Wichita eagle., 1888-01-11

>~~NJ
the bog there"
'The road, is it?n said Peter "Ah, then, il
that were all, sorra much matter it would be.
But we must only make the best of it, now
we're here; and may the Holy Virgin have
care of US and be betune US and evil" And
devoutly crossing himself he drew me away.
Needless to say that, on the way home,
demanded an explanation of him; and after
great deal of cross-examination drew from
him as curious story as | had ever heard,
and which here give, divested of the many
digressions from the point and the rich vo-
cabulary Of Irish phrases with which it was
told me.
John O'Brien, the original owner Of the
cottage we had seen, had two sons, Patrick
and Turlough No one knew whence he him
self had come, or on what terms he
had purchased the land on which he
built his modest dwelling; but he
appears to have been summed by the people
of the neighborhood, chiefly on account Of
his living in such close proximity to the
Devils Scraugh, place of which many wild
legends had been told, and which was the ia
vorite spot chosen by the priests wherein to
confine, "between the froth and the water"
evil spirits exercised by them. Probably,
with the exceptions of John OBrien and his
sons, there was not man in the county who
would have ventured near Lough Galliagh,
as the pool was called, after dusk; and the
temerity of the owners Of the farm was uni
versally ascribed to familiarity and friend
ship with the powers of evil
To add to the bad reputation of the local
ity, a young girl, betrayed and deserted by
her lover, had drowned herself in the Tough
some years before the time of which l write;
and the lover himself, having with tardy
repentance joined eagerly in the efforts
made for the recovery of the body,
was himself drowned also in the same
spot, and in the presence of many of his neigh
bors, who were unable to rescue him, and
who only succeeded in recovering the two
corpses several days afterwards There was
a "wse woman" living in little cabin on the
outskirts of Athlone, who, when she heasi of
the occurrence, mumbled something in Irish,
and then informed her awe struck listeners
that she had had revelation, and had learned
that the pool was under a spell, and would
infallbly cause the death of the enemy of
any one who had the courage to drown HIM
self therein, repeating the name of the man
he would doom as the black water silenced
his lips forever
than ever after the event just related; but
when the old man died and it was found that
he had left the whole of his small possessions to
his eldest son Patrick, and that Turlough was
quite unprovided for, popular opinion veered
round, and set in strongly in favor of the
Younger brother, all the dislike due to him
being added to the share of Patrick. From
what Peter told me of the latter man, do
-, l. L..
fell upon him; he seems to have been kind
enough to Turlough, giving him share of
his house and of the praeeds Of the land;
though declining, perhaps wisely enough, to
make them over TO him by legal document
Turlough said little, lived in apparent friend
ship with his brother, and bided his time. 1t
came earlier than he expected.
Patrick. like most Westmeath men at that
date, was a thorough Fenian at heart, and
managed to get greatly involved in the plots
which led TO that most abortive attempt at
a rebellion, in which the government appears /
TO have known quite as much as the conspira- /
tors themselves of the secret councils of the
latter. As a natural consequence, Patrick |
was wanted" and equally as matter
of course, he was not to be found
by the police who invaded his domi-
cile. No one was there but Turlough, who /
was politeness itself, gave them a glass Of
whisky all round, and showed them with .
some pride deed of gift from Patrick, /
which, in due legal form, made over to his .
brother Turlough the formers interest in
the farm. Clearly, nothing was to be done. /
and the disappointed police had nothing for
it but to return to barracks.
In what part of ireland Patrick lay hidden
during the years that followed Peter could .
not tell me, but ii was on a spring day i'll .
1870 that he came again, attended by certain
friends of his rs witnesses, To claim back the
deed of gift from his brother. The seven
days wonder had passed, Ireland was qUieter
than usual, and there was no more talk of
Fenians The farm had only
been made over to Turlough that he might
it till better times came, and that
there might be no danger Of confscation.
What sould be simpler than that the rightful
owner should now reclaim possessions But
he had reckoned without his brother. Tur-
lough sat unmoved by the passionate in
vecJive that was poured upon him, and
stoidly reiterated his assertion that lie
had given Patrick full value for the
farm. and had no intention whatever of
giving it up. Words ran high, and doubt
less blows would have followed, had not
at last produced an American re-
volver from his pocket, and threatened to
shoot every man in the houSe-his house-if
they did not at once leave it. Against such
q practical argument there was nothing to be
urged, and the men left the hut, carrying
with them the frantic Patrick, mad with
rage and fired with true Irish thirst for
revenge
Their road home lay by Tough Galliagh
As they neared it Patrick broke away from
his friends, rushed across the quaking Devils
Scraugh, and plunged into the peaty water
with scream of his brothers name. mingled
With ban. The party he had left stood still
moment in horror, and then hurried eau
iouSiy toward the margin of the pool But
he desperate man never rose again. Some
hoUght that he must actually have swum
lnder water till he was beneath the scraugh,
o as to render rescue impossible and make
ure of the anathema.
From that time forth no living man. could
le avoid it, would approach Lough Galliagh
II speak a word to Turlough O'Brien. The
after was cut Off from all human companion
hip, and driven to subSiSt on the potatoes he
lcw on his farm and the milk of COW
Which he kept there. Whether his terrible
enance did him good or not, Peter could not
ay, but | hoped it had done so. 4 man
whose heart was wholly bad would have left
le 10 perish IN the scraugh.
No o2e had dared TO attempt the finding of
he corpse of Patrick 0'Bron; hut. almost
ally for years past, Turlou-h had been seen
'orking with his graip here and there along
le margin Of the Tough and in the Devils
craugh Itself, 50 the probability was that he
as endearoring 10 find his brothers body
neither hope of avoiding the ban pro-