Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-09-10
4" Holy mother, preserve mel There's

He turned with a whoop and string
of profanity and started like lightning
bolt down the avenue. 1 cut across the
park to Broadway and ran to Twenty
third street. l started east on a walk
Running like wild toward me was Reilly.
He was really scared.
'Roundsp he yelled. 4 saw It'll ]
saw It'll An if didn't run the - -
sarpint would have made me poor childer
orphuns.'
| You've been drinking, Reilly, and
I'm afraid I'll have to report you for be-
ing off post.
1.-The man that says I'm drunk is a
liar, and can whip him. yelled Reilly.
4 saw that damn snake, or whatever you
call i'm. tell you he made for me, and
whin 1 ran he crawled into Madison
Square Park. Och, thin poor buns that 5
asleep on thin benches! Sure it's the
corpses they'll be when that laddybuck
gets through wild them
"The upshot of it was went back with
Reilly, but 1 knew we would find every
thing peaceful There wasn't any sign
of a snake. To Reilly's great chagrin
the sleepers on the park benches when
awakened avowed they had seen no
snake, and laughed at Reilly when he
solemnly said he had been pursued by
one. 1 left Reilly on the post and adj
vised him not to make any report of the
mysterious snake at the station house.
When he reached the house, however,
every one had heard of the snake. He
was roasted numerically by the other
coppers, who accused him of being drunk
and hitting the pipe Several months
later, when he learned he was the victim
of practical joke, he was furious. He
swore he would whip the men who hoaxed
him if he knew who they we're, but he
never learned their names.
REILLY was the victim of a similar
joke a few months later. 1t was in the
winter time, when some one who was
wintering in Florida sent one of the boys
an alligator. When the gator reached
the station house he was in bad way
from the cold. He was placed under the
section room stove and every effort made
to thaw him out. After time he began
to show signs of life. He was carried up
to Reilly's cot and placed therein between
the blankets. Reilly began to get ready
for bed half an hour later. AS was his
custom when retiring, he knelt down be-
side his cot to pray. He always prayed
in an audible tone and ended his prayers
with God bless my enemiesl' He asked
blessing for his enemies this night and
pulled down the clothes on his bed. AS
the clothes we're removed the gator
opened his jaws wide and gave peculiar
kind of yawn. Reilly jumped back
and swore himself blue in the face when
the men in the section room laughed
boisterously. Reaching over for his club
he dealt the poor gator powerful blow
on the head, which put him out of bust
ness. Dressed only in his nightshirt
Reilly ran down the stairs to the Ser
geant's desk.
Sergeant - he road, G.seme rowdy
put an alligator in my bed and want
you to see it for yourself.
Cup the Sergeant went to Reilly's
sleeping quarters, but there wasn't any
sign of the reptile. While Reilly was
making his complaint the dead gator
was thrown out a rear window. 1t was
found in the yard the next morning.
"When Reilly was praying he was sub
jected to all sorts of indignities by his
room-mates AS he would be about finish
ing, rubber boots, shoes, helmets and
night sticks would shower about his
head. Then he would swear regardless
of the fact that a minute before he had
been praying He would start for the
first man he saw throw anything at him
and there would be a rough and tumble
fight. Reilly could fight, too, and the
man he tackled never got away without
couple of hard bangs. But that didn't
deter the boys from placing stove coal,
salt, pins and every conceivable thing in
his bed when they wanted to have fun.
GAS you would expect, Reilly was an
Irishman from the ground up. Anything
tending to better the condition of Ireland
met his hearty support. Everything
printed in the papers about the home
rule movement at that time was read
over and over again by Reilly. One day
he came in the house from post and
picked up paper from the section room.
In big letters at the head of a column
was the caption, Home Rule for Ireland.
The rest of the boys were engaged in
watching the dying moments of Niger
Jim, faithful dog that had been at
tached to the station house for years, and
who was poisoned by some miscreani
earlier in the day. Reilly read a few
lines of the home rule article, and ther
threw the paper on the floor. yelling
loudly:
" 'Hurrah for Irelandl Well get home
rule at last
Before Reilly had finished Niger jim
staggered across the floor and fell in q
heap on the unopened newspaper Reilly
had been reading. The dog gave couple
of convulsive shivers and was dead.
"'Home rule for Ireland means death
a. farrsarc oatI o0,..a o.a .oo,,1o-I.,