The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-29
THE WORsT OF HIS KIND.

On magnificent estate in the richest
part of Ireland, surrounded by an immense
retinue of servants and sustained to the
last by every comfort money could procure,
there has just died an aged marquis. He
had lived beyond the ordinary span of life
allotted to human beings-to the age when
a good man shows the most marked saint
illness of his character; when a statesman's
mistakes are forgotten and his services
magnified into wonderful deeds-when a
useful citizen becomes 1.-The Grand Old
Man" and is revered by friends and foes
alike.
The Marquis of Sligo had arrived at this
age, but at none of these honors of age.
Not tear was shed by any of those thou
sand of tenants and retainers. None wished
or dared to allude to his virtues, for he
never had any; execrated and despised in
life, he went to a dishonored grave. The
memories he has left behind are memories
of extortion and cruel wrong, of reckless
vice and extravaganza, of merciless deal
ings with the poor, and of all the worst
traits ever attributed to the Irish landlord
class.
The Marquis of Sligo owned an estate of
r5,OOO acres in the beautiful County Mayo.
1t was all inherited from his father, and
the legitimate income of the estate and
other properties was $4,000 a year From
the first year of his heritage he spent more
than this princely income For his estate
he cared nothing. for his tenants he cared
less than nothing but the money they fur
nished was necessary to his career of vi
cious recklessness. So he ordered his agent
to increase the rents; and again and again
the prices of the miserable little holdings
went up until they were the most exorbi-
tant In all Ireland-and that is saying
much. The "crowbar brigade" of ruffians
in the pay of Lord Sligo evicted the entire
population of villages and pulled down the
houses. Then followed terrible famine,
want and disease. The hunger sickness"
swooped down on County Mayo like a
plague, and of Sligo's tenants alone several
thousands persisted. Thousands died be-
cause they were unable to furnish their
lord with money for his dissipation and
folly! He was responsible for the health
and welfare of all these swarms of women
and helpless babes-he took all they had on
earth and left them to starve while he ate
drank and was merry with this blood
money.
All this was in 1917 and the miserable
years that followed. Many of the old ten
ants fled to America and new ones finally
took their place. These, too, felt the heavy
hand of the rapacious landlord until 1878,
when the marquis married a French lady
of great wealth. He was sixty years old,
but he spent more money than ever. But
he stayed on the Continent and used his
wifes money. and the oppressed tenantry
got a little rest.
The Marquis of Sligo was the worst Of his
race-perhaps he is the last. For with the
new laws just passed, no great Irish land
lord will ever again dare to do the things
he did. The new century has dawned
brightly for Ireland-the land which for
seven centuries has been oppressed by such
men as the monster who has just died A
history of his life reads like that of one
of the cruelest tyrants of medieval his
tory, and he will long be remembered as
they were. and reviled as a type of rule
that has passed away forever.