Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-07-07
BOYCOTT.

enough TO make one teel like riding.
BOYCOTT.
A London cable brings news that
Captain G. G. Boycott, who became
famous through being the first man
subjected to the "boycott" in Ireland,
is dead. He gave to the English
language a new word, and for this he
will be remembered long after men
who have performed great service to
humanity are forgotten. He did this
service to his native tongue unwitting-
ly, and probably the bitterest recollec-
tion that he carried to his grave was
that his life had made possible the
new verb and noun.
He was born, the son of an English
clergyman, about 55 years ago, and ed
ucated at Blackheath, near Woolwich,
subsequently entering a military
school, where he was fitted to enter
the British army. After three or four
years service he sold out his commits
sion, and, having in the meantime
married, he engaged in farming and
grazing in the Connemara sections of
County Mayo, ireland. His success
was only partial, and the position of
agent for the Earl of Erne becoming
vacant, he applied for, the post and
was appointed. For the first few
years he was very popular with the
peasantry, at Lough Mask, Lord Erne's
estate in County Mayo.
Harvest became bad, however, and
the tenants applied for reduction in
rents, which Captain Boycott refused.
This was the beginning of the trouble
which ended in the agents badish-
ment from Ireland. The laborers on
Lord Erne's estate charged that he
cut down their wages by system of
fines for trivial offences and in other
ways showed himself petty tyrant.
Whatever the cause of the feeling
against Captain Boycott, Lord Erne's
tenantry and laborers were quick to
follow the advice of Mr.. Parnell, con-
tanned in speech in 1880. He urged
the people to abstain from agrarian
crimes, and instead to send harsh land
lords, agents and bailiffs ITO Coven-
|try,'-to refuse to work for, to buy
from or sell to thern, and in this way
to cripple their enterprises. Agents Of
the land league spread this advice
throughout the length and breadth of
Ireland, and peasants of County Mayo
were not slow to sec in it q method of
revenging themselves on the now
thoroughly hated Boycott. When
the harvest time of 1880 arrived the
captain found himself without labor
er to house his crops-the object of
"boycott." There were no demonstra,
tions of violence, but not man with
in 20 miles dared to work at Lough
Mask, nevertheless.
With his turnips and other vegeta-
bles rotting in the ground, Captain
Boycott appealed to the British gov
ernment for protection, and soldiers
and constabulary were ordered to
guard laborers whom the agent i'm
ported from Ulster. The latter arriv-
ed at Lough Mask in December, under
a strong escort, which however, was
hardly necessary, as the land league
had cautioned the peasantry against
acts of violence. AT an expense to
the government estimated at between
1000 and 100000, Lord Erne's
crops, valued at few hundred pounds,
were harvested, and the Ulstermen
returned to their homes.
Before they left Captain Boycott
read them an address, thanking them
and stating also that, with his family,
he was compelled to abandon the
beautiful country seat of Lough Mask,
where he had hoped to end his days
in peace. A few hours after the de-
parture of the Ulstermen and before
dawn on cold December morning Cap
tain Boycott and his family were
placed in an army ambulance and pro-
tected by a company of Hussars, driv-
en- to the railroad station, where they
took the train for Dublin. But the
Captain was marked man; his name
had already been coined into noun and
verb; nowhere in Ireland might he
find congenial home, and accepting
the inevitable, he left for England-an
exile.
Lord Erne's agent was the first and
possibly the most severely punished
victim of the boycott, but the warfare
begun in County Mayo was carried
into all parts of Ireland, and Captain
Boycott became known in every por-
ton of the civilized world in spite of
himself IN. Y. Herald.