The Irish standard., 1892-01-23

purely visionary Many of his poems he
sent in as translations. When asked
why he gave credit to others for what
was his own-attributed to Hatiz lines
that were entirely original-he answered
pathetically: "Hafz paid better than
Mapgan.'
Whether through diff lence or through
patriotism (patriotisrn in Ireland always
includes hatred of everything English)
he never contributed a line to an English
newspaper or periodical. His poems ap-
peared in the Dublin Penny Journal and
the Dublin University Magazine. In
! 1841 the Nation was started and for five
years Mangan was weekly contributor
to it's columns. When Mitchell left the
Nation in AZ Mangan followed him and
attached himself to the fortunes of the
new mouthpiece, the United Irishman.
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy was his
staunch friend and loyal helper, and to
him Mangan often appealed in his direst
extremity. Witness the following letter:
my Dear Duffy: am utterly pros
trated; I am in state of absolute desola~
tion of of spirit. For the pity Of God
come to me. have ten words to say to
you. Iimplore you come. Do not suffer
me to believe that I am abandoned by
God and man. Icannot stir out-cannot
look any one in the face. Regard this as
my last request and comply with it as if
you suppose me dying. am hardly able
to hold the pen, but will not, and dare
not, take any stimulants to enable me so
to do. Too long and fatally already
have I been playing that game with my
shattered nerves. Enough. God bless
you, Oh, come.
| s'Ever yours, J. M"
The letter is followed by. series of
solemn promises made in the name Of
God Almighty, chief of which is the
pledge to live soberly, abstemiously and
regularly. Needless to say the promises
we're again broken. He was living at
this time in miserable back room desti-
! tute Of every comfort, porter bottle do
ing duty for candlestick and a blanket
less pallet for bed and writing table,
his only companion sick brother who
added to his anxieties, bis only hope that
life was not endless, that death was
surely coming for them both. Death
came at last and Mangan answered will
ing to the call. Broken in health and
spirits he had, in AT, obtained admission
to St. Vincents Hospital, but left there
in fit of frenzy, the doctors having re-
fused him stimulants. For two years
life dragged on it's miserable course, till
at length one morning in June, 1849, the
news spread about that Mangan was
dying, victim to that terrible epidemic,
cholera, then raging in Ireland.
From the sheds at Kilmainham he had
been moved to the Meath Hospital,
where on Jnne 20, he breathed his last.
His death was as peaceful as his life had
| been troubled. He had always been a
sincere Catholic at heart, though often
careless and Indifferent in practice.
When told that he could not recover he
said playfully to friend who had sat by
his bedside: feel that am going. [
know that I must go unhanselled and
unanelled, but you must not let noe go
unshriven and unanointed. He received
the last sacraments of the church, and
with the words 20 Mary, Queen of
Mercy" upon his lips, Erin's Edgar Poe
passed away. So vanished that gentle
spirit of whom it was said: Not one wish
of his heart was ever fulfilled no aspira-
tion satisfied; he passsionately loved all
sights and sounds of nature, yet his hard
fate held him chained in the dreariest
haunts of crowded city all his life; he
pined to sit under the shade of tropic
trees or to sweep the great desert on a
barb from Alexandria; yet he never left
Ireland; never, perhaps, penetrated far
ther into the country than the hills Of
Wicklow.