The Irish standard., 1894-11-24

that mothers stately bearing at first and
the piteous abiectness of her later ap.
peals as on her knees she implored him
to spare her son.
The guilt was conclusively proved, and
the murderer was sentenced to be hanged
but in those times justice was not al
ways impartislly administered, and the
peasantry were certain that a gentleman
never would be hanged. He requested
that he should be taken to the place of
execution in carriage, but his crime
had excited universal abhorrence, and
none of the livery stables in Limerick
would supply one. One was procured
FROM distance on the morning Of the
execution, and the unhappy man entered
it. When midway ON the bridge in Linn
erick that spans small arm of the Shan
noe, the horses stopped, and no efforts
could induce them TO go farther. The
crowds were more certain than ever that
somehow there would be an esrape;
gentleman could not be hanged. The
horses plunged more and more furiously
but would not advance. The murderer
| fell int, an agony Of terror. He ex-
claimed: "Let me out, and will walk!''
He walked to the place of execution, and
was hanged.
| The Colleen Bawn,' which had an ex-
| traordinary success at one of the London
| theeters, was dramatic condensation OF
''The Collegians" went to see it, but
could not remain for more than ten min
! utes. All the refinement which, not less
than strength, marks the original, and
especially the scenes that describe the
Irish peasantry, had vanished, and a vul-
gar seneationaliem had taken it's place.
This vnlgarity has been 50 common in
the delineations of Ireland, whether in
novel or on the stage, that the ordinary
English conception of the Irish peasant
is the opposite of the truth in MANY
cases; at least it wholly ignores that
! delicacy, pathcs and sympathy which
cbaracterizes the humber and the better
among them, and remind us chat man.
ners are tradition and that in the CEN
t,,ries gone by many a political convul
sion placed nobility ''in commission"
among the poor. In Gerald Grifin's day,
when whatever crime might be imu~
F.! lated by violent passions, or whatever
exaggeration might mingle with gener-
GUS "Nationalist' enthusiasm, the preach
ing of that vulgarest of all things Jacob
inlsm, had never been heard, man of
genius like him could not fail to feel The
charm both of the Irish character and Of
the Irish manner, thing then SO much
valued that ''bad manners to you'' was
an ordinary malediction. Many of his
| poems illustrate. Irish peasant life with
singular grace and pathos; and to be
| come the Irish Burns, as he once told
me, was long the great object Of his am
hitlon.
After the publication of "The Colleg-
jans," Gerald Griffin. took up his abode
once more in the small dlspensary house
of his brother, at Pallas My father
thought that he would there find little
room for his books, and many Interrupt
tions OF his studious hours. He invited
him to pass the winter at Curragh Chase,
placing two rooms at his disposal, and
telling him shat he would find quiet in
the woods, AID q large command Of books
in the library, but Gerald declined the
invitation. He built an arbor In his
brothers garden and there, think,
made study Of Homer. He had great
knowledge Of early Irish history, and we
all expected from him long series Of
historic roroances illustrating ireland as
Scott's had illustrated Scotland An
unexpected obstacle frustrated that hope.
He was a remarkably religious man.
Prosperity, which weakens religion i'll
many Irishmen, deepened it in him.
Whatever ambition belonged 10 him in
youth left him early; things spiritual re-
NAMED to him the sole realities, aud lit
erature was OF worth only SO far as II re-
fected them. He startled his friends by
asserting that strong passion, one OF the
chief attractions in imaginative literature.
did little but mischief. It was in vain
that those friends, clerical as we'll as
secular maintained that in wise hands it
should .haYe an elevating tendency; he
elung to his doctrine al the more because
it involved self sacrifice, we'll aware that
it must be fatal to the success Of liter
ature such as that for which his gifts and
his experience had especially fitted him
He wrote no more popular novels, though
a:later production, The Invasion" re-
cording one OF the Danish piratical de-
scents on Ireland, is. full of admirable
description. One day his brother found
the fireplace black with cinders of papers
recently burned. He had just destroyed
the whole of his manuscripts, verse and
prose alike, and answered all inquiries
II IL AI lo-1k,1 IL - -ook