The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-06-01

training of Irish ecclesiastics, mem
bers preferred still to cross the main
and frequent the halls where the mem
cries of their hunted forefathers still
fingered and their renown in letters
had won for them enviable distinc.
tons. This was the case of Fathe,
Prout. the renowned author of the
bells of Shandon." who was, it may
he safely said, the central figure in
that company Of distinguished litera.
teurs who honored their motherland
by their writings during the first half
OF the nineteenth century,. Francis
Sylvester Mahony, better known under
the nom-de-plume of Father Prout
was born in Cork City, the Athens of
Ireland, in the year 1904. The same
city had the honor of giving birth to
the brilliant but Inflated DR.. Maginn
eleven years previously, and with
whom Prout was destined to become a
co-laborer in the year 1884, when Ma
ginn was editor of Frazers Magazine
and Father Prout a foremost contrib
utor. Father Prout was born at time
IN Which 1reland's head was bent with
sorrow. She had been robbed of her
own native parliament four years
previously through the treachery of
Castlereagh and his confederates.
The memory of '9S, the disastrous bat
ties, which ended so ANONYMOUSLY
fell like dark cloud upon her, crush
ing all hopes that had been so fondly
fostered for the new century. Henry
Grattan, the magnanimous tribune,
was no more, the robbery of the par
lament he struggled so valiantly to
obtain was wrested away from the
peoples grasp by the willy schemes of
English politicians and Irish renegades,
and his health already enfeebled by
hard work, completely gave way before
this stroke. So this was gloomy time
when young Mahony appeared in the
world. The sun had set on the trans
lent glories of Ireland and the better
ment that a few years before was JOY.
fully anticipated came to nothing. AT
the early age of TWELVE years our
literary hero left his home and entered
the Jesuit College Of Amiens, France,
Where he proved himself an apt pupil,
drinking in the knowledge derived
from the ancient classics or modern
languages, which the scholarly sons of
st. lgnatius are so we'll qualified to
impart. When in possession of a
large and varied stock of learning for
his years, he determined to become a
member of the Society of Jesus. and
with this intent he entered their noyiti-
ate i'll Paris, which he passed through
successfully and was then sent to
Rome for his philosophical and theo-
logical studies. Here he was seized
with a violent fit of sickness which
obliged him to return. Before leaving
Rome the fathers of the Society of
Jesus modestly communicated to him
this piece of intelligence-that they did
not consider that he had vocation for
the ecclesiastical life. Very likely in
Rome young Mahony had given proofs
OF stubbornness and unbcnding will.
which are so opposed to the virtues
that st. Ignatius requires in his sub
jects. He did not think just then
that the fathers had correctly made
up their minds regarding him. but he
found it out, alas, too late. for his entry
into the secular priesthood later on
was an GORGEOUS mistake. Literature,
the open-air life of the Bohemian. was
the course nature had marked out for
him, not the meditative retired life of
the ecclesiastic directly opposed to
conviviality Of every kind. If he had
acted on the sound advice of the good
fathers, he would have shone in literu-
ture a star of the first magnitude, be-
cause the literary remains Of Prout are
not all commensurate with his colossal
genius, and the ardor of his zeal was
dampened by having been led into a
sphere where he never felt himself at
home. When he returned to Ireland
from the continent he got Il position in
the Jesuit College of Clongrowes Wood,
Salbins, County Kildare, as master of
the young pupils, and at the same time,
to test his fitness for the Society of
Jesus. At Clongrowes Wood his idea
OF entering the society had to be aban-
doned because of some imprudence on
his part while in charge of the young
collcgians during their outdoor recrea-
ton. During Father Prout's time in
Clongrowcs there was amongst his
pupils John Sheehan, the poet at
whose fathers home, by the way,
Prout and his young pupils engaged in
that carouse which obliged him to
leave Clongrowes and the Jesuits for
good. After this he studied in the
Irish College. Rome, where he was or
dained priest. and on the walls of his
room in that institution during his rem.
inisccntial hours he wrote the beautiful
poem the "Bells of Shandon' to the
same air as Milliken's "Groves of Blair.
ney." If Prout never wrote anything
else except this one poem he would
have gained world wide popularity
because in pathos and sentiment it is
rs dear to the heart as the soul stir.
ring tones of "Home, Sweet Home, ,
which the human heart is never