The Irish standard., 1888-07-07

L : ss.T
IN praise Of whisksy or some other
liquor. Els "Irishman and the Lady,
is pretty widely known, but not indeed
as a production OF the pen Of Maginn.
Il will be met with in most collections
of street ballads. An extraordinary bal
lad it is. It almost takes ones breath
away by It's mild rushing, extravagant,
and ludicrous refrain. The first verse
runs
''There was lady lived at Leith,
A lady very stylish, man; j
And yet in spite of all her teeth,
She fell in love with an Irishman.
A nasty. ugly Irishman,
A wild tremendous Irshman.
A tearing, swearing. Tuning. booming, ramp
ing. roaring, Irishman.
Most of his Irish songs are written in
this fighting, drinking, skull-breaking,
ssStage Irishnlan'' vein. There are also
in the volumes some parodies on the
best known of Moore's Melodies.
By 1910 Maginn had become ruined
in fortune. and reputation by drink.
Early in 1912 he was arrested and lodged
in the Fleet Prison, London, for debt,
and after few months Incarceration
was released in the last stages Of con-
sumption. Retiring to Walton-on-
Thames. a pretty rural village about
twenty miles from London, he found an
asylum in the house Of his friend, Ed
ward Noughan Kenealy (another Cork
man, and the afterwards notorious coun-
sci for Arthur Orion in the Tichbotne
trials), He died there on the
Goth Of August, 1912, i'll the 49th year OF
his age. IL
During his last years when be bitterly
needed the help Of friends. Maginn was
completely neglected by the Tories, in
whose services he had 'sspun his fine
irish brains'' for twenty-five years. Sir
Robert Peel, whom Maginn had assailed
with all the bitterness and virulence Of
his bigoted and Orange mind, sub
scribed :e20O when he heard Of The pass
to which ssthe DOCTOR had come. But
the magnanimous generosity Of the great
Liberal statesman was Of no avail 80
s:the doctor lie died ere The money
could be used for his benefit.
Maginn was buried in the churchyazd
attached to the parish church Of Walton-
on-Tnaznes. In Il book entitled s'Bral-
laghan Of the Decipnosophits,' pub
lished by DR.. Kenealv in 1845, there is a
yery touching and eloquent tribute to
Che genius Of his deceased friend. Writ
ing of Magiun Is funeral and burial place,
Kenealy says
ellis funeral was quite private, and
was attended only by very few friends
who loved him fondly while he lived and
yenerate his memory now that he is
gone; and the tears chat fell upou his
grave were she last sad Tribute to as
true. and warm, and beautiful q soul as
ever animated q human breast. the
place in which he ie buried is one shat
his own choice might have selected, for
the spirit Of repose itself. seems to dwell
around it and lends new charm to its
rustic beauty. No noise is ever heard
there but the rus5iing OF the trees or the
gay chirp Of the summer blackbirds or
the echo of the solemn hymns as they
ascend to heaven in music on the Sab
bath. Strangely contrasted indeed is it's
peacefulness with the troublous scenes
Of his many -colored life and provocative
Of pensive reflection is the gentle silence
that invests it like a spell. The rude
villager, as he passes over his grave, little
dreams Hof the splendid intellect that
slumpers beneath, or the host Of sweet
and noble traits that lived within the
heart already nouldering under his feet
into clod Of the valley. But bis genins
has already sanctided the ground, lend
ing to it the magic which entwines itself
with the homes and tombs Of celebrated
men, rendering it henceforward a classic
and musehaunted solitude, to ] which
history will point, making 1t for al time
a spot to which the scholar will piously
resort, and where the young enthusiast
Of books will hnger long and idolatrously
in the soft sunlight or beneath the
radiant stars
The place is as quiet and peaceful to-
day as it was when Maginn was buried.
John P.sBeck, aged ~, late Of Canada.
was drowned at Sterling Monday, while
practising log riding in the mill dam.
n Economy, as preached by some Of
the philosoph piers, if universally adopted,
would be a short road to barbarism.
Figure il. out for yourself.
IF s.. q. Gross. Of Portland, Ore, who
starred for Chippewa Falls two weeks
ago to visit his brother, cannot be