Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-30
GAEL AMID THE OLYMPIANs.
See HerakIes and Finn MacCool Shake
 Hands, Says Kelly to Burke and Shea.

American who beat the Greeks al their own game, the discus throw. Il is as follows:
 When Sheridan Hurled the Discus. Pinch me; ay, punch me, for feal
 I'm not sitting here reading the
 paper.
 Sure as the sun in the morning lights
 Mangerton Mountain in Kerry; Sure as I'm Shea, and we're Kelly and
 Burke, my boys; sure as were
 Irish, There in the land of the Greeks, at
 the scratch in the games oi | Olympus,
 Sheridan's swing from the shoulder
 has landed him Champion ai
 Athens. ' Champion of what?" cried out Kel.
 ly Why champion at hurling
 the discus. Holy St Patrick" said Burke
 twas the game of the splendid Greek heroes. Read every word of it; lit it in music
 like Homer's hexameters. | Sheridan, slantha!" said Shea, who wiping his lips, began reading: Gable from Athens by way of .Parnassus to Mulligan's Journal. Lastly came Sheridan, Irish-Ameri-
 can, throwing the discus. Taking his stand in the stadium un-
 der the shade of Pentelicus, Broad of chest, sinewy, long armed
 and supplea Gael of Old Mayo Thousands and thousands of living
 spectators are waving and cheer
 ing.
 Towering over them. To, too, a myriad
 silent and ghostly, Out of the past when the Parthencn' $
 pillars first rose in the sunlight: Pallas, the Goddess of Athens, is
 bending her black brows upon
 him,
 Phoebus Apollo. the sun god, leans
 from his chariot gazing, Ares, the god of the sword, and He
 phaestus, the god with the ham,
 mer,
 Smile on the Gael who is stripping
 his arms, and uplifting the dis
 GUS.
 Stages and poets and rulers, whose
 names are as planets forever, Dim eye and mistlike look down on
 the pageant; Pericles breeding, Socrates dreaming, ana Sopnocles see-
 ing new dramas unrolling. Sheridan standing the while as he
 takes a full breath from tn
 Aegean. "'Up where the violet turreted city
 looks over the water, Soldiers of Salomis, heroes of Mara
 thon, helmeted. sworded, Seeing the muscle-free grace of the
 Gael, and the mould of his torso Look from the clouds in shadowy
 phalanX, asking each other:- "Comes back to earth Androsthenes,
 our greatest at hurling the dis
 cus?"
 Flushed now the judges ana thou
 sands of onlookers packed on the
 benches. Sheridan poises his body, and glances
 along to the skyline. Slowly he raises the discus, and, bal anced an instant, seems pausing. Swift as a panther, then, whirling his arm and his body and bending, Hurls the broad discus that rises and sweeps thro' the blue like an eagle,
 On, ever on, till it seems 1t would
 never more touch the green sod of Athene. Silence! A pause, then shout like the thunder that rolls on Olym- pus.
 Never in Greece of the pagan has cast of the discus outreached 1t; Never in Greece of the Christian has cast of the discus come near it. Thousands are shouting the praise of the victor and hymning his glory. Green flag and gold harp are floating above the green turf of old Hell las.
 Sheridan, Sheridan. Erinn in Mikla will love you and cheer you: Feast of the Greeks, you have made their Olympic the goal of the Gael Thunder an turfl" sang out Burke. Tt is great. Rise, Kelly. and holler. Gaelic and Greek may go dancing and laughing along through the ages, Singing a paean together. while La tin, Dutch, Saxon and Russian Pipe into whistle-sticks fit for small ehildher. So. Kelly, come hol- ler," "Holler?" said Kelly. Its not so surprising to beat out them da- goes. Sheridan's great, but our father broke records when Greece was bar barian. Mind you the story of Lia Laich by the ford of the shannon: Twenty men dead at one swoop of the stone that was flung by young Finn. Think of the spear cast of mighty Cuehullin, and twenty more like