The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-26
THE CENTURY FISH.
A Legend Of Fort Fury as Told by
the BandmaSter.
RY ]. II. YoNALL.

head of Ballyfoil, Fort Fury has stood
three hundred years or more, its tur
rets crowning the foreland, its bas
tions Drawing the perpetual onset OF
the sea. Again and again the waves o
Irish hatred have dashed against the
fortress with an onset as fierce and as
vain.
Time only has been strong enough
to sap the freestone: but time, in rec
ompense, has given the place history,
and the cobwebs Of tradition are
gathered dustily upon the walls.
Years, and the quick imagination oi
the western Celt, have made the fort a
museum of the unearthly. OF all tha,
is eerie and fesh-creepy, of all that can
touch the fancy into morbid action, the
legends of the Ballyfoii peasantry are
full
There, of course, bansbee walls;
they know the very spot; you mus,
shun at night tie southern glacis,
where the last McDisrmid fell, in the
great revolt of O'Neill
| There, too, the Red Hound ravens On
| the phantom bones of martyred kernes;
aud fay and leprechaun, and merely
human apparitions, beset the place
by scores.
But the prime tradition of Fort Fury,
the tale the cottiers most shudderingly
delight to tell, is the tale of the Cen
tury- Fish-a huge, fame belching mon
ster, a local sea-serpent, part shark,
part snake, all dragon.
Once in century of slumber in sub
| marine cayerns it wakes, to rage along
the shore at winter midnight. destroy
ing every living thing within its reach!
Woe. then, to the Sassenach sentries on
the shoreward rampant; for the fish is
a political fish. scaly Fenian. delight
in; most to harry the foreign oppressor
and all his works
At the first building of tho fort, SO
long ago as 1886, did the dragon sweep
the headland clear of Saxons, grinding
work between its jaws? History may
not record it, but from sire to son and
grandson's son to son the cottiers have
chronicled the deed.
For century the monster slept, and
the fortress rose again, the lonesome
outpost of an alien heartless rule, in
face Of human enemies only.
But when the hundredth year came
round, for six successive nights the
shoreward sentries vanished: perishing
who can doubt it?-in those sharky
jaws.
1t was then the local sibyls first fore
told that once century, SO long as
Fort Fury should shelter Saxon red
coat, the terrible fish would return.
Again the hundred years went by,
and in 1886 the prophecy fell true.
Were not the coast guard on his beat.
the men on sentry-go and the gay
subelterns fishing in the ohng, ali food
for the beast-a dragon which Sir
George himself, or even his brother
champion the Holy Patrick slayer OF
reptiles, must in vain have ridden out
to Kill?
such is the legend" said The band
master. such was the legend heard
in the year 1885, when my father, the
company sergeant major, was quar-
NtAIA - a oA 4 14 SA-h ~ 4ADf-
bledehoy Of fifteen or so. lived IN
barracks with hin there. With tha.
year the fsh's century was TO close.
and all the Ballyfoi! Peasantry-aud
most os the garrison, too-waited IN
fearful expectation for Christmas and
the fish TO come From Christmas
night 10 New Years Eve was the mon
ster's appointed time % appearance.
but he was unpunctual that same year,
and March had begun before We saw
the beast
'"Saw IL? We surely did Mine is a
queer beginning TO story. but. take
the word Of al old musician FOR il,
there IS not scrap Of lie in lie res:
Of the yarn
1T was IL the previous autumn thz.
the drums and ffes had marched Us,
the onety-one.h first battalion, into
Fo-. Fury, the dsmpest, disrnaliess,
most out-of-the-way billet In the Brit
ism fsleA Col Owen was then our com
uaaUding officer, and IL was "a teacher
o. music 20 his little daughter tia.
became part Of the story have %
tell -Four times a week went 20 the
quarters 70 p!ar, and teach
upon spinst-l.Se old piznoforte -
longing ~ the colonc.'s aaIs-sis.-r,
Lady E-a.ly Dunbar
Let me describe her lsivship. "a,
hers IS q principal part in tlse drama
A. twen.y-eeven-her maid said thirty
LADY EsaiiT was stlll a fsoat t~a1i5-
fEl woman. thoEEh beautiful sith Sla.
sxotse flower o couze}sness wiIira hl1s~
so-gzs faSt and early. afd qzsezlY e<soss
md w.tbsrs Nothing sf.ssvt q SEER
necessity izzd ssroSeiai hc- - The fort;
She was orphaned with u2rros nsea1ss
and IL wzs zs TaceA a matter If esEE-
veBienec for her - fsr TIE cosonsl fhzs (
she &ssoala hcase With l4ssn and rsosiser
BIS zaQ.Aeras-s bzsra EFoza c1s .4-y.- J