The Irish standard., 1904-02-13

| to the devil. He played so many tricks
| upon The poor Prince of Darkness that
the latter gave strict orders to his
staff officers to arrest him before he
entered the gates of hell and to take
| him back to Ireland to run all along
| the lonely roads With a lighted and
unuucnchahe wisp of straw in his
| hand. to attract the attention of weary
travellers in the distance and to lead
them astray. n lcprachaun is the
Woodworking soul of an unpatriotic
! cobbler. Now, learning and patriot
ism have always distinguished the
cobblers Il Ireland, and the compara
lively f"" png them who died with
out patrlu' II We're found to be too
bad to 81, ~, heaven and too good to
go To hell. Because of their lack of
patriotism. their souls. after death, be-
came shriveled, wiZcned and shrunk-
en- to Il remarkable degree: consequent
ly Il leprachaun, when seen by mortal
eyes, appears to be liliputian shoe
maker. ever busy, hammering away
ut the soul Of the fairy shoe. Through
the efforts OF st. Patrick. they were
sent back to dwell in the caves of the
haunted hills in Ireland, to guard the
hidden treasures and to mend the
shoes of the fairies. They were AL
lowed to come out at sunset only, but
were never permitted to enjoy an
hours relaxation in their work.
Lucky. surely. is the man who catches
leprlclaun at work. The little
chap keeps his wings, beetle fashion,
tucked under his coat The man must
grab him. hold him fast and make
him tell the place where the gold is
to be found. The leprachaun, always
cunning, has in store many methods
for turning his captor's attention to
some object in the distance. If one
of these methods succeeds. he spreads
his wings and flies Off like Il bee. leav-
ing the poor man to curse his own
stupidity and to bewail his lost OBJ
portunity. The White Lady is the
young woman to whom Moore refers
in his song. Rich and rare were the
gems she wore He was right in re-
&alvl to the gems, but the wand which
she held in her hand was in reality
her poor old fathers gold-mounted
fishing rod. All alone she walked
across the island to prove the honor
and virtue of the good boys of long
ago. Well, when she appeared at the
Golden Gates, Saint Peter was per-
fectly willing to overlook her imprll-
dence. and he remembered that he was
fisherman. He would not forgive
her for swiping that salmon rod and
turning it to such Il foolish and pro-
fame use. So he sent her back to Ire
land to wander at night along the
roads. over the hills and through the
woods until the time came for taking
her up to heaven. She is still walking.
Then Bowsey is spirit of evil, if we
are to believe the records, and vet the
poor devil never did any harm beyond
soaring people. His appearance is
decidedly against him. He always
comes out in the shape of big black
bllygoat, With bright blue flame be-
tween his horns. with sparks flying out
of his eyes and nostrils, and bazcs
coming out Of his mouth. Fortunate
ly, he always walks erect on his hind
legs, and that makes his movements
sufficiently slow to enable a nimble
sOssoon to run away from him. Bold
indeed would be the man who would
shake hands with the Bowsy. There
is no record of any hero who ever
tried it. The Gay Little People or
Good Little People are simply fairies,
sometimes mischevous, generally
harmless and always interesting"