Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1904-06-13
KNEW DOUGLAS HYDE.
hichaeI nahan Of Charles Street Liv
ed Near Poet and Scholar.

O~~-~re~~ee
Michael Mahon of Charles street
st~ton at st Patrick's church. enjoys
the distinction. so far as members of
the Celtic Literary society knows, of
being the only man in Waterbury who
knew Douglas Hyde, the eminent Irish
poet and scholar, when he was
youngster. and nobody supposed that
he ever would amount to anything
greater than a country parson, like his
father, who is still a minister at Rath-
kary, at modest salary. douglas
Hyde, said Mr. Mahon, when asked IL he
never saw the head of the great move
ment for the regeneration and spread of
the Irish language, ''liyed but short
distance from our house. Yes, | knew
him well ana would recognize him
now were | to meet him, although it is
a long time since / saw him last. He
was not prepossessing boy in APP
peaFance, but he had q charming dis
position and was idolized by everybody
in the neighborhood His first tutor in
the Irish tongue was Jim Hart, a
gamekeeper, whose residence was To-
Gated in bog. and was the rendez-
vous of seekers after knowledge on va
rious topics. Young Hyde was one of
his frequent callers and proved to be
his best pupil At a very early age he
BECAME so infatuated with it that he
rarely talked English. He always had
a dog or two with him, and it was
often remarked that the dogs under
stood Gaelic as well as their master.
In any case they didn't know their
names in any other tongue and if you
called them in English they would
stare at you for a moment and then
growl If you continued 1t both dogs
and their master would quickly take
offense and something would happen
which would teach you to respect their
feelings. After passing through the
village school Douglas went to Trinity
college, where he mastered several
languages. He was intended for the
ministry. but he abandoned that idea
and decided to devote his life to an
Client Irish literature, and / think he
has done more good in that field than
he ever could have accomplished in
any other calling. He is at the head
of the movement in Ireland and to his
efforts is due in great measure the sue
cess that has attended the efforts that
have been made to save his native
tongue from being RELOCATED to the
grave, of oblivion, and for this his coun-
trymen owe him deep debt of gratt
tude, He owns handsome residence ~
Rathra. country place about half
mile from his fathers parish.
mo, I cannot claim the distinction of
being a schoolmate of Douglas Hyde.
He is older than j am and had passed
on to the higher grades when | was
wrestling with the rudiments of Eng
Iish. There were other members of
the family, but I am not able to say
at this time what became of them"
Mr. Mahon keeps a close watch upon
Douglas Hyde's movements and proba-
bly, knows more about him than any
other man in this country. especially
things associated with his early career,
and he is by no means ignorant of his
townsman's literary achievements,
either. He feels confident
that he knows some of
the incidents that furnished the poet
with themes for O. few of his best pro-
auctions, notably ''The Mowers
poem that has been published in al
most all the magazines and newspa-
pers in this country, and is the ablesL
pen picture of four men operating
with scythes that ever appeared in the !
public prints. The author says he was
course is simply taking advantage OF
poetic license. which seems to have no
limitations. and while Mr. Mahon does
not want to be understood as correct
ing anything Douglas Hyde has said.
he is certain that the mowers the gift
ed singer had in mind when he COM
nOsed these lines were a quartet of VII
lage laborers whom he had often
stopped to admire in one of the fields
of Rathxary while on his way to- Jim
Hart,s mud cabin in the fastness or
the morasses and heather beds i'll the
bog nearby.