Morning journal and courier., 1889-01-05

the slams. Then, peering up from dark stairways, and peering out of quickly opened doors, are seen faces full of grave surprise you hear all about you exclamations of dis gust and dismsy; and in another instant all these faces are gone and you are again alone Then you talk out loud to yourself for 6 while in rude, concise American words. And then you go out to the street again to assure yourself that the town you are in is there.
 Strengthened you return and find the big bell cord. You jerk and jerk at that. You find other bell cords and jerk at them. Near. ly all of them ring bells, bells of such awful size and sound, and, in instances, such start ling nearness, that you are scared at your own dire work, and are rather relieved that nobody appears to avenge your calamitous proceedings. For time you exist in the dazed, dark, silent spell that has come upon you, but finally you cannot bear your isola, tion longer. You determine on investiga- tion, at the risk of your actions being mis- construed and yourself arrested and flung into Dublin castle. Even there, you reflect, there would at least exist motive for your being looked after by somebody. You try all the doors and windows of the bar, softly at first but gradually to an earnest and bur glarious degree. Then you try all the dark hall doors from which peered faces full of surprise at your obstreperousness. These are locked or open only upon repelling gloom. Determined to secure relief, you timidly seek the "Coffee room" 'human various" Eve rybody there is snoring, or, as you might be told in Ireland, is out. Then you attempt to descend stairs which you think ought to lead to where servants ought to be. After you crash against sharp angles and fall in unex- pected turns this attempt is abandoned. Then in desperate hope and courage you be- gin scaling the ascents to upper mysteries. You are more successful here, for, by fol- lowing the stair railing, you can at least for some little time proceed. You go pretty high this way. Doubtful of where you are, you return flight or two. Then you move stealthily through dark, stuffy hall. Like 8 sneak thief you try every door you find, listening with beating heart for movements of vengeance from suppositious occupants. Your strained hearing catches the sound of footsteps. Your first swift impulse is to fly like criminal. But no, you will lie in wait. Sloppi.y, slouchily, sleepily, human ap- breaches. You suddenly bounce upon him and hold him as remorselessly as ever "Goody Blake" was clutched by s'Harry Gill" The man says, "Lord bless usl" but does not seem very frightened. He probably knows what it is to be frequently surprised in the dark by desperate people. You de- mand with suppressed emotion to be led to your room. Lord bless us, yes, certainly
 but you do not loosen your grip upon the in. dividual. By and by you have penetrated the somewhere, and ind yourself in room that must be your room because you recog- nize some features of your own luggage when falling over it.
 But there you are at last and what room
 Shades of past ages, how thy kindly wraiths are insulted by what is here in pretension
 patching, mold and decay! One fears to use drawer lest the furniture will crumble ir pieces and dolorous spirits be unloosed
 The wRshstand is propped; the bowl i: cracked; the towel is as shredded and useless as macreme. You can only sit in safety or the floor. And your bed is harder, dampel and dirtier than an Irish stone road. You
 "tip'' the man you have caught, out of all reason. and shiveringly ask for light and 6 fire. Lord bless us, yes, certainly;-as to 6 light; but there must be consultation about the fire. He departs and you stand there supported by hope and compact black atmosphere for good half hour. Fl. never returns, but another man does. Thii one brings one tiny candle faintly limiting oi light and disclosing the extraordinary neces' sity for light. You suggest that you will need more. He is appalled,. But you plsdg, your ability to pay for two, or even three candles, if all are burned together. That may be admitted, but the innovation is too much. You fee this new man. Lord blesl us. yes, certainly; he will see. He goei away and never returns. You take you candle and make little trip around the
 
 you return to your room, find the bell corG and enliven the old hostelry for long time with doleful tollings, janglings and impetu ous staccatos of a remote but strong toned bell By and by another man comes, as il in doubtful attentiveness. and seems anxious to know if you have really rung. You en deavor to make it clear that you have anG why you have; and you fee him and say "My good fellowi" and There's a manl' and other friendly things. This one goe' and stays like the rest. You begin on tht bell again, or, thoroughly reckless and des perate, rush to your door and yell: yell al one will when the limit to human patience ii reached. In 8 moment they are all there all the pack of prosecutors who first gave you welcome. Then you address them il unmistakable language. They are surprised pained, humiliated, at your extraordinary conduct. But by frank statement that un less a fire of coals is put in your grate yor will utilize the unjointed sections of furni ture for that purpose, and unless you art furnished enough candles you will make pyre of the inn itself for light with which to get out of it, you are eventually provided with what you wsnt-by two or th1ee othel people who have been lying in wait for thil very denouement; these only submitting to accommodate you after their palms have been crossed with silver, like the bad ol6 witches of the story books. Utterly exhaust ed, your stony couch is as down, and thest folk of the inn 50 haunt you through nigh | and sleep that your predicament, your arrest your appeal to consuls general, and you l finally becoming the subject of so bitter al international dispute as to endanger tn peace of an hundred million people, in tor tuous portentousness charges back and fort l with unrelenting fury through your troubles dreams.
 In every other act or fact about the Irisl I inn there is the same hopeless stubbornness Once within it you must resign yourself sou and body to indescribable delay, insttentiol l and every conceivable and inconceivable af | front and incivility. The guest is @ creatur | to be plueked, bulIied and pillaged. To tn 1 credit of the Irish people the truth shoult l be known that not one in ten of these maj 1 traps are kept by Irishmen or Irishwomen | Their proprietors were in the army, tn | navy, the civil service, the coast guards o the constabulary. To these beings wit wooden heads and straw hearts civility 1 unknown; comfort is unheeded; innovation | is treason; in improvement turks dynamite | and an American in their hands is infnitel
 more hated and maltreated than in any othe l spot on earth. So in all Ireland the sense o
 hospitality never greets the traveller say I among the people themselves; and I migh
 almost truthfully say among the lowliest c | these; or at some roadside half home hal l tavern; or in some quiet old inn of whic l the public has no knowledge. In such place
 one's heart will warm and glow from a sir
 cerity of effort to please; from genial proc
 of the real delight your presence is felt t
 be; and from an abnegation and integrit 1 startlingly winsome in their nature. In th
 humble homes and novels all this has com
 within my own experience; and in the queer quaint Madigan Inn in wild old Galwa
 town of the West, I know it truly, wholly
 for the first time in any in Erin.
 We had come with the ''long car" late 6
 night down the gray walled Oughterar
 road. But few lights in the sleepy old cit
 were mirrored from the waters of the Corri
 as we rattled over the great stone bridge
 Tramping along from the post car static
 through the wraithful old streets, at las
 found the little place, gleaming light (
 welcome hung in the oldest and quaintest (
 lamps before it. The door stood wide ope
 to the chilly winter night. The yellow glo' of rousing peat fire filled the place farine ly and ruddily. paused at the door 6 me
 ment. There within were John and Eli | Madigan, he an Irish blade who filled Ellie
 heart Drimming over; she young matron
 such shapely limb, such glorious color, sue
 merry eyes and mouth, and of such nob | ,,31