Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-07-12
THE BOYCOTT IN IRELAND
An Innocent Girl Ostracised for les.
timony Given In Court

An Innocent Girl Ostracised for les.
timony Given In Court
II the whole light of English opinion
were concentrated on the face and
figure of Norah Fitzmaurice. the Irish
land question and the Irish race would
be better understood than after years
Of debate and Libraries of blue books.
Here is Il young orphan girl who.
when she attends mass on Sunday. has
to be guarded by sixteen policemen.
Yet she lives in her old home. sur
rounded by her relatives and friends of
her childhood, and she kne.ls in the
chapel where she and her family have
worshiped for generations. She is
farmers daughter; she is Catholic,
like all her kin; and purely Irish in
race and name. On one Sunday, when
she entered the sacred editicc, two
ring-leaders rose, gave signal,
and fifty of the congregation left
the building. This boycotting does
not cease during the week; she
Is an outcast among her neigh
bors, leading desolatc aud forlorn life.
Every one remembers the pathetic fig
ure OF Hester Prynne in Hawthorne
wonderful tale of "The Scarlet Letter."
now the woman moved about with the
stigma of her Otfense upon her. thing
Of shame, pity and dread to all. young
and old. who caught sight OF her pale
lace and lovely form. mingling among
The people like the ghost of dreadful
sin. haunting the sunshine. and casting
/ chill shadow on the souls of men. In
that case the wife so doomed to kind
If life-in-death had committed adultery
md the stern rigor of Puritan time af-
liked on her terrible sentence. But
Norah Fitzmaurice is an innocent girl.
1t was her m isfortune not her fault
hat one morning she went with her
Sid father to the market They had
lot left their home many miles when
TWO men-neighbors and friends
followed them. The father fell back TO
.alk to them. and then the daughter
Jaw HIM shot before her eyes. He died
IN agony in a few hours. She had to
speak the truth in court OF justice.
md identified the men. This Is her
only offense. For this she is denied by
her neighbors the common necessaries
Of life. They will not speak to her or
greet her; without police escort she is
lot safe from the emssiaries of the
eague. One day or night without pro-
ection would be fatal TO her. All the
'ympathy of the people is with the
nurderers who were cheered on arriv-
NC at the county Jail; all their hatred is
reserved for the poor girl who saw her
tather murdered before her eyes. We
ask English women. English wives.
English daughters to realize this
horrible preversion of the instinct of
humanity; this pol teal agitation.
which has turned a naturally kind.
hearted peasantrv into cruel and cow
ardly brules. What could an English
woman feel if politics ran so high that
gray hairs dabbled in blood excited no
pity. that the daughter of murdered
man should be hunted aud be haunted,
her grief Knocked. her sorrow made
her crime. her prayers as she kneels at
Gods altar disturbed by organized
lot? Yet that is what this young
IRISH girl has to endure, because her
'ather sinned against the unwritten
.aw Of the league, and was killed for
1isobeying it.-LOHd0H Truth.