The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-07
TWO NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS.
london soeIetr.l
THuRspAY. April s. IS

L, Plerce COrmac, have no great story 70
tell, and do not know what impulse it is
that is driving me this dull, rainy morn
ing to set down the events of the last few
weeks. But to a man to whom such a
thing has happened as has happened to
me the future may have interest enough
to warrant the telling of all that isanyway
concerned with what may be before me-
God knows shall be glad enough if some
day, in two or three years maybe, l can
put this paper in the fire and say to my
self, 1T was nothing, after ala false
alarm"
am now writing in small room high
mp in hotel in the Rue des Saints Peres,
Paris, but until few weeks ago lived
a very quiet life in the heart of the county
Clare. ! was my fathers second son, and
at the time of my elder and only brothers
death, l was being educated in Paris with
view TO becoming priest. | was fifteen
wears old when first went to Paris, know
ing nothing but what the national school
master had toilfully taught me, and, ex-
cept in the matter of the French language,
had not added much to my small stock of
learning. when, two years later, poor
Redmond died, and my father. who was a
widoger, sent for me to come home.
He took away my hand from the
plough, saying the priesthood was good
trade for second sons, but was not fit
bus ness for his heir. He sent me to col
lege, and l spent four years in Dublin,
where l learned to speak in brogue-
having almost forgotten my native infiec-
ton during my schooling in Frarce-and
acquired a smsttering of the law, and gen.
orally fitted myself TO take my seat on the
bench of magistrates when l finally came
home for good.
Soon afterward my father died; and.
there being no apparent reason why /
should do otherwise, | went on living at
Carrig Frass, with little TO interest me
beyond my horses and my shooting, and
nothing TO do but 70 look after my small
property. which at best brought me in
about five or six hundred year.
One day--it was my birthdav-the 18th
of last month, March, rode over 10
Bludth. Bludth is hamlet, about four
zen Irish miles of, and it is as forsaken a
place as YOU could ever see. The only
decent building in it is the police barracks
"a tall, whiteWashed box OF place, with
triangular iron blinds 10 the windows, like
The vizors which you see on old helmets.
There are couple OF pubic-houses, and
the rest OF ''the street" as thew call il, is
tages, Of which, for the most part, have
the honor OF being the proprietor
Ny business was to collect rent, and, bad
as the times are, got the greater part OF
the few pounds which | was owed. At
one house only, the last in the row, which
bad struggled little apart from the others.
was my rent refused to me.
The man who owned il was an ill-con-
diuoned blackguard, who was more than
suspected Of being an agent in the many
moOnlighting outrages that have dis
graced this county. l had stopped at his
house in coming aud left word with his
wife that this was his last chance, and that
] would "have the law OF him" If he did
not paw up. Now. as l rode away, ] stayed
for moment outside aud called again for
Daniel Herlihy. No answer came; the
door was shut, and as rode on | whistled
20 Shaun, my littlv yellow Irish terrier, TO
follow me without further delaying
he had fallen some distance behind.
nosing about at the side OF the road, and
as he passed Herlihy's cabin large dog
jumped over the wall OF the potato-gar-
den, and knocking him over began to
worry him. jumped off and LETT the
mare standing in the middle of the road
while did my best 10 separate the dogs.
At last, by dint OF laying into the agrees
sor--a big, gray brindle cur that had often
before attacked me-with my crop, made
him loose his hold of Shaun's throat, and
with a kick that must have tested the stuff
his be were made OF, sent him over the
wall
Shaun was but little the worse for the
encounter; my own hand had got a good
deal torn by either his or the gray dogs
teeth, but il was nothing to signify, and i
soon tied il up with my pocket-handker-
mn Ua trffh har
nose in the mud on the top of the fence
and let me catch her without trouble, and
] started again.
1t was past o'clock, an angry-looking.
stormy afternoon. | was riding up a val
ley through the hills to the west, in the
teeth of the wind which was blowing big
brown clouds over the high edge of the
mountains through the gap in which the
sun had gone down. A desOlate little lake,
hail smothered BY PUSHES, fills up the
lower end OF he valley through which nv
road went. It was black with the small
waves that the wind had whipped all
over 1t, and the nearer hills hid il from the
yellow light that was still flowing in
long stream over the shoulder OF Forna
The narrow BohiTeen On which 1 was
travelling was squeezed close in between
the lake-Lough Clure, its name is-and
the steep, up-sprnglng sides of a furry
bill that rose nearly sheer out of the
water. | remember the thought strik.
ing me that this was just the sort of time
one might expect 10 meet the Black Hound
that the country people say lives in Tough
Clure. They say he comes up now and
then, dark and dripping out of the water,
and on whoever he lays his paw there
comes black sickness like the plague,
and no one has ever recovered from it.
But one cannot believe all their stories.
A little boy riding on a donkey met me
gray ghost of a donkey, and a little boy
who looked in the twilight as ghostly as
his jackass. He bobbed his head to me as
be passed. but l did not take any notice of
him. was jogging steadily on, with the
rent, which had been paid me in very
small coin, blinking in my pockets. My
thoughts were back in Paris. This was a
good-for- nothing, colorless life ! was liy-
ing-nO profession, no hopes, no future.
wished there had never been any idea
Of making a priest OF me. II was an I'M
lucky thing, somehow. 10 have gone back
of resolve OF that kind. | could not
shake OF superstitious feeling that doing
20 had brought some blight over my life.
''Ny God Look at that little dOgr
This from the donkey boy whom I had
Just passed blended with a yell from a
dog / looked round the boy was off his
donkey STOPPING over something in the
\ l. 4