Omaha daily bee., 1881-09-01

and the windows are barred from
wdhin. The sheriff knocks at the
door with the handle of his riding
whip, and, in a somewhat uncertain
tone of voice, demands possession by
! virtue of the queens writ to him di-
rected. There is no response save a
derisive shout from the crowd grouped
around the line of military; all is IS
silent within the cottage as if 1t were
deserted. But the sheriff knows that
it isn't deserted. and this is the
trouble with him. At o sign from
him the property men advance and
set to knocking in the door with
sledge hammers and crowbars. The
first blow Of a slcdge is the signal for
action from within. From an upper
window comes a deluge of boiling
water on the men beneath, who drop
their implements and run swearing
from the scalding shower. A wild
shout of triumph comes from the crowd
there is a short consultation among
the chiefs of the expedition, and the
property men again advance to the
door, not at all with alacrlty; again
the boiling water leaps out at the
windows on their heads, and comes
Kissing into Their faces through every
space in the gaping door. One pow
erful fellow, who has been badly
scalded on the shoulders and back,
takes up a great stone, and with a
giant effort, hurls it against the door,
which shakes on its straining hinges,
but doesn't give way. A long and
heavy ladder is now used as a Chat
tering-ram," and before some of its
impetuous blows the enfeebled door
groans, gapes still wider, and ultimate
ly falls in.
But this is not much of a gain for
The storming party, who find them
selves face to face with a well built
barricade of stones and wood in the
hall. The house is now surrounded
by the military and police, who have
orders to capture the garrison. The
bailitfs set to work to tear down the
b%arricade, and the boiling water does
cruel execution upon their heads and
faces. 1t seems as if they had been
boiling water for n week in the cot
tage in anticipation of the siege; the
supply appears to be unlimited. The
barricade in the hall is at length torn
down, when new trouble and danger
present themselves in the form of the
widows stalwart sons and retainers
holding the pass armed with pitch
forks. The sheriifs men, regarding
this obstruction as more serious than
the boiling water, refuse to advance.
The bayonets are ordered up.
A party of police, led by an officer,
confront the men with the %pitchtorks,
upon whom the officer calls to
surrender or take the consequences.
They won't surrender, they say, and
they don't care for consequences, and
saying this they take up a strong posi-
ton On the ~stair-landing. "Prepare
to Charge" says the officer to his men,
and the bayoneted rifles drop to the
regulation angle for charging pur-
poses. "Charge," shouts the officer,
and away 60 the bayonets up The
staircase. There is a struggle, short
sharp, and when it is over the men on
the landing are in custody and dis
armed. They are hand-cuffed and led
out prisoners of war. The process of
clearing out every article Of furniture
is now begun, and when it is com
pleted the woman of the house and
daughter alone remain. They refuse
to cross the threshold, which the law
requires to be done, otherwise the en-
tire proceeding would be abortive.
The end of it is that the widow and
her daughter are carried outside the
threshold, and then the legal process
is completed. There are loud lamen-
tations from the women of the crowd;
the men are excited, and, probably,
but for the presence of what they call
"the army" i'll such overwhelming
force, they would plunge into the
scene. The house Is now garrisoned
in the interest of the landlord, and
the trocps reform and march off the
ground with their prisoners. All this,
l think, leads to the conclusion that
if dramatists who now write ''power-
full Irish plays would give up at
tempting to invent sensation scenes
and stick to the facts as we have them
now they would produce plays in
tensely sensational and at the same
time rigidly true to real life"