The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-25

Feargus Edward O'Connor, Williams,
Jones and many other of the republican
radical enthusiasts of the time. Frost,
Williams and Jones were sentenced to
death, their sentences being committed TO
transportation for life: great numbers
were imprisoned in the "hulks;" and still
greater numbers, on whose heads the gov
eminent had set price, managed to es-
cape to America. Pinkerton was one of
these. Though in hiding for some
months, when he did escape he carried
with him the best fortune of his or any
mans life, noble wife.
you see," said the old Scotchman in re-
lating to me how this good luck came to
him, "twas part o. my business to fix up the
concerts which we got few pounds from
now and then to help along the charter
boys. Was l a singer, too?" The old
man roared at the idea "No more than
the precentor's bull. Aud Davie was a
precentor in a presbyterian church O. La
narkshire. One Sunday he got mighty
fu', an goin' along home across the mead
ows struck up his best hymn-tunes, happy
as lord. Just as he was climbin' the
stile up comes bull, mad at his singin'
an tossed Davie over into the road, an
stood there PAWN and bellowin' Davie
was mad. Up he jumped, crazy from the
insult, an shakin' his fist at the bull,
which kept on bellowin' an roarin', yelled
at his supposed rival: oh, ave, SCUM
yer doc i-soun' yer doc! Ye may be a
guild fechter but We Gamma sing a note" /
was just like that bull about both fightin'
an singin'
"Well, gettin' the singin' folks together
in the little parlor of Richard O'Neil's
public house, opposite King Williams
statue, set my eyes on one wee lass they
called Joan Carfrae. She was book-fold-
er's apprentice, from Paisley, an sung in
the famous DR.. Harris Center-st uni
tartan church. She was the best singer o.
EN- also | thought, anyhow. | got a
hangin' around her, an sort o clingin' to
her; an well, when | had the price set on
my head, she found me where l was hid
in; an when told her I'd got to set up
American barrels the rest of my life, an
ventured that t'would be pretty lonesome
business without my bonnie singin' bird
round the shop, she just sung me little
Scotch song that meant that she'd 60, too,
an, God bless her, she did"
The political cooper-criminal and the
book-folder's apprentice were married
March 2s, 1910, and some good friends,
among them old Neil Murphy, got them
safely aboard the bark Kent, which sailed
from Glasgow April 9 following, Pinkerton
shipping as the vessels cooper, and his
wife taking steerage passage; but their
story becoming known TO the cabin pas
sengers they were given snug apartments
as man and wife. The participants in the
chartist movement were all granted par
don and amnesty by the British crown in
1856; but the world-famous detective only
returned once to his native land. This
was in 1870, in company with "auld Bob
bic Fergus" noted, and the first, public
printer OF Chicago. The two were old
cronies from bOyhood. Among the places
they visited TO recall old days in a sort of
larking spirit was Glasgow police head
quarters.
"After bit o solemn wait" auld Bob
bic Fergus told me, when describing the
incident, "Chief Miller, who was Classy
detective in the forties, comes in. He sets
doom an eyes Penkerton an Penkerton
eyes him back again. You're auld PEN
Miller says Penkerton. oh, aye says
Miller, an Penkerton, mon, I'm glad to
see We. But | mind the time I'd been
more glad, an We slipped my fingers, dom
yer buttonsr Then Penkerton yelled,
an Miller yelled, en- they stopped ain an
ither's backs until ye'd a thocht their rubs
wud crashed through"
But sailing away on the Kent did not
end the young couples romantic expert
ences. On May s. month lacking a day
from the time OF their sailing, the Kent
was wrecked on Sable island, off Nova
Scotia, the crew and passengers with few
of their effects being saved. BY fishing
smack they were taken TO Aspy bay,
where the Unicorn of Quebec changed
mails with the Britannia, one OF the first
English steamers across the Atlantic.
They were helped from here to Montreal
where the cooper got work heading beer
barrels, and the couple soon got to house
keeping famously in one room. Soon
members of the coopers' union informed
him this job would shut down at certain
date, and, to take the narrative from his
own lips when he was once endeavoring
to illustrate to me what trifies shape hui
man affairs, 81 all at once made up my
mind to Jump for the thriving little city of
Chicago. After buying tickets we had no
money left. The steamer was goin' that
very afternoon. That wee wife O. mine
came and confessed she had committed
the crime o. orderin' a bonnet at millin-
ers; that it couldn't be got for the charges,
and pitifully pleaded that we wait the
next boat, a week later, that money might
be earned and that pesky bonnet got. l
roared like anything, but let her have her
way. We got the bonnet, but I'm afeard
l made that wee woman's life little short
of hell, till news came in few days that
the boat we were first going on blew up,
and every soul on board was lost. An
tell We my little song-singin' wite's had
her way about bonnets ever sincel"
Arrived at Chicago their fate for time
was much the same as that OF so many un-
sophisticated emigrants in a new country.
The unfortunate couple were lured across
the dreary pralries to Warsaw, ILL.,. robbed
of everything they possessed, but sue
ceeded in walking back to Chicago, where
good ''auld Bobbie Fergus" was found.
He gave them shelter and divided his own
scrimped food with them. A little work
was got by Pinkerton at his trade of Lii,
the first Chicago malster. But they were
rueful days these. This was in the sum-
mer of 1872. A temperance revival, con-
Quoted by a herculean Scotchman who
sung old country ballads with marvellous
effect. was in progress. The little printing
shop of Fergus & Ellis collected and
printed these songs. Mrs. PinkertOn
folded the little volumes. Allan Pinker-
ton trimmed them with a shoemaker's
knife, punched the holes for the stitches
with shoemaker's awl, and Pinkerton
and wife together. with a darning-needle
stitched every copy of this, the first song
book ever printed in Chicago.
But this was only trifiing make-shift at
best. The indomitable spirit of the young
Scotchman reyolted at idlenes6, or the