the weird Irish tongue that she
may hear from her son In the mines of Penn
lsylvania, or just get the smallest bit of let
ter from her long lost husband in California
ere she and the childer go to the big house OF
the hill" and thence to Gods acre. where thu
weary are at rest. r-.....--.---