The Opelousas courier., 1891-05-02
AN EVICTION FIGHT.
BY LUKE SHARP.

NOh8 SAhREs
This is the story of the house of Ma
glnley, its Building and its wreck.
A the present moment Maginley him
self is in Montana. He made his money
in Australia and then came home to Ire
land and foolishly built a house on a land
lords estate. 1t was built where labor
and material were cheap. Stones cost
next to nothing; in fact, the land around
produced little else, and SO Maginley spent
$500 in building a nice two-story house
with a slate roof upon it.
Maginley was in America. Times were
bad. His boys had not been able to
make any money in the Scottish harvest
fields. They wanted an abatement of the
rent, but that the landlord refused to
grant. The money was subscribed and
was offered to the e~victors by the priest
OF the parish, the celebrated FIR. Mac
Fadden. 1t was refused as being offered
too late, and the command was given
that the eviction must proceed. I ar
rived on the ground just at the end Of
these negotiations. The police refused
to allow me to pass down the road near
the house to be attacked SO I struck
across the fields, keeping on the outside
of the police, cordon-threatened every
now and then when I approached too
near that line-and at last took up po-
sition on the hillside, just outside the
line of policemen and facing the end of
the house where I could see what WAS
going m IN both sides of it.
/ will now mention a little incident
which, although trivial in itself, goes to
account for the hatred with which the
police are regarded in Ireland. When I
took up my position as near to the out
side line as l was permitted, the police
man near where Istood thought it would
be the correct thing to stand in front of
me SO that l could not see what was GO
ing on. / moved up the hill a little and
he moved up In front Of me. I moved
down and he again moved down in front
of me.
~ don't think you have any right to
do that, I said.
"You move on" was his answer.
My own impulse at the moment was to
hit the man across the face with my UNI
brella, but I realized the futility of do
ing this to a man armed with a rife, so
/ called to an officer, who was standing
near by, inside the Gordon.
"You cannot get inside" said the Of
fcer, anticipating the question that was
usually asked him.
81 do not want to 60 inside,"I said,
tsbut I want to know if it is any part of
this mans duty to obstruct my view of
what is going on?"
HNot at all" was the answer of the
officer. Lien addressing the man he Or
dered him to keep his place and I had
no more trouble with that man. The fact
is the police are ov~er-zealous In their du-
ties and get themselves disliked-not to
put it too strongly.
Although there were SO many people
around the line kept by the policefhe ST.
lence vas most intense. The house
showed no signs of having anybody in it,
yet everybody knew that a number of
young men were locked inside and were
going to defend the place as long as
they were able.
Here a certsin comic element was,in-
iroduced. One of the officers of the
constabulary looked as If he had Just
come on the Savoy Theatre stage after
playing the part of an officer in the
ssPirates of Penzance." He was o fine
looking man with a heavy mustache and
he had n eyeglass stuck in his eye.
This, which doesn't look at all bad ON
Piccadilly, seems rather comical out in
the wilds of Donegal. He strobe into
the open space before the house and
with his n eYeglass cast a look up and
down the house as il judging the best
place to attack. Then he walked a few
steps further with that pompous STACEY
air of his and again glanced up and
down that house. Finally he walked
down to the other corner and gave the
same glance. It l0Il5ed rather ridicu-
lous when you remember that only
five boys were in that house and this Of
fcer had at least $50 armed policemen
at his back. Nevertheless he examined
the house as critically as if Napoleon
were defendingit and the Old Guard that
might die but never surrendered were
going to take part in the conflict. When
he stood back a man with a crowbar adj
vanced to the corner of the house and
drove his crowbar in between the stones.
At the same instant appeared the head
and shoulders OF a man from out one of
the second story windows. He had a
stone In his hand and he flung it with a
viciousness that / have never seen equaled
at the man with the croWbar. The stone
went wide of Its mark. The next came
closer. The third, with deadly accuracy,
hit the man and keeled him over, while
the blood spurted from his cheek where
the stone had struck. His comrades
pulled him backinto line. The head and
shoulders disappeared from the second
story window and q cheer went up from
the crowd Of peasants who saw what had
been done.
Maginley's house is situated on the
hillside. The main body of policemen
were on the side above the house. At
ter the repuIse Of the crowbar man a
number Of police picked up 9 ladder
and placed it on the edge Of the roof,
Then very nimbly three or four police
men ran up the incline. Instantly there
u,ae I shaver ne stones from all that side